This blog is written by one of 15 individuals attending the South By Southwest Conference in Austin with the intention to bring back ideas and to reimagine Richland County.
Assume these things are true.
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You think Mansfield is great.
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You want to help find a way to make it better.
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You go to a conference as one of 15 people who know about you and Mansfield.
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You encounter 30,000 other people in a six-block radius.
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You sit in at least five sessions each day.
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You only see any of your 15 people if they pass you on the street or in a hallway or happen into one of your sessions, in which case it feels a bit like a family reunion, even on Day One. I know, it’s weird. I can’t explain it. There has to be a scientific explanation to seeing a familiar face in a crowd.
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Each of these daily sessions feature brilliant people talking about amazing things happening in other parts of the country and world.
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You eat breakfast, lunch and dinner with at least one other person from your group of 15 people but never consistently with the same folks.
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You say things at these meals like:
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“In London/Dubai/Akron they are…”
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“Could you imagine if…”
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“I wonder who is pushing this in their city…”
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“Do you think we could…”
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“Where would you put a…”
You repeat this process for six days with five or six sessions and two or three meals each day. For six solid days. No breaks.
Then, you return home. You’re exhausted and your brain is on overload because, let’s be honest, it hasn’t been tasked like that in years.
What do you do? Where do you start? Who do you contact? What articles do you read? What podcasts do you listen to? What TED Talks do you search?
My first day back was rough. Okay, honestly, my first week back was rough.
My first day back consisted of lying in bed soothing my spinning brain with YouTube interviews from SXSW with mayors and then sitting in a zombie-like state at my desk for a couple hours responding to emails that had built up over the week.
The following week I had normal meetings that were peppered with questions like, “Now what?” and “What was the best idea?” and “Where do we go from here?”
And, I had nothing. I couldn’t form the mass quantities of information into a coherent thought. There really was so much information and what if my little piece was only part of something greater the other folks in the group developed or experienced? Thankfully Brittany Schock and Tracy Geibel at Richland Source created space for us to unpack what we experienced in the form of a podcast. As I listen to it today, I realize the value it has in helping us move forward and starting to build a framework.
The next step is to do more of that. Unpack. Categorize. Color-code. Unpack more. Organize. Read through all the notes from SXSW again. Build a framework.
I’m happy to be into Week Two Post-SXSW as the clarity is coming, the spinning has ceased and the excitement is building. I love seeing the enthusiasm from the community as this is not just our project. We’re merely the ones color-coding the columns and building the framework to invest in a Mansfield that will be available for everyone to enjoy and be proud of.
Moving forward we will meet with the advisors to help put meat on the bones of our ideas. We’ll also take this show on the road to give time and space for community comments and support. We’re looking to hold an event at the Renaissance in May so stay tuned and continue to follow #SXSW419 and read other blogs at richlandsource.com/rising_from_rust/sxsw.
