It happened. Today. And it was me.
The City Council, the Austin Chamber, a commercial real estate company and some local business owners came together today and provided lunch for Austin Chamber Members at a new commercial development off 2222 and Jester. In what was part commercial real estate advertisement, part city council anti-endorsement of Proposition 2, and part panel of local Austin business leaders, business professionals gathered to eat $20 a plate catered food and listen for an hour.
Really, it was an advertising gimic with not too much commentary from the draw of the event, the business owners. The first 30 minutes were networking with well placed commercial real estate property advertisements; and Brewster McCracken (City Council Member and Mayor Pro Tem), before introducing the panel went on an odd tirade about Proposition 2 and gave a completely one-sided perspective on the issue saying that by voting for the Proposition I’d be voting for a lying, backstabbing city government. After doing more research, I will be voting against the Proposition, but come on Brewsky! be a little more objective. There are actually some legitimate and good points the proponents have.
The event was mostly advertisement after advertisement and it was annoying. Why do these events have to be that way? Don’t we pay them enough in dues? Maybe no one has pointed out to them that commercializing network events to that extent might not the best thing — maybe I should get more involved and point it out. There are plenty of ways to leverage business that don’t turn your event into a walking commercial and political agenda setting.
Brewster McCracken lead the panel of business owners: Brett Hurt, founder of BazaarVoice – best speaker there; Bobby Jenkins, the ABC Services guy – 1 of 3 brothers who runs the company, some Sweet Leaf Tea guy – who stood in for one of the founders who got sick or something, and Sharon Watkins, the founder of Chez Zee – who said she was thankful everyday that she didn’t kill anyone with her food)
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I will be looking for Brett Hurt again to be speaking, hopefully with fewer commercial interruptions.
As fairly new to this issue, i am not exactly sure why i would want to have the city helping to finance condoplexs??? Please enlighten me…
It has less to do with the merits of the subsidies and more to do with trust. The City makes tax deals all the time with companies in order to bring new jobs and business into town. Companies will only move here if they believe the City will follow through with their promises to help them out. Here is a quote from an article:
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Former Mayor Pro-Tem Betty Dunkerley is working to defeat the proposition and believes if Proposition 2 passes, it could damage the city’s reputation.
“I am very much against Proposition 2,” she said. “The policy has been changed. This proposition will not affect anything the city is currently doing. The real purpose is to get out the message that Austin keeps its word, and we are a good place for people to do business in, and they can trust us.”
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By electing the likes of McCracken, we’ve already voted “for a lying, backstabbing city government”. Why should we be too concerned now?
Glad you liked hearing from Brett Hurt – he is really a straightforward, honest guy (and I see him most every day!). You can read a lot more from him and Bazaarvoice at bazaarblog. Sorry if this sounds like a commercial.