21st Century Boutique TownsWhat’s your niche?

Old School Shake Up

No more pencils, no more books?

Game On!Win money for your start-up!

THEFUTUREBRING IT

6th Annual Create WV Conference October 24-26, 2013

REGISTERNOW!createwv.org

Local to Global (and Back)Business savvy natives come home to roost. Hear

their stories at this year’s conference, pg. 8

Welcome to the VillageArtists from around the state will reinvigorate

Richwood’s Main Street, pg. 7

The Maker LabInnovators come together in a new

kind of creative space, pg. 13

Table ofContents4 Why Richwood?A 20th century boom town eyes the future.

5 Sun Power in RichwoodRenewable energy will power Main Street during the conference.

6 Challenged to InspireMeet the five keynote speakers who will share their stories at the conference.

7 Welcome to the VillageArtisans from around the state will set up shop in the Create WV Village.

8 Conference Schedule

10 Your State to CreateThe Create WV mission stands on five pillars.

11 Power of the PeopleCrowdfunding offers new strategies for budding businesses.

12 Entrepreneurs on the RiseInnovation and collaboration inspire curriculum in West Virginia schools.

13 The Maker LabA new kind of think tank forms in Charleston.

14 Fishing for the FutureFly-fishing enthusiast Frank Second sees an economic opportunity in Richwood's streams.

15 The Seed of InnovationDiversity is the key to innovation and economic growth.

The Create West Virginia Conference on The Future is a work in progress. Just like West Virginia.

As this publication goes to press, we’re still scheming up the fine points of the program. We’re

determined to bring the best minds to bear on our most important issues, our toughest challenges. The conference will address envelope-pushing technology, the most advanced and iconoclastic ideas in learning that knows no boundaries; and changing perceptions inside and out that keep West Virginia from enjoying the economic advantages of diversity.

In Richwood, we’ll be smack dab in the middle of a place that exemplifies the potential of West Virginia’s glorious natural assets that could be carefully designed and packaged for 21st century niche markets. Now, we’re expecting you to bring that entrepreneurial spark of genius that’s going to thrust us to the top of the world’s most innovative and exciting places.

In these pages, we’re offering a glimpse of The Future, but we urge you to visit createwv.org often for updates on the conference program, the latest on who’s moving into The Village, details on the 2nd Annual Entrepreneurship Contest, the Farmers’ Market, and the schwag you may collect from just being there.

We want business people, volunteers, community planners, concerned citizens, students, teachers, professionals, politicians, poets and entertainers—all the people who make a vibrant community—to be there. That means you. Register today at createwv.org.

Rebecca Kimmons, 2013 Conference Director

ON THE COVER Nellie Davis, photographed by Peter Aaslestad, will debut her NellieRose line of hand-dyed clothing and accessories in the Create WV Village.

Editorial provided by Katalyst Development Strategies, LLC.Designed by Elizabeth Roth.

Thanks to the Nicholas County Commission,whose generous support made this publication possible.

REGISTER TODAY!

Create WV Conference on The FutureOctober 24-26, 2013Richwood, WV

Visit createwv.org for more information.

CREATEWV.ORG 3

EVERYBODY KEEPS ASKING: Why Richwood?Create West Virginia is taking its 6th annual training and

education conference to Richwood because it’s one thing to put your feet up at a resort and talk about issues in West Virginia. It’s another to be in the thick of it.

The conference is not about Richwood per se, but it’s an ideal setting for a conference on the future. The town is a perfect symbol of the American industrial 20th century. Incorporated in 1901 as the commerce center serving the Cherry River Boom and Lumber Company, and once the home of the world’s largest clothes pin factory and shoe leather tannery, the town shifted in mid-century to dependence on the coal industry. In the early 1980s decline set in. Now the Main Street that once boasted the region’s most upscale shopping is dark.

But there’s more to Richwood than meets the eye. Of course it has conference facilities. They just aren’t the usual type, and for that reason, this year’s Create West Virginia Conference on The Future is going to be one of the most creative and refreshing yet.

Innovation can take root in conclaves such as Silicon Valley and Northern Virginia. But can it take root in Richwood? Can innovation transform the old and prepare it for the new?

Plenary sessions will be presented in Richwood High School’s comfortable 500-seat auditorium, complete with excellent sound and lights. Breakout sessions will be held in nearby buildings—maybe even the Quonset hut where the Marine Club once met— all within minutes of RHS, which, by the way, will be called Create School for the duration of the conference.

