Organizing people to form a cohesive community can be a sticky wicket. What ought to be a natural human need, to surround one’s self with like-minded, similarly concerned individuals with whom to share ideas and resources, can often seem utterly unnatural.
This unnatural act of finding one’s “peeps” can seem even more daunting in a city like Las Vegas. We’re all familiar with the time-worn reputation of our town as a place lacking in community, where people don’t know their neighbors, aren’t engaged in civic discourse, and are only here to make a quick buck and head back from whence they came. We’re a transient town. Blah blah blah.
Cast your lot with the naysayers if you will, but be advised that doing so will only create a self-affirming feedback loop. In other words, you may feel assured in your thinking, but it won’t get you anywhere.
There’s much more to Las Vegas than suburban sprawl and communal disconnect. One, perhaps unlikely, group is proving the naysayers wrong and achieving stunning results in an incredibly short period of time.
The scene, the community, the call-it-what-you-will, known as Vegas Tech is barely six months old. It has grown exponentially in both size and passion since last June’s first-ever StartUp Weekend Las Vegas and a meeting of just nine technologists on a Thursday night at The Beat Coffeehouse. Now Vegas Tech boasts a robust, highly collaborative identity that it manifests itself weekly at Jelly—a coworking and networking session that fills The Beat to capacity as well as the tech library, /usr/lib, upstairs. Jellies also include break-out sessions with community members sharing ideas, tools, skills, and knowledge with their cohorts.
How does a group accelerate from such humble beginnings to a flourishing, passionate, engaged community? Here some ideas about how to do just that, and they have absolutely nothing to do with technology. In fact, these are just good ideas for growing community in general.
1. Find Your People
Those among us who sit at home bemoaning Las Vegas’ lack of a sense of community are unlikely to discover that there is one. You simply can’t expect that “community” will one day come along, knock on your front door, and invite you to join in. “Get out of your house. That’s the number one problem with the city is people just stay indoors and watch TV. Before StartUp Weekend, we thought we were one of the few companies here doing anything tech-related,” says local technologist Nick Shook.
Being a part of something bigger than your self takes effort; it’s not easy. Perhaps that’s truer here in Las Vegas, but that doesn’t diminish the value that participation brings to your life. And the hardest part is overcoming inertia. Find a Meetup group online that shares your interests. Ignore your mother’s advice, talk to strangers. Reach out to find people who are engaged in the same kinds of activities that excite you. More than likely, you’ll find them.
And if you’re into tech, by all means, go to the Jelly.
2. JFDI
Obviously, this concept isn’t just specifically related to building community, but it is utterly relevant. And if you don’t know what it means, then by all means go here.
The point of JFDI is that it brings an almost entrepreneurial spirit to community-building. John Hawkins of 9seeds and Twisted Widget gives an example: “If you have an idea, it’s about not waiting around for somebody else to make it happen. Like what Pawel [Szymczykowski] did here at /usr/lib. There was an idea to make a tech library. And he just picked up the ball and ran with it.” Other examples within the Vegas Tech community include StartUp Weekend organizer Shavonnah Tiera and Jelly organizer Dylan Bathurst.
You can put the concept into practice in your own community interactions. If you see an opportunity to become involved, to start an organization, or to simply join in with what’s going on around you, then by all means JFDI.
3. Teach Your Community
One of the most compelling aspects of Vegas Tech is the unwavering commitment to collaboration amongst its members. Startups work together in a multitude of spaces (primarily Downtown); they share ideas; they share resources. There isn’t a sense that people are working to protect their own intellectual property. Instead, the sharing of ideas is valued as a way to raise the prospects of all involved. Break out sessions are held regularly at the Jelly where attorneys, entrepreneurs, business people, investors, mentors, and more share tools and ideas that will benefit the entire group.
To put it quite simply, don’t be stingy with your ideas and others will do the same.
4. Coalesce (aka Don’t Try to Build a Fiefdom)
We’re all familiar with the scenario where a major public issue is being tackled by numerous organizations, but none of them can seem to get any traction as they try to solve problems. No finger-pointing here, but it’s rampant, and we all know it.
Vegas Tech has thus far been able to coalesce the missions of a number of entities including MoMo Las Vegas, Launch Up, StartUp Weekend, Ignite Vegas, and others, all of which are working to improve the visibility and viability of the start ups in Las Vegas.
Bathurst recounts that as the Jelly grew, people began coming there to pitch ideas. “It wasn’t what we really expected to do at the Jelly. So people saw a need to create other events like StartUp Weekend and Ignite,” he says. But those groups were encouraged by their fellow community members rather than impeded. They were supported in their efforts. “We were all like, ‘yeah, go do it and let us know what we can do to help,” says Bathurst.
Allowing yourself to become consumed with achieving only your own personal goals is counterproductive to improving the life of a community. There will be other people with other ideas. They may not be the same as your ideas, but finding a way to work together and coalesce is key to fostering the lasting, meaningful, productive connections that form the foundation of successful community. Once the walls are built around individual fiefdoms within a community, trouble follows. You can count on that.
Final Thought
To be sure, most of us don’t think of our interactions with others as acts of building community. But they are. And when those interactions are done with the purpose of creating a better place for us all to live, a better place to raise our kids, or a better place to start a business, we all benefit.
“You don’t go into it with the purpose of building community. You think, ‘I want to hang out with other people like me.’ If you’re in a spot with a whole mass of people, who feel the same way, then community will grow out of it,” says Bathurst.
Keep up with all things Vegas Tech on Twitter. Look for #VegasTech.
