Filmed by Chris Kershaw and produced by Ideasforlife.tv

I realise I once gave a presentation in 2004 in which I talked about Austin, Texas as an example of a place that was doing interesting stuff around developing creative communities. In particular it developed an unofficial ‘Keep Austin Weird’ tagline for itself. I think I was making the case for the West Midlands to take an equally leftfield approach.

The full presentation is too long and dull to post here so I’ve pulled out the four relevant slides. Also (and better than my slides) here’s some reading for you. One academic, one useful piece of journalism:

• Andy Pratt from London School of Economics on ‘Digital Places’. Jump to the Austin case study on page 23. 
• 2003 Austin Chronicle article

My point in this: Austin the place is as interesting as SXSW the event. We should maybe have an ‘About Austin’ page? Tease out some of those issues around how it’s developing its creative community in relation to how we’re doing it here?

Dave