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Oklahoma City Doesn’t Suck

Last week I spoke at IgniteOKC. It was the second Ignite event at which I’ve spoken. I love Ignite. Simply put: Ignite rocks. As a speaker, the format is challenging and invigorating, but the best thing about Ignite is the people. Hands down. And not just the speakers, but everyone - the audience, the organizers, the stage crew - everyone.  So what makes “Ignite People” so awesome? Simple - they’re smart, curious, and passionate, but not the garden variety “smart, curious, and passionate” - they’re the “it goes to eleven” kinda smart, curious and passionate.

Another characteristic of this crowd is diversity. These folks are from all walks, from technology, to medicine, to law, to chefs, to library science, to fine jewelry, to energy, to non-profits. Everyone is welcome given that (yes, I’m gonna say it again) you’re smart, curious and passionate.

As amazing as Ignite is, what I think is REALLY exciting is the undercurrent. Ignite is what we see on the surface but it’s just a mere byproduct of what’s happening below. And what’s that? The early stages of smart, curious, and passionate people in Tulsa and Oklahoma City thinking differently about each other and about what lies ahead for all of us.

I’m not a native Tulsan, or even a native Oklahoman, but Tulsa is my adopted home. I’ve lived here longer than I’ve lived anywhere else, but I’ve always been baffled by the ridiculous competition between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Who’s got the best arena? Who has the best roads? Which city is prettier? Which has a cooler “scene”? I say, who cares? I have a firm belief that, in the long run, neither city benefits. And in reality, both cities are great, and - perhaps more importantly - both cities have the potential and the opportunity to be much, much greater. Personally, I think the secret to unleashing this potential is collaboration and cooperation. In an increasingly flat world, we should be thinking about Oklahoma competing on a national and global stage instead of who’s got the best [insert insignificant geographical curio of your choice here].

So what’s that got to do with Ignite?  Well, behind the scenes there is tremendous support and collaboration between the IgniteTulsa and IgniteOKC organizational teams. These groups were formed independently but once they discovered each other, they started coordinating efforts.  The principal organizer of IgniteOKC, Emily Campbell, was a speaker at the IgniteTulsa event. (One of my very favorite speakers at that event.) In real life, Emily is a crazy smart intellectual property attorney with Dunlap Codding in OKC.  Emily contacted me when submissions for IgniteOKC were open because she wanted someone from the Tulsa event to also speak at the OKC event.

The Ignite events are promoted heavily through social media channels with Twitter being the darling. One of the truly amazing miracles of social media in Oklahoma is that it’s starting to flatten Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Through community events like Ignite catalyzed by social media, young Oklahoman thought leaders are starting to broaden their networks to include folks from “the other city”.  These smart, curios and passionate, people (like Emily) are starting to grow beyond the unfounded geographical prejudice of past generations.

Another event that’s bridging the turnpike is Startup Weekend. Like Ignite, Startup Weekend is a global organization that provides a format and guidance to local volunteers that produce the local events. Startup Weekend is kinda like mock-trial for entreprenuers. Scott Phillips organized Oklahoma’s first Startup Weekend in November last year in Tulsa. Scott is co-owner of Isocentric, a Tulsa based data center, and he’s also part of the IgniteTulsa crew.  Tulsa is one of the smallest cities to have ever hosted Startup Weekend but even this fledgling event drew the attention and sponsorship of the Oklahoma Department of Commerce. Currently Adam Dani, a financial securities expert in OKC, is organizing Startup Weekend OKC for the weekend of March 5-7, 2010.  Are Scott and Adam talking? You bet! In fact, Startup Weekend OKC will be promoted at the next IgniteTulsa on March 4th.

Now I understand that one could look at these events and write them off as a bunch of internet geeks doing geeky stuff - but I choose to see something different. There’s a young movement afoot here in Tulsa, and in Oklahoma City, and elsewhere in Oklahoma. A movement that’s interested in something better for our cities, something better for our state. A movement that’s working to foster innovation and inspire greatness. Oklahoma has the capacity to be the next Seattle, the next Silicon Valley - but it will take all of us.  This new Oklahoma won’t come from our city or state governments, it will come from those of us that are willing to think bigger, to act, and to leverage the resources on both ends of the turnpike. If you attend these events, and events like them you start to recognize the key drivers in this movement - folks like Emily, Scott and Adam. If you want to make something great happen in Oklahoma, these are the folks you need to be LinkedIn with.

I had a great time at IgniteOKC and I’d like to say again - a very sincere thank you to Emily (and Blake, Michelle, Seth, Sandip, Robert, Dirk, Justin, Jory, Michael, Tyler, and Melanie - and the rest of the IgniteOKC crew) for an absolutely awesome, awesome event.

It occurred to me at IgniteOKC that the reason Oklahoma City people think that they are as cool, if not cooler than Tulsa people is that maybe - just maybe - they are. To do my part toward a better future for all of us, I’d like to go on record as a citizen of Tulsa as saying, Oklahoma City doesn’t suck. Here’s to our future.

IgniteOKC Winter 2010 Videos

IgniteTulsa 2009 Videos

IgniteOKC Summer 2010 (location & date TBD)

IgniteTulsa March 4th @ Blue Dome Diner (free registration)

Startup Weekend OKC March 5th

Emily on TV talking about Ignite