• WORTH NOTING buzzwords get social
• WORTH NOTING buzzwords get social
Paul Willis: Artists create the culture for commerce- what, where, who is cool to spend money with. Attractive physical spaces, great design work and online presence is predominantly created by artists...
Artists can get even better by becoming more professional. There ' s a science and art to a lot of things, so I ' d like to see more people recognizing an artist ' s value in professional settings.
Danielle Vincent: By creating a culture where the community members value the art within the city. Once they value the art( including music) that comes out of their own city, they will be inclined to spend money with those artists … The key is to create value with our local artists so that the money stays with the city. If we only have a culture that fosters outside art or music from“ famous” people, then the money goes to them and leaves the city. We need a culture that values our local artists enough to spend money with them consistently.
Greg Price: Placemaking is important because talent is mobile. Talented workers have choices of where to live... disproportionately choosing to live in places that build great urban communities. The number of college-educated young adults is increasing twice as fast in close-in urban neighborhoods as in the rest of metro areas. That’ s driven by the growing demand for dense, diverse, interesting, transit-served, bikeable, walkable neighborhoods. Companies are increasingly moving to be close to the workers living in( or seeking) these neighborhoods. Placemaking is essential to attracting and anchoring talent in place.
48
@ comstocksmag: At Trail Coffee Roasters co-owner Gianna Vicari is orchestrating a test-kitchen + coffee house in its new space in # DowntownStockton( photo: Debra Belt)
wheelhouse
Hwēl-ˌhau̇ s, n.
An area that matches ones skills or expertise.
BY Eva Roethler ILLUSTRATION: Jason Balangue
“ Wheelhouse” weighed in at No. 10 on the Inc. 2017 list“ 25 Buzzwords That You Really Need to Stop Using Right Now.” This is not the first time it made such a list, and it probably won’ t be the last. Wheelhouse has been persistent throughout time.
The word has nautical roots as the pilothouse of a boat. It evolved in the 20th century, taking on new meaning as the section of the strike zone in baseball where it is easiest for the batter to hit the ball well. Business loves its sports metaphors( which may be worthy of its own column), so it’ s no surprise the term has wormed its way into startup lexicon, now synonymous with area of expertise.
THE BUZZ The term wheelhouse has a shaky track record in Google Trends, spiking and dropping throughout the last decade, though somehow consistently trending up. Which begs the question: Can the incessant phrase go down and stay down?
Tim Keller agrees the phrase is dated. You certainly won’ t hear it within the walls of the high-tech makerspace at Davis-based Inventopia, which Keller founded. Inventopia is a business incubator that offers entrepreneurs and scientists access to industrial fabrication equipment— such as laser cutters, 3D printers and other high-tech tools— to get products to market faster.
Though team members at lean startups inevitably“ wear a lot of hats” and have to move outside of their comfort zones, Keller says,“ wheelhouse” is a bit irrelevant.“ I think people talk more about experience and qualifications,” he says.
THE WORD Tech capabilities, like 3D printing and AI, are breaking down the barriers of our individual capabilities. Is it wise to stay hyper-focused in this era of endless opportunity, or could someone swing at a wild pitch and hit the ball out of the park? Do we really need to stay in our perceived wheelhouse?
“ I definitely think that entrepreneurs need to stick to business ideas where they understand the problem— and especially the customer— extremely well. That is critical,” Keller says.
Keller saw this in action in his last venture, VinPerfect.“ I was not the only person working on an oxygen-permeable wine closure,” he says. However, as a winemaker competing against packaging engineers, he says he understood the problem better because it was in his wheelhouse.“ We approached the problem from a fundamentally different angle.”
24 comstocksmag. com | August 2018