UPDAYTON’S “STAY IN DAYTON” MISSION CONTINUES

(Written for Dayton City Paper by Annie Bowers)

Where will you be on Friday, April 27th? Are you interested in attracting and retaining creative talent in the Dayton Region? If so, join close to 200 fellow Daytonians and community partners at the Dayton Art Institute for the 2012 updayton Summit.

The 2012 Summit, an annual event created by updayton, will focus on four key areas of community interest: Diversity, Alternative Transportation, Neighborhoods and Urban Vibrancy. Summit attendees will brainstorm ideas for new projects in each of the four categories with the collective goal of attracting — and keeping — young creatives within the region. Updayton Executive Director, Yvette Kelly-Fields states, “If we can get them here and involved, they’re more likely to stay in the region and continue to help it grow creatively.”

Updayton, the non-profit organization responsible for hosting the Summit, began as an initiative of DaytonCREATE 2008, a project formed under the direction of several companies that shared mutual concerns about the “brain drain” in the Dayton Region. The team selected 32 members of the community to act as catalysts and challenged them to develop initiatives geared toward making Dayton an attractive creative city. Two of these initiatives blossomed into unique stand-alone non-profit organizations: Film Dayton and updayton. The focus of the latter was to unite a group of young professionals and community members who shared a passion for local revitalization and a commitment to promoting their region as a vibrant place to live, work, learn and play.

Kelly-Fields further explains, “Updayton connects networks, challenges the status quo and inspires all people who believe in Dayton to roll-up their sleeves to help the community. Our efforts haven’t revitalized Dayton overnight, nor were they expected to, but they’ve shaken the ground in other ways. We’ve stopped waiting for someone else to do what we know needs to be done.”

In 2009, updayton hosted its first Summit, which drew interest from citizens across the region and rejuvenated the notion of developing Dayton into a vital creative community — and year after year, the Summit provides specific plans on how exactly to accomplish that goal.

One such plan, Welcome to Dayton, was a Summit Diversity project that aimed to connect native Dayton families with immigrant families in order to help immigrants become more acclimated to the area. The group also compiled an official “Welcome to Dayton” packet that will be available in all Dayton Metro libraries beginning May first.

In addition, the implementation of First Friday Scavenger Hunts began in 2011, encouraging people from outside the city to venture downtown to experience the energy of First Fridays and see what the city has to offer by way of galleries, shops and restaurants.

Under the Neighborhoods heading, the 2011 Summit identified the Warren/Brown Street area as a neighborhood with tremendous potential to attract young creative professionals. Kelly-Fields explains, “We saw it as a neighborhood on the rise, and asked ourselves, how we could make this area more interesting and attractive?” From these efforts, the Bridge Project was born: updayton asked local artists to submit designs for consideration, and on May 5 the winning design (chosen by public vote) will be painted on the Route 35 pedestrian overpass bridge.

Finally, under the 2011 Jobs category, the Dayton Interns project outlined a plan to create an online portal that would allow businesses to post a single listing for internships, which could then be communicated to eight different university partners with the click of a button. Students could view the listings through their university’s career services site. The result? Student interns and local employers were easily matched up, without having to sift through openings on multiple sites.

This year’s Summit will focus on the following areas:

Alternative Transportation: to promote bikes, bussing and walking as forms of transportation.

Diversity: to encourage Dayton Metro Libraries to embrace diversity by building library resources to reflect the growing immigrant population.

Urban Vibrancy: to promote Dayton as a destination spot among college students, urging them to become more involved with the downtown area for more than just special events.

Neighborhoods: to work with East End Community Center in the Twin Towers neighborhood to implement strategies that will help encourage people to move there.

