Painting the City

Congrats to the University of Pittsburgh, and kudos to Richard Scaife, for restoring a classic Pittsburgh painting to the University.







Link: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05334/614412.stm

Why Some High Tech Communities Succeed

and Why Some Do Not.

That, at least, is the topic of a short conference coming up next Spring at Ohio State University's law school:

Why Some High Tech Communities Flourish and Others Do Not
Entrepreneurial Business Law Journal Symposium
March 17, 2005 | Saxbe Auditorium

The new Entrepreneurial Business Law Journal at the Moritz College of Law kicks off its inaugural symposium with a look at what is happening in the Silicon Valley, the North Carolina triangle area, India , and Israel . Two panels, one legal and the other business-oriented, will address issues that face communities who serve the high tech industry.

Michael E. Moritz College of Law
The Ohio State University
55 West 12th Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210-1391
phone: (614) 292-2631
fax: (614) 292-1383

Chunky Soup Promotion

I've gotten several messages, from friends and others, urging me to go to http://www.chunky.com/clickforcansvote.aspx and "vote" for the Steelers. The "winning" team and the "most improved" team earn Chunky Soup donations for their local food banks.

The current "standings" are viewable here. Sure enough, the Steelers are #2, up from #6 last year. The promotion ends tomorrow.

The point of the messages is to keep the Green Bay Packers from "winning" this promotion again and again. It's a local pride thing.

Sorry to seem like a Grinch, but I'm not getting on this bandwagon. The whole thing strikes me as distasteful. Why doesn't Campbell's simply donate food to food banks in every NFL city in the name of the local team? And why don't all of you Chunky-Soup-clickers send checks to your local food banks, too?

I Heart Pgh

An overdue "welcome to the blogosphere" to I Heart Pgh, a blog about the Best of Pittsburgh!

Symphony Blogs

Welcome to the blogosphere to Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Blogs!

This looks like an interesting effort to create a virtual community around one the world's great -- and locally underappreciated -- music institutions.

Link: http://pittsburghsymphony.blogs.com/

ThinkTank in Bellevue

The ThinkTank space in Bellevue has its own website:

http://www.thinktankpittsburgh.com/

Entrepreneurship 101

From The Economist, lessons for the Pittsburgh business community:

“FORGET space aliens and race cars—here's a game that gives kids skills they can use for the rest of their lives.” So says the blurb for Hot Shot Business, an online game (www.hotshotbusiness.com) played each year by millions of “budding entrepreneurs” who get the chance to open their own pet spa, skateboard factory, landscape-gardening business or comic shop in Opportunity City. Players start marketing campaigns; change products, services and prices; and respond to demanding customers and big news events. And, “as a self-funded entrepreneur, you'll keep all the profits. But if anything goes wrong, well, you're on your own.”

The game was a product of a partnership between the “edutainment” arm of the Walt Disney Company and the charitable Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, headed since 2002 by Carl Schramm, now arguably America's leading evangelist of entrepreneurship. Hot Shot Business is one of many initiatives launched by Mr Schramm to educate Americans—and, increasingly, foreigners too—about how to be entrepreneurial. Disney and Kauffman have also developed a popular Opportunity City exhibit in Disney World in Florida. Kauffman has given grants to promote entrepreneurship in American universities; and not just in business schools but across the entire campus. “Entrepreneurs mostly don't come from business schools,” says Mr Schramm, who worries that with their new courses on corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship and the like, B-schools increasingly produce graduates uncomfortable with the cut-and-thrust of real capitalism.

Kauffman also funds research into entrepreneurship and its role in the economy, which Mr Schramm says is greatly underestimated. He argues that a rise in entrepreneurship over the past 25 years has rescued America's economy from the stagflationary nightmare of “bureaucratic capitalism”. “What we are engaged in is nothing less than a U-turn in economic history,” he claims. “And the name we give this U-turn is the invention of entrepreneurial capitalism.” Replacing the old “industrial triangle” of government, big business and the unions is a “new kind of entrepreneurial box”, in which start-ups increasingly take on the work of innovation from big business and the unions have been replaced by universities, he says.