Tamarack artisans will contribute to a pop up village in Main Street storefronts where conferees and the public can shop. WVFarm2U in cooperation with Fish Hawk Acres will run the first Farmers’ Market on Saturday, October 26, 2013. Visit createwv.org/fun for details and hours.

But where will people stay? What will they eat? CHET

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A brief 30-minute drive from Richwood to Summersville lodgings is no longer than the trip from rafting basecamps to our rivers. That’s part of the fun. So, we’re providing free shuttle service from lodgings to Richwood, complete with charming guides who will entertain you on the trip along the scenic by-way route.

And the eats? Oh boy, are you in for a treat. Chefs Tim Urbanic of Café Cimino and Dale Hawkins of

Fish Hawk Acres are in the kitchen, rustling up the very tastiest, freshest local farm fare central West Virginia has to offer. It’s a guaranteed feast for all the senses.

And finally, Create West Virginia gets to demonstrate in a most entertaining way the innovative economy concept of the essential community ‘third place,’ that safe, comfortable spot that isn’t home and isn’t work, where you chill, hang out with friends, and meet new people. Doug Imbrogno and Doris Fields will host that third place for the duration of the conference in the lovely old Richwood Banking and Trust Building on the corner of Main and Oakford. That’s where you’re going to experience some fresh musical talent along with old faves. Bring your instrument, if you play. There’s always after-hours.

We’re also creating a movie house, galleries, and a book shop where you can view and purchase West Virginians’ work. We’re encouraging authors, artists, documentarians, and photographers to stay through Saturday and Sunday when the public is invited to enjoy the village.

Some have said people who wear suits for a living won’t come to Richwood. Good thing it’s a new game in West Virginia, where it’s not so much what you wear as what’s in your head. If you can ramp up innovation in Richwood, all of West Virginia can embrace it as a strategy for renewal.

The people of Richwood are getting ready. It’s the Create West Virginia Conference on The Future. Bring it.

FROM LEFT Richwood will transform into a busy think tank for the Create WV Conference. The Richwood Banking and Trust building will become the conference "hang out" and entertainment center.

Why Richwood?

4 CREATE WV • YOUR STATE TO CREATE

Sun Powerin Richwood

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The Dovetail Wind and Solar crew installed a solar array on the Sustainability Treehouse at The Summit, home to the National Scout Jamboree, in Fayette County.

RICHWOOD’S MAIN STREET won’t be dark during the Create West Virginia Conference on The Future, thanks to Ritchie County native Matthew Bennett.

Bennett, founder and vice president of engineering and design at Dovetail Solar & Wind in Athens, Ohio, is designing a renewable energy system to light the Main Street village, to be renamed Create, West Virginia, from Thursday through Sunday, October 24 through 27.

“We’re creating a system to feed into the city’s electric services,” Bennett says. An array of solar panels will be placed on the roof of a wood trellis being designed by architect Thomas Worlledge. The system, to be installed in the Sculpture Garden on East Main Street, will run LED lights.

Bennett’s renewable energy company, founded in 1995, specializes in solar and wind systems for residential, business, nonprofits, and farming. More than 300 system installations provide approximately 5.1 million watts of solar and wind-driven energy across Ohio and surrounding states, including West Virginia.

Bennett praises West Virginia’s net metering law that allows individual creators of energy to export it to the local utility grid. “You can get credits for the energy you put into the system. In Ohio, you can’t do that.”

Bennett believes solar and wind energy will play a great role in job creation for all of West Virginia, that the technology eventually will be put to use even by other energy producers, including coal. He says solar energy could offset costs for maintaining active and decommissioned mines.

“We need to get rid of this idea that it’s solar against coal,” he says. “Solar won’t put coal out of business. Miners’ skills will fit well in the renewable energy industry.”

Bennett says he appreciates any opportunity to return to his native state. “I have a lot of feelings for the place. I never really meant to leave.”

CREATEWV.ORG 5

Challenged to Inspire

DR. THOMAS FREY is a geyser of entrepreneurial energy. As the founder, executive director, and senior futurist at the DaVinci Institute, Dr. Frey works closely with the institute’s senior fellows to develop original research that enables him to translate trends into business opportunities. Before launching the DaVinci Institute, he was an IBM engineer and designer, the recipient of more awards than any other engineer in the company’s history.

