Episode 0018: Hacking the Ecosystem

Show Notes - Host: Dan Hugo - Summary: It takes more than headlines and likes to change an ecosystem What is Hacking? - Collaborative ideation, usually with a time limit - Open-ended or Blue Sky thinking drives creative outcomes - Sometimes called a Sprint, they are more and more common What is the Ecosystem? - An economic ecosystem is similar in many ways to a biological ecosystem - Four pillars (this is one opinion, not uncommon but not authoritative) - Education/Talent Pool - Government Participation - Existing and Emerging Communities (Entrepreneurs, Knowledge Workers, Creators, etc) - Access to Capital - It is difficult and expensive to change either kind of ecosystem Greater Vegas Entrepreneurial Ecosystem - Climax Community: Tourism + Hospitality + Gaming + Entertainment + Sports - Minor Flora and Fauna: Biotech, Software Unicorns, Manufacturing, Environmental… - Carrying Capacity: Limited by natural resources in both types of ecosystem, but costs to change are high! Let the Hacking Begin - Can we encourage symbiosis? Do we risk pricing out those enabling the Climax Community with smaller gentrifying factors? - Is the Greater Vegas culture capable of supporting an Innovation Economy at Scale? - Is there infrastructure to enable research and initial-scale production of outcomes of innovation? - Are we encouraging aspirational innovators to pursue their ideas regardless of identity, age, status… - Does Greater Vegas lean toward Elitism, or Egalitarianism? Solipsism, or Altruism? We should know that going in. - Luckily we need not tackle all of this in an all-nighter weekend hackathon, but we probably don´t have ten years, either…