Santa Cruz Innovation, NextSpace, and the Santa Cruz Summit

My company, the Santa Cruz Buyers' Brokerage, is headquartered in NextSpace, the innovative co-working space in the heart of downtown Santa Cruz at the corner of Pacific and Cooper Streets. NextSpace is full of amazing geniuses of all kinds, and, to me, it exemplifies the blend of resourcefulness, intelligence, and true innovation that is such a huge part of our community's excellence and promise.

While the economic news at large is a swirling drivel of doom and gloom, NextSpace is a self-luminous nexus of inspiration, a happening place where things are really happening, clients coming in and out, people collaborating on all kinds of projects, new ideas being born and nurtured. NextSpace itself is a great idea at the perfect time, and it harbors many more of the same.

Each day I'm at my office I'm surrounded by people who are finding new solutions, inventing, designing, coding, creating, and all with a spirit of making things better for everyone. There is a remarkable vibrancy in NextSpace, and it's a pleasure to be a part of.

A few days ago, our local Evangelist of Transformational Technologies, Sean Tario, posted the following on Santa Cruz Geeks. I thought it was a great expression of the spirit of our incredible community, and a must-read for those thinking about investing themselves in Santa Cruz in any way. I'm re-posting it with his permission.

Enjoy,

Andy

---

Having dove head first into this very conversation for the past few years
with many folks here in town, my 2 cents is that Santa Cruz is unlike almost
all other city's trying to "recreate" the Silicon Valley experience and
trying to build a friendly ecosystem for startups because:

-We're a 30 minute drive from Silicon Valley and 45 minute drive from Sand
Hill / Page Mill Road where most startups end up for Series A Funding. which
is exactly how long it would take someone to get there from the East Bay,
Oakland or San Francisco.

-We're ALREADY known around the world for being a hub of innovation and big
ideas.

-We've got a University that is not perfect (which one is?) but finally
starting to make some strides toward helping bright and motivated students
and professors with big ideas and game changing technologies to actually
start doing something with those ideas and technologies.

-We've got a City/County that is not perfect (again, which one is?) but
finally starting to make some strides toward helping bright and motivated
CITIZENS with big ideas and game changing technologies to actually start
doing something with those ideas and technologies.

-We already live in one of the wealthiest regions in the country.

-People go out of their way and take huge risks already to try and earn a
living here.

-Our entrepreneurial minded citizens have learned that waiting around for
government to do anything in terms of economic development locally is a
total waste of time due to policies and politics over the past few decades,
and thus they've stopped waiting for hand outs and started creating the
infrastructure on their own.

-Spend all of 30 minutes walking around the likes of NextSpace or a Geek
Dinner and you'll realize the entrepreneurs and intellectual capital is
already here, alive, and thriving.

-Spend all of 30 minutes walking around the likes of NextSpace or a Geek
Dinner and you'll realize the INFRASTRUCTURE and COMMUNITY needed to help
support and nurture those thinking about and actually building companies are
already here, alive and thriving.

Thus, I don't feel Santa Cruz needs to "recreate" jack squat. "Recreate"
simply isn't the terminology or conversation that needs to be had. The
conversation is around how we best leverage the ALREADY EXISTING RESOURCES
in a far more effective and productive way than we have been in years past.

IMHO, these past few years have been focused on tilling the soul, making
sure it has all the nutrients it needs for the short and long term and
planting the seeds. We each play a different role in this process and,
again, IMHO, have been doing a phenomenal job taking care of our garden/farm
to this extent. As we have the sun in abundance here in Santa Cruz, the one
piece now missing is the capital to help water the fertile soul and planted
seeds. and mark my words, by summer, we'll see some rain coming. possibly a
monsoon ;)

Sean

PS - If you want to experience firsthand why I believe now is the time for
Santa Cruz, please check out
www.santacruzsummit.com and attend this event. We have some great speakers
coming, but it will be so very much more than your typical keynote/panel
event. In fact, I GUARANTEE it will be an evening that will go down in the
history books for this City/County and an ongoing EXPERIENCE unlike any
other you've had.