Bits & Bytes

Kudos, by the way, to the Post-Gazette's Corilyn Shropshire, who is gaining my respect as a technology reporter. After reading years of coverage of the local technology community that amounted to little more than waiting-for-the-next-magic-bullet, I'm enjoying deal-by-deal accounts of the progress of local firms that most of us haven't heard of, and appropriately skeptical reports regarding regional strategic planning.

Selling Pittsburgh

The print version of the P-G's story about the marketing plans of the Allegheny Conference jumped to a full page inside with the headline, "Selling the city." In a phrase, that hed sums up the futility of what the Allegheny Conference is trying to do. It's trying to use modern public relations to "create a unified theme and the sort of buzz about the region that has proven elusive since the days of the original Pittsburgh Renaissance."

The problem, in a nutshell, is (as the story makes clear) the Allegheny Conference has no idea what it's trying to sell. In a sidebar, the paper comments on the real role of the Allegheny Conference in its "accomplishments" for 2005. The overwhelming sense of the piece is that the small progressive steps that the region took during 2005 had little to do with the Conference.

Everyone in town -- except those who work for and with the ACCD -- seems to understand that Pittsburgh neither needs nor wants to be re-branded. If you want proof, look no further than the single most successful business enterprise in town: the Steelers. In a single word, one that's more effective than any marketing film or 250th birthday party ever could or will be, Pittsburgh communicates to the nation and to the world that it remains singularly proud of its industrial heritage. Want to rebrand the city? Change the name of the team. Is that ever going to happen? No. Should it? No again.

Focus on the product, not the marketing. Stop re-branding. Stop making movies. Start producing more events like the Angel Venture Fair.

Pittsblog in the News, Again

I pour my soul into these posts, as all bloggers do, trying to make my little corner of the world a better place. And what gets noticed?

Gentlemen, remove your hats.

Happy Thanksgiving, an 'at.

Pittsburgh CONNECT?

I was out of town for much of last week, but I came across a couple of interesting resources nonetheless:

First is an outfit in San Diego called CONNECT, a 20-year-old organization dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs and investors in IT and life sciences businesses. Here's the CONNECT website. Take a look around. Among other things, note the involvement of the professional services community -- that is, the lawyers. Pittsburgh could use something like this.

Second is a little entrepreneurial program funded by a law firm in Boston: TechnOvation. Here's the website. (A pdf brochure -- nearly 2MB -- is also online.) Pittsburgh law firms could learn a bit from this, too.

The Allegheny Conference Responds . . . Sort Of

In the wake of my Post-Gazette critique of the Allegheny Conference and economic development in the region, I received dozens of messages of support -- from investors, entrepreneurs, researchers, lawyers, and technology transfer professionals. Not one critical word. Yesterday's paper, however, brought this:

This region is fortunate to have the Allegheny Conference

Recent articles that have appeared in the Post-Gazette regarding the Allegheny Conference on Community Development have been unduly negative, even smarmy, in their tone and content, and the timing of their appearance seems calculated to throw cold water on the conference's message of reinvention and reorganizing, which was delivered at its annual meeting Wednesday night.

The short time that Mike Langley has been at the helm of the conference merely enabled him and his staff to develop the emerging new strategies and structure that the organization needs to lead this region into the next decade. To this end, the conference has attempted admirably to take a critical look at itself, reaching out to the community, seeking input and insight.

I personally participated in a focus group conducted by the conference, the purpose of which was to make certain that its direction was in alignment with other key stakeholders. That type of collaboration has led to a statewide coalition of business leaders dedicated to improving Pennsylvania's business climate. If we are successful this year, business taxes could be reduced by more than $320 million.

Also, members of the media ought to understand that the expenditures on the types of activities that the conference planned and implemented in recent years, as well as for its annual meeting, are by no means frivolous. The messages have to be delivered with impact, stakeholders have to be motivated and consensus has to occur on a widespread basis; this involves investing in the best ways to accomplish those objectives.

Certainly anytime an organization of this stripe undertakes change, whether it is personnel related or a refocusing of its mission, there will be discomfort and vulnerabilities. But that is not the time to pile on. The Pittsburgh region is very fortunate to have an organization like the Allegheny Conference. Many regions struggle to get private sector leaders engaged. Our region is blessed with committed leaders and an organization that is considered by other regions as a great model to get things done.

