Richmond, “Untied,” yet United. I waited a while to digest the Richmond Unite conference on September 9 before I wrote, simply because I could not believe that, in my long yet brief lifetime on this planet in this microcosm of Richmond, I would ever see this happen. I still find it hard to fathom. Richmond is moving ahead. Screw the trolley system–which, yes, would’ve put Richmond ahead of its current spot on the list of best cities in the world. What was happening now was electric, cataclysmic. Orgasmic. Breathtaking.
Richmond Unite (an organization founded by Carroll Hurst and Pat Hull) is an organization founded to foster economic and artistic growth among the city. This, even, was an anomaly to me. Artistic growth? Economic growth? Was Richmond not the vapid black hole that seemed to suck in all life force, as it had only been several years ago? To have artists and visionaries emerge on the other side of the hole a tattered, rotten farce of a mess–leaving us only with the burgeoning VCU as the Epitome of the Artistic community?
It seems things had changed. And yet, so had I. I’ve been all over the US at this point, from the swamps of Florida to the heights of the OC; yet Richmond still remained a problem for me. “How,” I thought, “could I get Richmond up to the times, economically, artistically, and socially, compared to what I was used to?” This was an ongoing conundrum. Yet I had to wonder no longer.
“Swagger can change the world.” Thus the speeches began. The DSRPT#11 conference brought together world-class speakers who discussed the importance of positive disruption and innovation. Some of the best and the brightest were there: Jeff and Joey Anderson from the local Bio Taxi, Jeff Karp from Tumblr, Anne Goddard from Child Fund International, and Harry Singer from Impress your World were only a few notables, besides the Honrable Sir Richard Branson himself.
Impressed was not the appropriate word, as I sat in the back of the conference room and hunkered down behind my netbook, ready for some inspiration, some motivation, some muse, to spark something–something to spur me to ACT: to believe that Richmond had indeed changed, and was ready for it.
I got more than I bargained for. “Miss, are you driving a BMW?” the waiter headed over and whispered to me. I looked at him, puzzled. “No, but I wish I was.” He smiled.
“Miss, I just wanted to say….” stated the well dressed socialite beside me, “that I really admire your work [really?], your look, your style, your hair, makeup, everything: it really suits you.” “Um, OK,” was all I could stammer out to her, as I remained fixated on the stage waiting for a glimpse of something….
Various lauds, askance stares, and outright compliments on me or my outfit, demeanor, etc and minutes later my head was spinning. Me, a nobody, was suddenly SOMEBODY. Somebody with a passion, and idea: a CAUSE. Around these stuffy suits I must seem like a free soul and wild spirit. A refreshing change to their normal status quo daily lives…
“Do what you can with what you have” was the theme for the night. I thought it fit me. I was simply doing what I could with what I had: a pen, a pad, a netbook and an idea. With these, I would change the world. I COULD change the world.
Wren Lanier put it best in her speech: “Be an asshole. Piss people off. Don’t play by the rules, it’s boring. People LIKE strong voices. Playing ‘by the rules’ won’t get you noticed and will not get you anywhere.” “Be provocative; take chances, because you can’t please everyone.” Indeed, I’ve realized that some people simply are unpleasable, seeking to have their own narcissism stroked like a stray kitten. This was not me. Yet I felt, this was the time. This was the NOW I was looking for.
And the knight bore no shiny armor, nor did he arrive on a white horse. The Knight charged in wielding a light saber as he flashed into the room amongst a crowd standing in ovation. The Knight: Sir Richard Branson.
“To make a difference–our voice, our sense of adventure, the amazing things we’ve seen, the places we can go. This is our story.” “We love the limelight. We’re about people. We champion our customers. We are building a legacy.” The slides played against a giant black screen on the stage as I could feel with my sixth sense the burn of anticipation in the air “For your future” “Lets do business like there’s a tomorrow. ” WE ARE VIRGIN.
Everyone has a dream, I learned that night. Does that dream hinge on success through your own efforts, or on the networks you build on the precipice of the imagined reality of a fabricated world, dependent on the dollar bill? Where neither the ether of dreams, nor the quality that we place upon them, matters? When does it become who you know versus how you grow? It all comes down to contacts–who you can get to and when and how–just waiting for that ripe opportunity to be heard, to be noticed, and maybe, just maybe, actually listened to.
As Branson discussed his plans to send a spaceship into outer space (as that was his next stage for Virgin, and the theme for the night), I pondered the reality of this. Has Richmond finally come full circle or are we running in circles? “It’s all fantasy, isn’t it?” Marilyn Monroe stated. Then it becomes a matter of perception- or misconception, or misinterpretation. Can we not be whom and what we want or whoever we imagine? Do we have to be constrained to the limits of someone else’s ideas, mind, or fantasy? I think not.
A rocket ride into space is what we want. To be jaunted ahead, to propel. To excel. We desired minds in flight. The joys of gravity: to have the life-changing, life altering moment to feel yourself floating in the earth vs time continuum. This is not Star Wars, nor Star Trek, nor Stargate. It is quite another odyssey. “We are four years ahead of anyone else that is trying to do the same thing,” Branson stated. I dared to ask myself, at this juncture in the speech: if it is something that Branson hopes we all will be able to achieve, will we “normal people” be able to afford it?
Her name is Eve. The Mothership. They cannot, as they had originally hoped, use her to clean up the earth’s debris that is revolving as a heavy layer of trash around the planet, because it is too high for the spaceship to reach. The ship would extinguish itself into a colorful ball of “Virgin” flame.
Why Richmond? Marketing entrepreneur Yanik Silver raised money for the space voyage, and thought, “Why can’t WE do the same thing?” Gather people together and enjoy the whole experience? He wanted to bring something to Richmond that Richmond could be proud of. The aim is space: the final frontier.
Unfortunately Richmond needs WORK (in more ways than one). As it is, Richmond is NOT sustainable. We are taking jobs from people and not opening space; SPACE for new ideas and new jobs. Richmond is stagnant and at a standstill. What Richmond Unite seek to do is to build a series of sustainable networks upon the resource of PEOPLE–the inexhaustible resource of ideas, and the foundation and might of Virgin itself–to knit together a more sustainable and livable future for us all.
The conference never actually ended. With tons of business cards in my purse and the tingle of expectation of the future in my mind, I left the building that day with more than just dreams of outer space and visions of the tobacco plantations of long past, but with a hope. A HOPE that Richmond had finally “got it.” And I think, perhaps, we have.
Words by Sun Karma
Images by Jon Headlee
