Some thoughts:
I was chatting with a few folks after the event, and when asked what I thought, my initial description was that it felt like Aaron was giving us one part motivational speech and one part realistic assessment of what Columbus needs to do to get our act together. Which to me, was a great way to present all of the material that Aaron covered. I can only speak for myself, but I left feeling both uplifted about my home city as it currently is, and also eager to get to work on something new.
Armed with no slides (thank you!), Aaron did a very nice job of hitting topics including branding, marketing, recognition, brain drain, amenities, urban design, built environments, transportation, human capital, and a variety of other things either slipping my mind or still flowing through it. There was a good bit of humor sprinkled throughout as well, which I think let Aaron easily talk about the city critically and sometimes negatively without being overbearing or condescending. A few folks I spoke with afterward said that he said some things that "needed to be said", especially coming from someone who doesn't live here.
There were a lot of great points raised, and I'm not even going to attempt to cover all of it as video from the event will be online soon and you can just watch the whole thing yourself, but the main takeaways for me were:
1. Stop worrying about being recognized as a cool/hip/creative/awesome/whatever city, and just start doing great things. Recognition follows hard work, often trailing pretty far behind it, so don't expect it anytime soon. Just get to work.
2. Columbus needs to identify a niche (or two, or ten) and put some stakes in the ground. We're not going to be the best city for everything, so let's be the best at some very specific things. Play to our strengths. Aaron said something along the lines of stacking all of our chips on one number and letting it ride for awhile.
3. Actively recruit creative, talented and energetic people. Give them a reason to be here. Give them access in ways that other places do not.
4. Recognize our assets for what they're truly worth, but don't rely on them too much. Aaron said something to the effect of assets just being the accomplishments of the past. There's more importance in what is being accomplished today and in the future.
5. Strengthen the importance of design across the board. As Central Ohio has no mountains or oceans, we have to make sure that our built spaces are extremely well designed. We have to create beauty with our man-made spaces.
There were other bits and pieces from some of Aaron's past writings on Columbus, and I highly recommend not only reading the interview I did with him, but all of the Urbanophile linked articles from the interview for more background on his thoughts on Columbus:
http://www.columbusunderground.com/the-urbanophile-comes-to-columbus
Also, a side note... Aaron was preceded by the Harrison Smith Award, which was bestowed upon both Neighborhood Launch and The Arena District for excellence in Urban Design. Well deserved in my opinion. Looking forward to seeing this annual tradition continue.
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Launched in August 2010, TheMetropreneur.com is a local online resource devoted to small business development and entrepreneurship. Its aim is to tell the stories of Central Ohio's business community, foster regional economic development and assist entrepreneurs with its resource-heavy focus.