This city has all of the potential in the world, we’re just a bit disconnected at this point. But Damian and I have decided to try to push the needle in the right direction. We’re starting to organize an “innovation summit” along the lines of BarCamp to bring Toledoans from many different areas of expertise together. The goal is to connect people and watch the sparks fly. Our goals in Toledo and Omaha might be different, but in many ways, they’re the same. Maybe we need a BridgeToToledo.com as well.

Matt, I’m sure it wasn’t your intent to spark a nationwide movement. But sometimes things just happen. What if there were a bigger Bridge To… organization that allowed Bridge To Omaha, Bridge To Milwaukee, and a potential Bridge To Toledo to connect to one another? In this case, I’d love to hear your feedback and best practices on getting momentum behind a movement like this. But in the future, our often-overlooked communities could possibly benefit from an interconnectedness (is that an actual word?) that many bigger markets already enjoy. Maybe I’m putting the cart three miles ahead of the horse. I’m a dreamer. But I’m also a realist. And the only thing stopping us from making something like this happen is nothing: doing nothing. What do you say?

One is cooporately (spelling intentional), like Matt intends to do with B2O, leveraging a group of people with a unified purpose.

The second is for those of us that attended Big Omaha and met people there to put effort into nurturing the relationships that we formed. Follow up, get together for lunches, become friends. Make time to get out of the office or make the phone call or type the email. This is the type of thing that helps to spur the organic growth necessary.