Area of innovation

We say it loudly, we say it proudly, and we proclaim it roundly—like leaves on trees and green on peas, entrepreneurship is in Oklahoma City’s very DNA. We’re going to stop the rhyming (for now) just so we can point out that no other city can lay claim to the kind of beginnings and history our city has experienced. Oklahoma Citians have proven time and time again that we’re adept at taking advantage of opportunities, figuring out solutions to problems and working together to remove obstacles to our success.

One of the coolest things that we’re doing in that vein is looking at ways to bring together all the entrepreneurship, innovation and assets in the Automobile Alley district and the Oklahoma Health Center area in order to take innovation and entrepreneurial activity there to the next level. Along with our friends at The Brookings Institution and Project for Public Spaces, the OKC “innovation district” partners have begun an 18-month study of this area, looking at its economic strength, quality of place, current assets and coming up with ways of linking people, places and creating more synergy and entrepreneurial activity. It’s a very OKC thing to do, when you think about it. Get more information on this effort and sign up for updates at www.okcinnovation.com and following @OKCinnovation on Twitter, and (now back to the rhyming) you can stay-up-to-date soundly, if not profoundly. And if they were around today, innovative luminaries like Antonio Gaudi would surely drive an Audi, say howdy, and get rowdy down at JJ’s Alley after hanging out and working and creating economic value in the innovation district.