FIVE KEYNOTE SPEAKERS, chosen for their perspectives on issues key to West Virginia’s future, will challenge and inspire conference attendees. “Someone is always thinking, planning and designing your future,” says keynote speaker Dr. Thomas Frey, founder of the DaVinci Institute. “The question is, who’s going to be in charge? You, or somebody else?”

HUNTINGTON NATIVE JON GENSLER, a consultant with Cambridge Leadership Associates in New York City, earned a Bronze Star serving as an Army captain in Iraq. The West Point graduate holds a MPA from Harvard and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His career spans private, public and non-profit sectors and has taken him around the globe. Presently, he is focused on bringing the tools and frameworks of adaptive leadership to organizations struggling to thrive within emerging energy and sustainability paradigms.

DR. NAOMI STANFORD knows firsthand what it takes to recreate oneself to remain viable. At the age of 53, she lost her job with a multinational corporation in her native England, and used that circumstance as an opportunity to change countries and to launch yet another batch of careers. She’s been a factory worker, a white-collar worker, a teacher, wife, and mother. Now, she pivots from teaching to consulting to writing for a living.

GREGORY BOWMAN, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the WVU College of Law, will discuss how living overseas and practicing international business law shaped his views on American education. His keynote address, “Going Global: A West Virginian’s Journey from Local to Global (and Back),” will discuss the importance of globalization to the future of our state.

ARCHITECT THOMAS WORLLEDGE is one of the nation’s first accredited professionals in the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. His keynote address, “Don’t Touch That Town—Yet,” will offer vital information for making critical decisions about underused and derelict buildings, and creating systems for healthy, comfortable human habitats.

6 CREATE WV • YOUR STATE TO CREATE

THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE on the future puts Create, West Virginia on the map—literally.

More than just a conference, Create WV is a movement—a consortium of business leaders, artists, entrepreneurs and others collaborating to build creative communities and foster a new economic world order within the Mountain State. The event draws hundreds of innovative thinkers and visionaries each year: average citizens, businesspeople and creative-types who come together to discuss new strategies to stimulate the innovation economy in communities around the state.

Downtown Richwood will be reborn as an Artist Village, with nearly a dozen artists setting up shop to demonstrate their craft in working studios. The Artist Village is a cooperative partnership between Create WV and the Tamarack Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides entrepreneurship and economic development assistance to more than 1,000 practicing artists in all 55 counties across the state.

“The Village of Create, West Virginia will serve as a model of what’s possible in every town, large and small, when creatives, makers, and innovators come together,” says Tamarack Foundation executive director Sally Barton. “We invite the public to come out and experience this incredible opportunity to see so many artists at work all in one place.”

Potters, furniture makers, artisan food producers and other creators of tomorrow’s heirlooms will be part of the village, showcasing the highest quality art and fine crafts in the country. Among the artists-in-residence will be shibori silk artist Michael Davis and his daughter, Nellie, who will debut her NellieRose line of hand-dyed clothing and accessories. The husband and wife team of Phil and Teresa Holcomb—he, a luthier and master woodworker and she, a jewelry designer—will represent Roane County’s Chestnut Ridge Artists Colony, and Mik Wright, maker of one-of-kind footwear called Those Shoes, will make a rare public appearance in the Create Village.

Conference attendees will also hear from authors, film directors, photographers, and documentarians about their relationship with the state in a panel titled “Down and Dirty, or Almost Heaven? Forging the Appalachian Myth.”

Sure to be one of the liveliest locations in the village, Maker Space will showcase some of West Virginia’s most exciting inventions and innovations, hosted by the West Virginia State University Extension Service and staffed by the individuals behind the ingenious creations.

WRITTEN BY KARA GRAYNIK

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Welcome tothe Village

CREATEWV.ORG 7

ARCHITECTURE

ENGINEERING

INTERIOR DESIGN

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

COMMISSIONING

CONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATION

EDUCATIONAL PLANNING

Wheeling, West Virginia

Charleston, West Virginia

Washington, Pennsylvania

Locations

www.McKinleyAssoc.comwww.Facebook.com/McKinleyAssoc

FOR SUCCESS

REGISTERNOW!createwv.org

Over a decade ago, a young Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University named Richard Florida wrote a ground-breaking book entitled The Rise of the Creative Class. Among many insights it shared was a unique understanding of the

powerful role creative people play in economic growth and how to attract and retain these innovators in arts, technology and entrepreneurship.

