So what are they doing? They’re making custom bound journals by marrying technology with just-in-time printing capabilities, using technology to create custom clothing, and making doughnuts (hey innovation needs fuel).

Durham is a great example of how a once industrial town can reinvent itself through an educated populace, creative thinking, and technology/innovation.

In the rush to go to market with new line extensions and ads and products, there are a few lessons that companies could learn from the idea of Crop Mobs: simplicity, social interaction, providing value, etc. Offer your consumers value and give them a seat at the table.

Check out a Flickr gallery of the Crob Mob here.

Tom and I were at lunch last week when we picked up the Meals from the Market 2009 booklet. It’s a really nice piece of community fundraising and activism centered around meals, and wine & beer tastings at various locations and homes within Durham. With events like Bouncy House & Barbecue, Cocktails @ Cassilhaus (an architectural beauty), and Authenic Haytian Food & Dance in Historic Hayti there literally appears to be enough types of food, drink, and events for everyone. It’s a very interesting, and social way to help with Durham’s continued revival.

Check it out at www.durhamcentralpark.org

Tyler Farwell p. June 2009 - Swiped from Southern Spaces Journal - Click for Source

The Oxford American magazine website published a brief interview with Richard Florida this week, focusing on Southern U.S. cities’ positioning in the quiet competition to draw creative talent to the workforce.

As the interview is part of the magazine’s free online content, rather than published in print, the format of the interview is loose, and questioning posed to the Rise of the Creative Class / Who’s Your City author and sociologist is a little roundabout. However, as always, Florida’s responses are concise and careful and the discussion is interesting. Though Florida often conservatively draws back from prescribing any kind of cultural shifting, instead focusing more in the realm of city planning and corporate creative worker migration, he’s stretching out a bit in communicating his understanding of many creatives’ needs to balance authenticity and contemporary opportunities in their local communities.

There are really so few metropolitan areas in the South that do draw a “creative class” workforce, and have the local economies to support the evolution that is required for continued competition. And these places do have tough days ahead as the recession lingers on (in some southern local economies, a depression has been in place). Though I don’t like the idea of  super-metropolis markets like “Char-Lanta,” “Hou-Orleans,” and “Dal-Austin” evolving in the South, mostly because I see much authenticity being lost as these cities sprawl together in all the wrong ways, I do find myself willing to cast off some tradition for the sake of getting to a place where increased creativity and innovation are happening in my backyard.

It is a tricky balancing act though – we cherish and seek this authenticity, welcoming the idea of a new here while longing for a bit of there.  At times, it seems there’s not much authenticity left in some of these “New South” locales.  We are building and evolving our communities, in the South and elsewhere in the U.S., but it’s challenging to keep a grip on the tools for doing so, and to inform the many little decisions that continually coalesce into larger scale change.

There are ways in which I get really frustrated reading Richard Florida’s analyses, but it definitely gets me thinking and encourages me to consider new perspectives. And I always welcome the opportunity to better inform my decisions, and to gain insight into how to maintain a better grip on the tools we need to encourage positive change in our localities.

Faulkner in the sunshine- working hard or hardly working?

Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen an increase in marketing research work focused on constituencies in the south. This work has not just focused in the area in which we’re based (the Research Triangle of North Carolina – Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill) or in Atlanta, but all over the south.  Some have been targeted to populations of certain southern states; some target hand-picked Southern DMAs; and some studies have focused on select counties or parishes in certain southern states. And this work is not just coming from clients who are based in the South.

I don’t think it’s a sign of major economic or social turnaround for the region, but it is interesting to see populations within the south considered as representative on a national scale. Marketers are not just looking to middle America for feedback before moving forward with strategic initiatives – there is an increased regional focus. There is also increased focus on the Northwest and the Southwest as regions, and we’re working there too. But the exploration of Southern lifestyles and opinions sparks a particular interest for me.

I’m familiar with the concept of the “New South,” but I’m not sure I completely buy it.  I do like some books, blogs, and other media sources that have considered this perspective among their approaches to thinking about modern southern culture. Ideas around southern intellectualism and economic rebirth have been evolving (if slowly) for years, but my attention was drawn by peers who found a sort of self-image support in Richard Florida’s inclusion of southern cities in his writings on the “Creative Class.” I have a mixed opinions on Florida’s work, and I think the concepts he framed in an urban development context have mostly been misapplied to other contexts as they spread virally, but that’s another post – maybe for a rainy day.

For now, and for the past year or two, I’ve been generally seeking new and engaging sources of information and learning about modern southern life.  Here are a couple of resources that I’ve found that regularly contribute to these topics:

Oxford American -  Southern-focused writing, commentary, and culture. The only magazine I can read front to back. Even some of the ads interest me.

Facing South -  A political, economic, and social blog run by the Institute for Southern Studies. Sometimes gets me down, but sometimes gets me motivated.  They’re doing a great job of presenting diverse subjects and perspectives.

Southern Spaces -  “An interdisciplinary journal about the regions, places, and cultures of the American South” – but not totally dense and academic

Endangered Durham -  A blog on urban re-development – despite the local focus, these issues prevail in many southern cities

The Independent Weekly (local) and Creative Loafing (Atlanta and elsewhere) for occasional, usually lighter content on these topics

I’m still looking for a good, sharp, regularly updated blog or publication on southern business. I haven’t been happy with what I’ve seen so far – any suggestions?

I’ve also always been frustrated with the web presence of organizations focused on or based in New Orleans. For anything really, but especially for exploration of culture, social issues, opportunities to volunteer or get involved, etc. There seem to be lots of little sites that aren’t quite on their toes, and sites that are way outdated, but if anyone has any suggestions, please send them along.

The location moves from site to site much like the castle in Krull (a movie everyone should see at least once in their lives). The cool thing about them (besides the food) is that they use Twitter to broadcast where they are going to be and when. It’s a nice marriage of technology, old lunch trucks, and Just-in-time solutions.