I anticipate that the conference, under the leadership of the incoming chairman, PNC's Jim Rohr, will be instrumental in the positive direction this region takes.

STEVEN G. ZYLSTRA
President and Chief Executive Officer
Pittsburgh Technology Council
Hazelwood

Is that it? An outfit that I assume is funded (in part) by the Allegheny Conference pops up with name calling and a plea not to criticize the Allegheny Conference? Steven Zylstra makes my point more eloquently than I ever could. Problems in Pittsburgh start at the top; solutions start at the bottom.

Entrepreneurs Build Relationships, They Don't Network

Here's a followup to my post the other day about Keith Ferrazzi, the Western PA native/marketing consultant, and his strategies for building relationships that help you build a career.

This morning's New York Times has a long feature -- with photo! -- about Keith and how he encourages his clients to use their workout time to build relationships. Don't invite prospective business partners and clients to have drinks or lunch; invite them to join you to lift, or run, or bike, or climb.

Mr. Ferrazzi said he, too, can tell a lot about people from watching them exercise, and he will often bring new recruits - both male and female - to Barry's Bootcamp, his favorite gym in Los Angeles.

"I generally find that the way people treat their body is an interesting proxy for how they treat their relationships and their work," Mr. Ferrazzi said. He notes, for example, if people stop before they tire. "When you're an entrepreneur, you can't afford to quit early, you've got to push beyond the pain," he said. "That's when true grit comes in and you can determine when someone's going to be successful with you or not."

That's all very Californian, right? I'm looking out my window right now, and I see a typically grey, cool, blustery late Fall Pittsburgh day. Want to know the limits of a Pittsburgher's fortitude? Watch how he or she handles a large order of O-fries.

Besides, that's not what I noticed about the article, and it's not what Pittsburgh entrepreneurs, investors, and managers should notice, either. What everyone should notice is this: This story is the greatest free publicity in the world for Keith Ferrazzi's consulting business. How on earth did Keith Ferrazzi get this story and photo in the New York Times? Don't think "press agent." Think: What did he have to do -- personally, and in person -- to line this up and pull this off?

You may not need or want to be in the New York Times, but if you're an inventor or entrepreneur or an investor or a would-be VP-Sales or Marketing, you want something -- money, technology, employees, business partners, customers, a job. You're not going to find any of them at cocktail receptions and "networking" parties. Especially if you're in a professional role or in an institution that's not accustomed to thinking in entrepreneurial terms -- say, for example, you're a faculty researcher or a private lawyer, or you work for a big university or a large law firm -- how do you go about this -- figuring out what you want and need, and then getting it?

There's more to come on this topic.

Allegheny Conference Picks Up its Fiddle

Nero fiddled while Rome burned. The Allegheny Conference is following in his footsteps: It's reviving the discredited notion that it can kick the Pittsburgh economy into gear by buffing the region's "image." Come 2008, it will sponsor a birthday party to end all birthday parties to celebrate Pittsburgh's 250th. Combine that with feel-good celebrations for the 2006 Major League Baseball All-Star game and the 2007 U.S. (golf) Open, you have the makings of . . .

Nothing.

Have a birthday party. That's nice, and have a great All-Star celebration and a U.S. Open for people who like that sort of thing. But don't pretend that any of it will cure what ails Pittsburgh. This is the Pittsburgh Regional Branding Initiative and the "Image Gap" all over again, and it's going to end badly and expensively.

You can't build a brand if you don't know what you're selling. What is Pittsburgh selling? How about: Despite its problems, this is a fine place to live and work, and contrary to popular belief, there really is an audience and a market for outsiders who want to come in and shake up a bit of the conventional wisdom. (We just have to find each other, but we're working on that.) Check out this story from the New York Times on recent out-migration from California. Tonight, the Allegheny Conference is showcasing a new $1 million feel-good movie about Pittsburgh. Instead of making a movie, how about spending $1 million on a couple of full-time Pittsburgh development people in California, talking to entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and managers? If people are are leaving anyway, why not bring some of them here?

