Editor’s note: Austin is Raleigh and Durham 10 years from now, says veteran entrepreneur, blogger and author Joe Procopio.
DURHAM, N.C. – Last week I was in Austin at South by Southwest, speaking about automation and the future of sports analysis on behalf of Automated Insights. Kind of a whirlwind trip—I got in Friday night and left Monday morning, not even taking advantage of my favorite South By, the music part.
I call SXSW Music my favorite part (and sometimes the “real” part) because it was my first experience with the festival way back in 2000, when digital was dial-up and interactive was creepy chat rooms.
It was back then when I first made a connection between Austin and the Triangle, and it held true on my most recent trip: Austin is Raleigh and Durham 10 years from now.
Back in 2000, it was a more generic “the Triangle,” before the individual identities of Raleigh and Durham as centers of commerce really took hold. And by that, I mean Raleigh was still trying to be Atlanta and Durham was just trying to figure out Durham, before American Anything or even the new ballpark.
But even back in 2000, and then again during a second trip to SXSW in 2009, and then this one in 2016, the connection wasn’t hard to make. Austin is a great example of a city grown around tech and startup in a place that isn’t Silicon Valley. It blends quality of life with a progressive, experimental attitude. It attracts young people without alienating families. And it’s a really, really good place to start a company.
There’s much more to the story. Read the full post at:
http://exitevent.com/article/the-triangle-in-10-years-a-sxsw-recap-160324
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