The basic premise, refined and debated over the past twelve years, is that innovation drives new economic opportunities, and that creative people innovate within various industries (sometimes creating entirely new industries). Therefore, attracting and retaining creative people is great for the economy.

Communities that demonstrate certain characteristics required for innovation to occur attract and grow a higher proportion of creative people; these are referred to as “creative communities” and they tend to foster innovation economy success. These characteristics include:

Entrepreneurship: Activity that involves discovery, evaluation, exploitation and risk-taking to introduce new goods, services, markets, and processes that previously have not existedTechnology: Access to and adoption of high-speed connectivity and computing devicesQuality of Place: The unique mix of culture, environment, “third place” hangouts and community intangibles that make a community desirableDiversity: Openness to all people and the innovative ideas they bring to the table Education: From pre-school to continuous skill development, a commitment to lifelong learning.Create WV was launched in 2007 to help increase the

innovation capacity of our state through the attraction, development and support of innovators and by helping our institutions value and prepare for innovation. Please join the conversation and attend the Create WV Conference on The Future in Richwood, WV, October 24-26.

10 CREATE WV • YOUR STATE TO CREATE

Kickstarter.com, the most popular crowdfunding site, reports a total of $725 million pledged, with $622 million pledged to projects that were ultimately successful. See how much money these successful projects raised.

<$1,000

$1,000>$9,999

$10,000>$19,999

>$20,000

SHANE RICHARDSON returned to West Virginia after spending three years honing his chops as a Web developer and graphic designer in Boulder, Colorado. He couldn’t wait to leave, then he couldn’t wait to get back.

The founder and owner of Mountaineer Creative Labs brings ideas, initiative, and skills with him. One is his start-up crowdfunding platform, DUBVEE.com, which will host this year’s Create West Virginia Entrepreneurs’ Contest. Richardson created DUBVEE.com expressly to offer West Virginians an opportunity to back other West Virginians in creative business endeavors.

“Now that I’m back, I’m seeing that West Virginia is full of creatives—artists, inventors, and dreamers—people who would be entrepreneurial with just the slightest push,” Richardson says. “It’s no secret that small businesses everywhere are struggling more than ever to stay afloat. It’s tough for people to secure even the smallest loan, but growth and innovation absolutely requires capital. Without financing and investment, many ideas and establishments sit stagnant. It’s the goal of DUBVEE.com to help bring awareness and an alternative option for funding to each person’s vision.”

Richardson believes West Virginians

need to realize that West Virginia is on the cusp of great things. “There’s hope, success, and progress happening in many communities in West Virginia right now,” he says. “People are starting to see it. It’s like we’re on a new frontier where the old rules don’t apply, and the old systems don’t work. I’m seeing a shift, and momentum is building. It takes effort and a conscious decision to support your neighbors, small businesses, and to start putting your community first. I see it happening here.”

Richardson is a firm believer in the buy local movement. He says, “Before you make that next trip to a big box store, think about what you can get from a local vendor. Next time you need a gift, consider what your local artist, jewelry maker, or baker has to offer. I believe people in our communities would help each other quicker than a big bank would. It’s imperative we establish and promote a community-driven, come-together attitude.”

Richardson has been studying crowdfunding principles for five years, since it became mainstream in Boulder.

“It’s been absolutely fascinating to witness how this funding model can turn dreams into realities,” he says. “I’ve backed nearly 20 campaigns myself. It’s

GAME ON!Gear up now for the 2nd Create West Virginia Entrepreneurship ContestIndividuals, communities, and schools will compete for up to $7,500 in prize money again this year at the Create West Virginia Conference on The Future. All competitors will post their business propositions on DUBVEE.com, where the public will vote with their dollars, then a Create West Virginia panel will judge each business plan for an additional cash award in each of three categories. See createwv.org/contest for details and for stories about what last year’s winners—and one runner up—did with the prize money.

Power of the PeopleMeet DUBVEE, WV’s First Crowdfunding Platform.

Shane Richardson envisions a newfuture for West Virginia entrepreneurs.

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more than just donating money to something. When you become a backer, you instantly become connected to the campaign. You witness the process first-hand, getting an insider’s view as the creator delivers updates, asks for feedback, and takes you along on the journey toward the final goal. It’s pledging money, it’s receiving the reward, but more importantly, it’s the satisfaction that you helped make nothing into something.”

