OneRouge Community Check-In - Week 136

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Week #136

Join us this Friday for OneRouge Week #136 at 8:30 am via Zoom. We are talking about Baton Rouge and making it the place we all know she can be! Baton Rouge is the state capital of Louisiana; home to two land grant universities; and is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, research, motion picture,[8] and growing technology center of the American South (so says Wikipedia). It is also a place a lot of people leave. With all the talent flowing through the city, it could be the creative epicenter of the South. But in order to be that, we have to broaden our gaze and see the beauty in the diversity that is Baton Rouge. Is there a way we can change how we tolerate ideas that are weird or unusual? What is keeping us from moving past getting people here to keeping people here? Well, that is exactly the conversation we intend to have on 12/16. Our featured speakers are:

1. Kenny Nguyen - CEO/co-founder of ThreeSixtyEight

2. Adrian Owen Jones - Chief Growth Officer ThreeSixtyEight

3. Hillary Melara - Dancer and hometown girl

Quick Links: Notes, Community Announcements

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Notes

Leading us off, Kenny Nguyen spoke about learning about what made Baton Rouge special. He used to think of the ties to the family as an excuse for not leaving Baton Rouge but came to understand that it was the key to what made our city stand out. Our next challenge as a city is to retain the workforce that maintains a thriving city.

With ThreeSixtyEight’s upcoming Assembly Required conference, Kenny and other speakers are looking to examine and explore how to retain the creatives in Baton Rouge and provide them with a prosperous wage. Kenny contends that the only way to develop our city is to get unstuck from the traditional-formatted ideas of the past and elevate creatives in every sector, to bring new ideas and resolutions to longstanding issues.

ThreeSixtyEight’s Chief Growth Officer, Adrian Owen Jones also joined the conversation to emphasize what it has been like to learn about the city of Baton Rouge, where a positive mindset is the most critical missing piece. Adrian offers us to no longer think of Baton Rouge as a failing city to joke about, but to encourage ourselves to see the ample opportunities that lie untouched. Ideas that were once considered unfeasible can be returned to and reinvigorated, such as a River Walk concept that sister cities like Monroe have been able to pull off with great success.

Rounding off the conversation introduction, was Hillary Melara, a dance instructor, but an all-around creative entrepreneur in Baton Rouge. Hillary spoke on the magnificence that Baton Rouge retains, all needing extra light being shed on it. Hillary mentions that it’s important for us to understand and shift our own personal stereotypes and stigmas, to understand the ways that everyone in the city can elevate us as a whole.

Importantly, the conversation guided into how can this be addressed. What is the bigger picture intended to look like? Kenny is not coy to answer that he sees this as a city that is on par with Los Angeles or other artists or creative attractive cities. With this education becomes critical, understanding that even literacy is a place to improve in Baton Rouge and Louisiana. Adrian amplifies that her view is closely aligned with Kenny’s but to also imagines the inclusionary importance of LGBTQ+ and differently-abled individuals. With this in mind, concepts that would never be raised begin to see light, and an overall city for not just the people who are already here but want to be here emerges. Hillary felt that the OneRouge space allowed for her to learn a lot just as a citizen of Baton Rouge. She beams in the concept of finding places like this to continue to grow, critical for the emergence of a city that residents don’t want to migrate from. .

Community Announcements

Take care of yourselves and each other! See you in the New Year.