After a day of brainstorming, the energy and excitement will continue to build at the After Party at the CADC’s new location in St. Clair Lofts, featuring DJ Ruckus Roboticus, food, wine and Buckeye vodka. In addition, ten swag bags will be given away featuring goodies from local merchants, including a DAI membership, tickets to the Dayton Film Festival, and Sidebar, Ghostlight Coffee and South Park Tavern gift certificates. One lucky swag bag winner will also receive a key that provides the use of a Bob Ross Motors 2012 Fiat for an entire weekend. The event will wind to a close at the After After Party at Sidebar, which includes a $5 breakfast from 10p.m. – 2a.m.

“You don’t have to know where you’re going to be headed in the right direction.” I took the advice of a marketing guy I know and decided to use my most recent fortune from P.F. Chang’s as my blog post topic this week. (And by “this week” I mean the first post I’ve written since January 19th…shame on me.) I’ve had writer’s block, coupled with a lot of new endeavors, coupled with an extreme case of – ok, yes, I’ll admit it- “I forgot the website existed.” But here I am, ready to write. So listen up.

The thing I like most about my “You don’t have to know where you’re going to be headed in the right direction” fortune is that it reminds me of something I was briefly discussing the other day, which was the concept of “you have to start somewhere.” A lot of us experience anxiety of the unknown or unfamiliar. We don’t start anything new because we don’t know what will happen if we try, whether it’s starting a project, getting involved in the community, meeting new people, or just implementing a different twist into the same old daily routine. We want a guarantee that it’s not going to blow up in our faces, but the thing about life is there is no guarantee…So most of the time, instead of taking a risk, we stay where things are comfortable. And when we don’t take risks, our lives tend to stay the same, day in and day out.

Had I not taken a risk 7 years ago and decided to start my own business, my life wouldn’t look anything like it does today. In the Spring of 2005, I was 26, had an eight-month old baby and no idea what I was doing with my career, but an opportunity crossed my path to start a stationery business- and without allowing myself to overanalyze it, or work myself into a frenzy of reasons why it might fail, I jumped in and just did it. Over the next seven years, the decisions I made would shape the course of my life in ways that have permanently changed me for the better.

Over time, I’ve watched as the business I built has grown into its niche, ebbing and flowing with the changing economic climate and establishing connections with customers and community partners. Most importantly though, being a business owner has pushed me to get out and network. On April 14, 2011, I dragged my skeptical self to a Generation Dayton networking event at Blind Bob’s…I didn’t want to go, I didn’t want to make small talk with strangers, and I didn’t feel like generically handing out my business card to people I figured would probably throw it away on the next trip to the bathroom. In short, I was feeling negative. I didn’t want to take that first step toward the unknown- I didn’t want to leave my comfortable Envelope bubble and make an effort to expand my network. But that night I met a number of people who have impacted my life, and made a few friends without whom my life wouldn’t be the same. And even though it was just one networking event, one Spring night at Bob’s, it was a start. After that event, I went to the next one in May, and kept meeting more and more people who were involved in the goings-on in Dayton: people who worked with non-profits, people who worked with artists, people who supported the revitalization efforts of the city. And I loved every second of it. I found that the more I started, the more I wanted to keep going. The momentum kept pushing me forward.

By welcoming that momentum instead of fearing the unknown, and by stretching the boundaries of my own comfort zone, I’ve developed some amazing professional relationships in Dayton, connected with fellow entrepreneurs, and welcomed many people into my life who make it richer and more meaningful. Today, not only am I business owner and a mom to an amazing 7-year old, but I’m a writer, a graphic designer, a publications coordinator, a volunteer, an art lover, a young professional, and a community activist. I am proud to be associated with organizations like the Dayton Visual Arts Center and Culture Works, and I’m honored to be part of a community that is fortunate to have so many catalysts invested in its growth and development.

I had no idea what would happen when I opened The Envelope (ha, what a great a metaphor…). I had no idea what I was starting when I went to Blind Bob’s last April… but because I took the first step and started somewhere, it’s taken me places I could never have dreamed, both personally and professionally. I don’t know where I’ll end up, but I can say without hesitation that I know I’m headed in the right direction.