WRITTEN BY REBECCA KIMMONS

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CREATEWV.ORG 11

PROFESSIONAL EDUCATOR MARK SWIGER is a Create WV board member who has been working with the organization since 2007. “It was great when Create West Virginia came along, talking about these things that I care so deeply about. The idea of building an economy through inviting many different kinds of people to contribute ideas and energy, and opening ourselves up to different ways of learning, these are things I’ve been personally committed to for a long time. Now I’ve got a network of people throughout the state who are committed to the same thing. We’re building an innovation economy from the ground up. I love being part of that.”

initiatives in entrepreneurship. He says secondary educators are beginning to build bridges with college and university programs, and private corporations and nonprofits are beginning to collaborate in support of building an entrepreneurial culture in the state.

“This entrepreneurial spirit really is in our West Virginia DNA,” Swiger says. “The spirit that propelled our people to forge into uncharted territories in these mountains is still there. Now we need to apply that same spirit of innovation to forging a new future for ourselves and our children.”

WRITTEN BY REBECCA KIMMONS

KARISSA DUKE looked around her Marshall County home in the northern panhandle of West Virginia and did what all entrepreneurs do: she noted a gap in services, a lack of efficiency in dealing with an issue that potentially affects a large number of people. Then she built a business plan around a solution.

“There seems to be a lot of recycling services in Marshall County,” Karissa says. “But they all recycle something different, and they’re really spread out. None of them make recycling convenient for everybody in the county. Nobody is addressing the whole gamut of recyclables, including paper, plastic, glass and metals.”

It’s not likely her solution will become a viable business anytime soon, as Duke created it as a school project under the direction of John Marshall High School teacher Mark Swiger. The work, the result of many months of research and study outside her official school curriculum, made her a gold medal winner in this year’s entrepreneurial contest at the national conference of Family Career and Community Leaders in Nashville, Tennessee. She also entered the project

in the Spirit of Innovation Challenge sponsored by the Conrad Foundation, and succeeded in reaching the semi-final round.

Duke graduated from John Marshall in spring 2013 and will begin studies at West Liberty University in fall 2013. She plans to include entrepreneurship in her studies. “Mr. Swiger got me into it,” she says. “I like the idea of being my own boss, the idea of being in control of my own future.”

Swiger is the spark plug for many innovative ideas and projects not only in West Virginia’s northern panhandle, but throughout the state. The U.S. Green Building Council has recently appointed him one of seven national chairs for Green Schools Committees, so he will now infuse his knowledge and energy to schools throughout the nation.

Swiger is the social sciences chairman at John Marshall High School, teaching American and world history as his day job. He manages entrepreneurship programs entirely as extracurricular activities but is pleased that in the coming school year the State Board of Education will support a number of school system

Hilltop Elementary in Marshall County was one of two West Virginia schools recognized for its environmental initiatives in the first year of the Green Ribbon Schools program.

Entrepreneurs on the RiseInnovation and sustainability arrive in West Virginia schools.

The entire Marshall County School District was one of 14 school

districts in the nation to win the U.S. Department

of Education’s first District Sustainability

Award, part of the national Green Ribbon

Schools initiative, which recognizes schools and

school districts that systematically address

creating healthier learning environments

for children.

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professionals who either use or produce digital media, and its cache of sophisticated production equipment, can be a rich resource for amateurs and pros likely to flock to the basement space.

“It’s a maker space, a hack space, a co-working space,” says Boland. “It will have a name soon, but more importantly, it’s already a center of energy. It’s attracting a wonderful blend of personalities and talent.” Boland, who is now WVSU Extension’s community and economic development specialist, says most of the people who are sharing resources and ideas didn’t know each other before they were invited to

collaborate there. “Now they’re cooking up projects in Haiti and Costa Rica, and thinking about launching satellites with local kids. Pretty crazy.”

“The maker lab is a phenomenal

idea,” says Jeff Imel, whose company Air Robotics builds and markets custom flying robots Imel designs. “It touches not only inventors and people who just want to make things, it’s going to be accessible to school kids and artisans who can come in off the street. The collaborative potential is phenomenal,” Imel says.

WRITTEN BY REBECCA KIMMONS

The Maker LabAn ordinary basement provides the foundation for a new creative movement.