Link: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05313/602816.stm

Writers' Space in Bellevue

News to me:

Coming to Bellevue:

Thinktank: Workspace for Creative Minds

Thinktank is a membership organization dedicated to providing an affordable and tranquil working environment for writers and others who require a quiet, comfortable space away from the distractions of daily life. Thinktank is located in Bellevue. Opening is scheduled for Jan. 1, 2006. Applications are now being accepted.

Members will pay a monthly fee for 24-hour access to a workspace with partitioned desks where writers (or anyone who uses a laptop or notepad) can work in a quiet, related atmosphere. The secure space will be equipped with wireless internet, a small kitchen, and lounge area.

Thinktank memberships are available on a half-yearly basis for $660 ($110 per month). Monthly memberships are available for $125 per month. Sign up for 12/31 for a discounted rate of $500 for 6 months.

For more information call Tom at 412-720-2218 or email tom@versopartners.com.

Application forms available at http://www.versopartners.com/Thinktank Application Form.pdf

Link: http://www.versopartners.com/thinktank.html

Next Steps to Building a High Tech Economy

If you're charged up about reforming Pittsburgh's tech economy but wondering what you can do by yourself, here's one concrete suggestion: Read Keith Ferrazzi's book, and then act on it.

Keith is a Latrobe native, a former Chief Marketing Officer, and now a motivational speaker and consultant. His specialty: what used to be called "networking" and what he describes as building relationships. His writing is breezy and conversational in a Business Best Seller kind of way, but if you actually read the book -- and if you don't read it cynically, as just another "networking" book -- then you can take away some important lessons that work both professionally and personally. The key is: Reach out to people, all the time, and give away your time, your ideas, and your energy without expecting anything in return. I've read the book, and I've met Keith, and I've participated in one of his seminars. His enthusiasm is absolutely infectious, and the method, despite its "pop" tone, does work.

There's a taste of the method in a free online piece at Inc. magazine: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20030101/25049.html

The book is Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time, available at amazon.com.

Keith has a "never eat alone" blog at http://nevereatalone.typepad.com/blog/

Now the Hard Part: Entrepreneurship 101

Over the last day and a half, I've received a lot of email and some phone calls responding to my P-G op-ed about Pittsburgh technology and economic development. Keep it coming -- I'm enjoying my 15 minutes!

Now the hard part begins. All of you responders share this moment. There's a bit of energy on the table right now. You / we can and should seize the moment and act on that energy. It's time to put your money where my mouth is.

How?

The first and best idea I've heard so far is setting up a mechanism to put management bodies together with companies that need them. The idea is this:

Collect a half-dozen or so people in the technology sector -- a couple of lawyers, a couple of investors, a couple of entrepreneurs. Put on a meeting once a month where startups can make their presentations and people looking for new management jobs can bring their resumes. Figure out the best location for this (Oakland? I'm open to suggestions) and keep it there. Could be early a.m., could be later in the day.

Make sure that Pitt's Office of Technology Management is in the loop, but isn't running the show. Same with CMU's Center for Technology Transfer, and Penn State's Research Commercialization Office.

Over time, we'll need funding (read: business model) to pay for someone to coordinate this. I'm no management expert, but if ever there was an opportunity for a Pittsburgh entrepreneur, this seems like one. So if someone wants to step forward and run with this ball, please let me know. Or just do it. This blog can't support this enterprise for long. Email me with suggestions. Thanks.

Shameless Self-Promotion

Yes, Pittsblog readers got to see it first, but the Post-Gazette picked it up pretty quickly.

Just to be clear, again: This is a fictional address. I am not, in fact, speaking to the Allegheny Conference.

Link: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05310/601050.stm

Pittsburgher Helps Penn State

From yesterday's New York Times:

[T]the alchemist of the stadium atmosphere [at Penn State] and of other changes around the football program is a man behind the curtain, Guido D'Elia, who is not even a permanent employee. D'Elia, a consultant from Pittsburgh brought in two years ago, has delighted some people and worried others with his aggressive innovations and his influence with Joe Paterno, the veteran coach in his 40th season.

