We’ve gone from an agricultural economy, to manufactured goods, to services.  What’s next?  Experiences.

The experience economy (fast becoming common language) is based on providing continuously unique experiences that can’t be commoditized by competitors, as services and goods increasingly are.  Experiences must be holistic, and examples include Southwest Airlines’ people-first mission, theatre restaurants, and Progressive Insurance’s commitment to improving the customer experience, to name

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Even better than a main street

There’s no question the entrepreneurial creatives won’t frequent shopping malls and strip centers (it was even an AOL headline last week), but there’s something they desire much more than the popular-again main street:

The piazza, pronounced like “pizza” with an extra syllable and not like a certain popular baseball player.

Why?  Because it’s designed around the concept of being a place rather than a thoroughfare, making it a much better venue for

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Does your local third place have its own CD?

You would if you’re the Third Place Coffeehouse in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Their “Local Honey” CD is a compilation of local artists that have played at Raleigh’s favorite third place, which is also featured in Ray Oldenburg’s Celebrating the Third Place.

The popular watering hole is also known for its staff’s musical compilations, that is, whoever is working the current shift gets to play their own music.  So the place isn’t only a venue for

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Aloha Tower is Hawaii’s CoolTown spot

I remember visiting Honolulu (a few islands over from Hilo) years ago and meeting up with friends at the nightlife hot spots - The Point After and Masquerades.  For a city of a million people, that was it, and we had to drive between them.

Honolulu now has a CoolTown spot (elements of a CoolTown) at Aloha Tower and there’s no question where I’d have gone every night back then: dozens of places to drink, eat, dance, listen to music, shop, or just walk

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Now this is how to rock like the big cities.  It doesn’t get much better when you the area’s best bands take the stage in front of what seems like half the population of the entire town cheering them on, with the backdrop of the downtown main street on one end and the ocean on the other.

Even in a quiet, economically-challenged small town that’s the subject of a local comedian’s sarcastic song, “Hilo, the most exciting place on earth”, a creative

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Investing in A&E CoolTowns

Here’s the experience arts & entertainment vision an investment collaborative will be implementing in a few lucky cities around the country.

1. To have an onsite residency of artists, musicians, video producers, entertainers and entrepreneurs, they will ensure a substantial amount of affordable, well-designed housing and workspace (see last week’s blogs.)
2. To catalyze ongoing performances, practices, dances and major live events, they will provide ‘stages’ via

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The economy of an A&E CoolTown

As usual, business-related decisions come down to money and economics.  So how do we create an economically sustainable environment for artists & entertainers?

Increase their revenue: Provide multiple places for them to perform or display their talent regularly, establish the first ever neighborhood-branded ‘one-click’ online store for their work in digital format, offer collaborative educational courses at permanent classrooms, form a local guild to market

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A wise man* once told me that the key to building a community is getting the tenants committed first, as in before design, permitting, capital raising, construction, etc.

So, the first step in the implementation of a great arts & entertainment (A&E) town would mean building a virtual community of artists and entertainers.  That was crystalized to me tonight when I stopped by a hosted reception of those practicing in and supportive of A&E .  Not only did they already have a virtual community,

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In my opinion, this is one of the most important elements in building a place that cultural creatives will be attracted to.  At least one economically successful city swears by it.

The easiest way to realize the power of music is to understand history.  For instance, in the book Capitol Rock, the author describes Washington DC’s Georgetown renaissance in the 1960’s, when Beatlemania with its wake of local rock & roll bands and bohemian crowds sparked the transformation of a “bleak

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How important is arts & entertainment in a CoolTown?

It’s like peanut butter & jelly in a PB&J sandwich - what you see on the outside is the ‘bread’ (the city’s buildings, streets), but it’s what’s inside that makes it great - just like the people at this film festival ‘in between’ the buildings of Switzerland.

This week I’ll cover specifically how some visionary investors plan on adding the best in arts & entertainment (A&E) to the CoolTown model.  In the meantime, I’ll recap what the blog

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CoolTowns have lots of free entertainment venues

I always held the opinion that the best forms of entertainment were free, and CoolTowns have plenty of it.  Here’s a few reasons why:

1. Plenty of outdoor ‘stages’.  Entertainers need stages, and piazzas, squares, plazas, courtyards and amphitheaters provide these with ready-made audiences.  We simply need more of these natural stages.
2. Indoor stages, aka third places.  Outdoor stages are third places as well, but because they’re not

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