IT ALL STARTED when business consultant Rob Godbey arranged for Dale Daugherty to come to the 2008 Create West Virginia Conference, held in its second year at Snowshoe Mountain Resort.

Daugherty, CEO of Maker Media which publishes Make magazine, and the guy who coined the phrase ‘Web 2.0’ as well as creating the first ad-supported website back in 1993, reminded conferees that we all are born “makers” at heart.

“Rob and I started talking about creating some sort of maker lab then,” says Sarah Halstead Boland, who along with Godbey and about a dozen others co-founded the Create West Virginia movement in 2007. They didn’t know exactly when a maker lab would happen; only that it would.

So the swirl of activity surrounding the basement space at 1506 Kanawha Boulevard West in Charleston this

summer is no surprise. It’s part of a grand plot hatched by Boland, Godbey, and others to create a culture where innovators of all ages can meet, have fun experimenting, and

infect others with the creative virus that spawns all kinds of ideas. You never know; some of those ideas might become businesses.

It’s not like that’s never happened. Two hippies named Steve—Jobs and Wozniak—used to hang out at the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto, California where they entertained their friends with the gadgets and crazy schemes they hatched. That was when Palo Alto was an ordinary middle class burb where Hewlett Packard engineers lived—not unlike South Charleston in the heyday of Union Carbide.

The basement on the Boulevard is already humming with activity. The upstairs portion of the building is West Virginia State University’s Economic Development Center, home of DigiSo—short for Digital and Social Media—the first fruit of a collaboration between Create West Virginia and WVSU Extension. The DigiSo initiative, with its troupe of anchors who are working

All of us are makers.I really believe that. We’re born makers.”DALE DAUGHERTY, FOUNDER/PUBLISHER OF MAKE MAGAZINE

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Technologies such as this 3D printer at the Robert C. Byrd Institute are revolutionizing the market for inventors.

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FOR THE AVERAGE PERSON, fly-fishing may be a hobby or sport, but for Richwood transplant Frank Second, it’s a way of life and an art form whose success depends on a meticulous cerebral process.

“You have to think, to concentrate on your environment, and figure out what’s going on to be able to catch those fish,” says Second, who’s a legend himself among West Virginia’s professional fishing guides.

Second says he has always been conscious of his environment, studying weather patterns and water temperatures. His powers of observation are so keen he has developed the ability to create lures that the wiliest of trout mistake for the real thing. He has developed about 250 patterns for flies that have been sent all around the world, from West Virginia to Idaho, Montana, California, the

Canadian provinces, Ireland, and Austria.

“It’s interesting, isn’t it, that by studying the fly and how to present it here in West

Virginia, I’m able to come up with flies that are just as successful in other places,” he says. His salmon flies have

been known to catch more fish in Idaho than flies made there.

These days, though, he doesn’t spend as much time tying flies as he does fishing. If you’re lucky, you might find him in one of his favorite fishing haunts on the North Fork of the Cherry or the Upper Cranberry.

Second, a Harrison County native, chose Richwood above all other places to settle. “The water is magic here,” he says. “I’ve fished around the world, and for me, the fly-fishing here—it’s almost indescribable. Last year, during the drought, most people would have looked at the water and would have sworn there were no fish, but when I used a fly, the water came alive. This area is a place where I can say, ‘I’m going to catch fish today.’”

Even if you’re not skilful enough to land a fish every day, Second extols the virtues of the fishing lifestyle to cure whatever ails you. “When you’re on the river, your mind relaxes. Whatever it is that is running you down, whatever is cluttering your mind, it goes away when you’re fly-fishing.”

The more Second fished the region, the more he came to appreciate the uniqueness of its ecological system. He bought a house in Richwood, and

devotes all his free time to fishing what he calls its mystic waters. “My field of expertise is fly-fishing, but the entire wilderness area here, it’s a gem.”

The casual passerby might find it hard to believe that Second has been astonished by the culture he has found in Richwood. “There’s a lot going on here,” he declares. “I’ve never been anywhere else where people have so much talent. It seems everybody plays a musical instrument. The people here love poetry, and storytelling. There are artists and writers here—but you have to know where to find them. There are several really great woodworkers and cabinet makers here, but maybe that’s not such a surprise, because they’re surrounded by these forests.”

Second believes that protecting and carefully developing and packaging the assets of the region’s amazing ecological system, focusing on its marvelous waters, is the key to a truly prosperous, indefinitely sustainable economy for Richwood.

