Comments on: Kris Kimel Gets It

By: The Urbanophile

The Urbanophile — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:18:00 +0000

emlingj, I appreciate the thoughtful comments. Perhaps this is something that the IdeaFestival should consider, particularly the co-branding with Louisville in the name. Clearly, to reach its ambition, the event needs to keep evolving. Now that you mention it, it occurs to me that I don’t even know exactly where Sundance is actually held.

By: emlingj

emlingj — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:40:00 +0000

I applaud this kind of forward thinking and high-bar-setting in Louisville. However, I don’t see this as necessarily a sustainable competitive advantage to put and keep Louisville on the international map. Maybe it will, but I can see cities with an already higher profile copying this very easily. They have first-mover advantage here, and I wish them well, but I’m not convinced this will be more than a novelty in 10 years. I think the IdeaFestival is too broadly cast to be consistently attached to Louisville in the minds of great international movers and shakers. I hope I am wrong and Louisville joins the likes of Davos, Switzerland on the world stage.

It seems subtle, but a slight narrowing of the scope of this event and a positioning of it into whitespace would pay greater dividends for Louisville and Kentucky, in my opnion. Focusing the festival on a broad topic like urbanization or cultural preservation in an amalgamating world would give it more of an identity. And slightly changing the name to something like “The Louisville Conference” will solidify the association between the event and the city. This is the brilliance of the Indianapolis Prize. Indy isn’t particularly known for its efforts in conservation, but with the Prize it is marketing its brand and becoming associated with global conservation efforts. This is the largest prize of its kind in the field and it gained instant recognition from the day it was launched. Think about this, in the context of a “Louisville Conference.”

By: The Urbanophile

The Urbanophile — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 02:53:00 +0000

Jeff, I think there is a subtle distinction between amour-propre and provincialism. Perhaps it is a modern day tragedy. The places that, like European burgs, retained their local flavor are some of the ones least able to adapt to the modern economy. I think Cincy and Louisville are good examples of this. They have far greater assets than their regional peers, yet have lagged in growth.

What we need is forward thinking provincialism, one firmly anchored in a realistic appraisal of where a city is, and which is heartily determined to do what is necessary to succeed. That is what is so often missing and is such a hard ingredient to find.

By: Jefferey

Jefferey — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:49:00 +0000

A healthy self-regard is one way to put it. Another way to look at is a healthy provincialism, where people celebrate the city and do things to enhance the city.

The concept is somewhat similar to the Rennaissance city-states of Italy and Germany and their merchant princes.

By: Donna

Donna — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:14:00 +0000

-sigh-

Yep, Idea Fest is amazing, I've been to two of them and both times wondered why I have to go to L'ville to see important speakers. Of course, Indy has had Daniel Pink and Aaron Betsky in the past six weeks, but there is no excitement about an entire city-wide three day event for thinkers here.

Also, Kentucky has the Governor's School for the Arts, which Indy should have.