"I am the designated trouble-stirrer of change," D'Elia said in one of two recent interviews in his office in the Lasch football center. "I'm the lightning rod. I'm Darth Vader. I'm the angel of death."

D'Elia, whose official title is director for communications and branding, often speaks in the hyperbole of a salesman. He has a background in television and Internet production with his company, Mind Over Media. He said the head groundskeeper at the stadium recently told him, "If you ever turned up missing, there would be an endless list of suspects."

Tim Curley, the athletic director, praised D'Elia for being creative and said: "He probably moves at a faster pace in terms of change than what we had traditionally done before. He's not afraid to make changes."

D'Elia said major college sports, like Penn State football, must operate more like professional sports businesses and should be sold forcefully to recruits and to younger fans. He said Penn State must hire "professionals that can manage the image, promote its brand, market its content and recruit its personnel."

Got that, everyone? A Pittsburgh consultant is pushing aggressive change. Too bad he's doing it in State College.

Link: http://www.momknows.com/

How Do You Brand a State?

Business Week takes a look.

Link: http://images.businessweek.com/ss/05/10/logo_doc/index_01.htm

Pittsburgh's Purchase Circle

Over at amazon.com, they've come up with "purchase circles," lists of the most popular books purchased by buyers in certain regions and institutions.

Here's Pittsburgh's "purchase circle." We're a pretty self-absorbed lot: 5 of the top 10 books are about Pittsburgh or Western PA.

Blogging Politics and Business

From the big money corporate community comes Forbes magazine's screed attacking blogs.

From the Democrats comes defeat of a Congressional bill that would have ensured that bloggers enjoy wide free speech rights in political campaigns.

Meanwhile, here in our little Burgh, small business owners are plugging along, using blogs to build a clientele. Two examples in my next of the woods:

Aldo Coffee: http://www.aldocoffee.com/ and

LunaMetrics: http://www.lunametrics.blogspot.com./

Surely that's the tip of the iceberg. Post links in the Comments.

West End (Pedestrian) Bridge

A competition to design a pedestrian bridge at the West End, sponsored by the Riverlife Task Force, gets underway today.

Link: http://www.riverlifecompetition.org/

SmokeBlogging

I've waited way too long to extend a warm blogosphere welcome to Tim Murray's "The Carbolic Smoke Ball: News the Mainstream Media Doesn't Want You to Know."

A couple of trivia notes:

Via his nom-de-blog, Judge Rufus Peckham, Tim borrrows the identity of one of the most heavily criticized U.S. Supreme Court Justices in all of history. (Peckham, J., wrote the majority opinion in the infamous "freedom of contract" case, Lochner v. New York.) Which is not to say that he's the worst ever (and he even has his defenders, up to a point), but he's a contender.

The title of the blog borrows the device that was at the center of one of the most famous contract law lawsuits of all time, the English case of Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company [1893] 1 QB 256. The defendants offered a device called the "Carbolic Smoke Ball" for sale and offered the sum of 100 pounds to anyone who used the device and later got the flu. The plaintiff used the device, got the flu, and sued for his 100 pounds. The court found for the plaintiff.

Tim doesn't come by all of this history merely by accident. He's not only a talented lawyer himself but also the son of John Murray, a man who has done a bit, here and there, for the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University, among other places, and who knows just about everything that there is to know about contract law.

Way Up North

Since I live in the South Hills, sometimes it takes a little while for me to catch up on goings on to the north of the Ohio River. Here's an update from Bellevue, where the owner of Vivo (a very good restaurant) and some investors have put together some cool stuff along Lincoln Avenue:

Vivo: http://www.friendsofvivo.com/

Roberto's Pizzeria: (web site?) http://www.robertospizzeria.com/

The 517521 Building, in the former G.C. Murphy store: http://www.517521.com/ (no content yet)

Art by HBandz, in the 517521 building: http://www.hbandz.com/home.htm

Affogato coffee bar and bookstore: http://www.bigreda.com/home.htm

Ruth Ann Dailey's column from Spring 2005: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05089/479420.stm

Ruth Ann Dailey from August 2005: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05237/559275.stm

Jonathan Barnes from August 2005: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05237/559381.stm