I can’t speak specifically to Boston but I’m sure if you spend some time there it wouldn’t take long to find some bitterness to the stars you listed above and in any city I’m sure there is someone who feels the same frustration as you with their local SMEs.

Creating a community takes time and a lot of hard work. Luckily there are people here who are interested and willing to help. Wordcamp is in the works. The social media club is kicking and hosting many great events. And the overall tech scene is coming together nicely through events like Startup Weekend, Startup Drinks and Tech Brews.

Through this I’m sure the scene will continue to evolve and maybe one day someone will stand out as a thought leader in the areas you care about but let it be known it will be driven by that persons own hardwork and dedication.

Lastly, right now is not the time to say there is too much. Right now all I see is growing interest and opportunity…

Troy, thanks for the putting your thoughts out there and hopefully others will take this post as a call to action.

2. “If Des Moines is to truly move forward and be a leader in web, DM and technology, then there needs to be a unified effort to bring the city up. And I dont SEE a leader being formed. Just a lot of owners of SM and web companies doing their own thing.”

If you came to any of these events you would realize the vast amount of collaboration going on in order to COLLECTIVELY bootstrap our city.

3. As I mentioned in my tweets – leadership is organic and not self-proclaimed. It is earned and granted by your community. If I stood up tomorrow and said “I’m leading you” that wouldn’t work. It’s not a football team.

4. “Startup weekend shouldnt be one weekend a year. Highlight midwest shouldnt be one weekend a year. We should have that same spirit driving us each day. We should have podcamps, barcamps, whatever scheduled throughout the year. We should have “build an app day” .. etc.”

SO ORGANIZE ONE! The beauty of these events is they are organic and decentralized. If you want more Barcamps, by all means take charge!

Unlike what others are saying, Im not PICKING on social media experts or companies in this post… really. Im asking a) can Des Moines support… REALLY SUPPORT this many SM companies, and the main question:

If DM is such a hotbed for SM and web now, why isn’t anybody bubbling up as a leader to bring the community together? Now, Andy responded by saying that he feels the community is collaborative and friendly. Thats great. But we are all concentrated on our own thing.

If Des Moines is to truly move forward and be a leader in web, DM and technology, then there needs to be a unified effort to bring the city up. And I dont SEE a leader being formed. Just a lot of owners of SM and web companies doing their own thing.

For Des Moines to fully realize its potential, it is my belief we need a leader to do so who can pull in the companies into a truly collaborative effort, foster web entrepreneurs, and kick some major butt.

Startup weekend shouldnt be one weekend a year. Highlight midwest shouldnt be one weekend a year. We should have that same spirit driving us each day. We should have podcamps, barcamps, whatever scheduled throughout the year. We should have “build an app day” .. etc.

If people want to believe I am anti-Des Moines, then that’s their prerogative. Im not saying my ideas are the only ones, or the right ones, but they are my observations.

First off, I applaud you for taking the effort to highlight how a town like Des Moines has somehow been the social media boom-town over the last year or so.

As someone who doesn’t take part in strategy but more so on the technology & innovation side, to begin the conversation wisely there needs to be some lead in on what a “expert” is. I believe that there are no “experts” in this space. Simply individuals or organizations that introduce specific technologies available for what a social media response or strategy should be. This is no different than your modern day “PR” firm with a twist.

On a different note; there is truly a problem with firms that continue to press the issue of “tweeting” or blogging for their clients. OneSocial was quoted in that article about how they do some of that for their clients, and I think that strategy will ultimately go away. The companies located here in Des Moines specifically, have realized that it is more beneficial to have a team under their roof and on their payroll who will fulfill these duties. In turn, they don’t need the likes of Catchfire and OneSocial. Larger companies, like a Sears for example, have ramped up their hiring to do social media themselves. More recently a division we work with hired 2 new social media project coordinators; they don’t need a firm to help them like they did maybe a year ago when Twitter was a buzz word.

I will respectfully disagree with your comment about Tweetup’s as a way “to get wasted”. I think that might be a little over the top, of an otherwise interesting blog post.

Cheers,
James Eliason