Thoughts from Daniel Shipton of Impromptu Studio and Redship Technologies

I personally was quite inspired when the discussion ceased.  Venture capitalists seemed quite eager to reach out and engage young entrepreneurs. The VC’s were genuinely interested in forging real relationships with those around the table. That was the biggest take-away for myself. However….

At the meeting there were several people that had shown up with the sentiment ” I have a great idea, you should give me money.”  Realistically, this is not how the world of VC works. We need to work together with Iowa leaders to build a community that supports young business and recognizes the type of idea that, when given funding, will really take off. We need to not be so caught up in thinking about what that money would mean to our business if . We also feel that VC’s will not be the central solution to the brain drain. There are many other factors involved with making Des Moines a thriving community. We’ve attached a few others opinions of the meeting.

What do you think?

Thoughts from Scott Kubie of Rock Iowa

A caveat: To me, the technical definition of Brain Drain – a net loss of skilled or educated young people – is not as important to me as the loss of some of those young people in particular – the artists, the musicians, the cultural entrepreneurs- the creative class people that can make Des Moines a pretty kickin’ place to live. Boring yuppies who would never buy art or go to a show moving out of the state doesn’t really tug at my heartstrings. –

The recent Brain Drain roundtable at Impromptu was revealing, though in my opinion not particularly helpful. Conversation is rarely a bad thing, but can be when it is not followed by action. As a member of the “creative class” and veteran of the DSM non-profit cultural “scene”, I’m no stranger to conversations about the brain drain. Conversations, and more conversations, and more conversations. What many at the table at Impromptu revealed is that they are not particularly interested in addressing the problem at hand, but rather the problems in their hands. Me, me, me. How do I get money for MY business? How do I become successful? Why isn’t anyone helping ME? I’d rather resist cliche, but you all know the JFK quote that comes to mind.
I wish Des Moines’ technology entrepreneurs all the best of luck. I really do. However, trying to build “the next Google” in Des Moines is hardly a basket worth putting any eggs into. Are we incapable of having a strong, culturally diverse community without birthing the next Web 2.0 wonder in our own backyard? I should hope not. Funding tech start-ups and reversing the Brain Drain are both important problems, but in my opinion not all that connected. Getting real businesses here that need to employ real people at real, competitive wages will go a lot farther.

My first comment at the Roundtable was that the Generation Iowa report seemed accurate, but, again, hardly useful.Young people like good paying jobs and not having giant student loan debts? Stop the presses.

I think the impasse our community is at right now is that not a lot of people are willing to work in the middle on this issue. On one side, you have snotty 20 and 30-somethings who already have good jobs and money to burn that bellyache non-stop about how terrible Des Moines is, how there’s nothing to do, how much the nightlife sucks, etc etc. On the other side, you have advocacy organizations and people in positions of power sugarcoating everything and blathering non-stop about what an amazing community this is for art and culture, how the next creative-class revolution is already happening here, how easy it is to be an artist or musician in Des Moines, etc. And then, somewhere in the middle, you have the reality of the situation. There are some good things happening in Des Moines, but there are some major, major problems as well. There are too many excuses being made on both sides. The “everything sucks” crowd is apparently illiterate, as I rarely seem to have trouble finding an interesting band to check out or art exhibit to peruse on any given night of the week. The “we’re doing just fine” crowd has apparently never spoken to an actual artist or musician or someone else trying to make a living as a cultural entrepreneur. I’m working on a collaborative art studio right now and am running into plenty of artists that can’t even afford $100 a month for studio space.

Here’s my short version: put up or shut up. There’s a lot of work to be done. Bellyaching isn’t work. Stating the obvious isn’t work. Spending money to do reports based on 2000 census data that state the obvious isn’t work. Grant-supported cultural events that support bad art or dead genres of music isn’t work. “Advocacy days” isn’t work. There’s too much hand-holding and
too much back-slapping and not enough impassioned, aggressive cultural development.