I had the most amazing time at BIG Omaha this past week. I remember the first time I heard about it, when I loaded up the site from some random tweet related to SXSW. The site read:
We’re bringing
forward-thinking,
creatives,
entrepreneurs,
and innovators
to Omaha.
Something about that just clicked. I had gotten bored of SXSW after going for two years, which left a void in me from getting my web-conference fix. I promptly booked my tickets and was psyched!
Although I immediately had extremely high hopes about BIGOmaha, I expected very little from Omaha itself. “Why’re you going to Nebraska?!” asked family and friends when I told them about my plans.
To my utter surprise, while BIGOmaha itself far exceeded my already high expectations, something magical happened: I fell in love with Omaha itself…and here’s why.
I did not take these pictures, which is why I am linking to the original photographer’s flickr page, feel free to compliment them for wonderfully capturing Omaha’s beauty
The thing that I loved the most about Omaha was it’s pure authencitity. Not just the place itself, but the people, the things, and even the concepts.
Maybe it was all the brick buildings, sure, they were old, but they showed their age with class, with character, almost like a broken in leather jacket instead of the crumpled faux leather most other small cities exhibit ….so authentic.
The restaurants weren’t your standard Chinese place, Italian place and Steak house, it was a plethora of restaurants, with distinct styles, outdoor seating, people buzzing, even some random kid playing the violin on the street corner.
And as for the concepts adding to it’s authenticity, take for example this two-screen theater only playing classics and indy films, started by a young entrepreneur that has never done anything like this before.
Or even these converted warehouse come lofts, all part of a revitalization project running over the past decade through Omaha’s downtown.
Sure BIGOmaha was great, but I think an even greater success was for Dusty and JS to show all of us a place where creatives and entrepreneurs are gathering and making things happen. BIGOmaha wasn’t just a conference to me, it was a wakeup call that you don’t necessarily have to be in San Francisco to drink tea, tweet and create the next web innovation that impacts the world. Omaha has a community of like-minded thinkers waiting to welcome you.