“Everywhere you turn, there’s beauty here,” he says. “Sometimes the people who live here don’t see it. Maybe there’s just too much for them to take it all in. This Richwood area is a ten. A world-class ten.”

Second’s advice to anyone who would want to create a future for Richwood is to take a page from his own book. “Think, concentrate on the environment, and see what’s going on to be able to catch the fish. If they do that, Richwood will become what it could be—a world-class destination for outdoor enthusiasts, fly fishers among them.”

WRITTEN BY BLAINE MULLINS

Many members of the creative class want a hand in shaping their communities’ quality of place.”RICHARD FLORIDA, AUTHOR OF RISE OF THE CREATIVE CLASS, ESTABLISHED “PLACE” AS A MAGNET FOR INNOVATORS

Fishing forthe FutureCould Richwood’s future lie in the bounty of its streams?

The Cranberry River is a fly-fisherman's paradise.

Place

14 CREATE WV • YOUR STATE TO CREATE

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AT THE TIME OF THIS WRITING, the treasure that is the Appalachian String Band Festival is taking place at Camp Washington Carver in Clifftop, Fayette County. Each summer, over 3,000 old-time musicians, dancers, and aficionados from around the world gather to celebrate the communal traditions of homemade acoustic music.

Traditional music itself is a study in diversity. The innovative millenials who play their own brand of old-time string band music prove daily that its forms are ever evolving.

Where did those banjos originate? Africa.

Where did those fiddles come from? First, from makers in Persia, then other makers took them to Europe, and from there to our Appalachian mountains and beyond.

Much of what we now consider traditional mountain music is a “mashup” of the diverse music cultures brought together by Irish, Scottish, English, Italian, Eastern European and African laborers who built West Virginia’s farms, mines, railroads, oil and gas fields, factories, and steel mills.

Today, we use terms such as “diversity” and “innovation” to describe what happened in those days. Then, they probably just called it survival.

It is ironic that West Virginia is now considered by many—including ourselves—as the furthest thing from diverse and innovative. Today, after decades of decline in mining jobs, thousands of diverse workers left West Virginia and we are left with a state that is among the least diverse from a racial perspective. We are listed among the least innovative states as measured by patents and new business startups.

West Virginia was once a state of immigrants and entrepreneurs. Somehow, we have forgotten our innovative, diverse history. Our future prosperity requires that we regain it.

Why is diversity a key aspect of Create WV? Consider the fact, outlined in a WVU research study, that the existence

of a higher percentage of immigrants has a positive effect on entrepreneurial activity. According to the Kauffman Foundation, immigrants of all types, on average, start new businesses at a higher rate than “native born” Americans. In fact, about half of venture capital-backed firms in Silicon Valley are founded and/or managed by first generation immigrants.

As West Virginia’s largest institution of learning and research, West Virginia University understands the correlation. President James Clements is on record as saying “Our ability to spark innovation and the jobs and opportunities they produce has never been needed as much as it now.”

In fact, two goals stand out in WVU’s 2020 Strategic Plan (found at http://strategicplan.wvu.edu): 1) Excel in research, creative activity, and innovation in all disciplines, and 2) Foster diversity and an inclusive culture.

Towards those goals, WVU hired David Fryson as their recently appointed chief of the WVU Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. According to Mr. Fryson, “At WVU, we use a very broad brush definition of diversity. It’s the collection of similarities and differences wherever you find them. When diversity is mentioned, most people immediately go to race. But our real challenge is lack of diversity of thought.”

Diverse communities naturally generate diversity of thought, of course. Indeed, as WVU’s research and innovation strength has grown along with its commitment to diversity, so has north central West Virginia’s economic health.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, West Virginia gave the world beautiful innovations in unique mountain culture, born from our diversity. As we build a new era of diversity and innovation, what exciting “mashup” contributions will we generate for the world to enjoy and from which our people can derive profit and pride?

WRITTEN BY JEFF JAMES

The Seed of InnovationA history of diversity heralds a new era of innovation.

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The BanjoThe banjo is an icon of Appalachian diversity. Africans originally developed the instrument using hollowed-out gourds. Now, the banjo has come to be associated with Appalachia, and is a featured stringed instrument in several types of music, from old-time, to bluegrass, to the modern stylings of Bela Fleck. This cherry fretless banjo, handmade by Chip Arnold of north Georgia, is as much art object as instrument.

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