Aside from the usual sound bites about my career, relationships, and shenanigans (varies by audience) I grab nearly every chance to plug how great it is to live in Rochester.  The city couldn’t have a better unofficial ambassador.

Gladly, I’m not the sole cheerleader for the area. In fact, there alot of postive and proud people who are doing much to promote and improve the Rochester region. This is exemplified by Eyes on the Future, an annual summit designed to encourage economic development, civic engagement, community volunteerism and entrepreneurship.

Taking place at St. John Fisher College this October 10, 2008 from 8:00AM to 11:00AM,  the theme of this event will be “Why Rochester?” The panel will speak about recent successes, assets possessed by the region and ways the community can share in bringing economic development to the region. If all this talk spurs twice as much action from everyone in attendance, I expect there to be a bright future for the Rochester region.

Of the over 1000 people who will attend this event, will you be one of them? More importantly, what actions do you think need to be taken to restore the economic vitality of Rochester?

Photo credit Yoshi

I think the hang up for most people is they focus soley on the aspect of new. In questing for the unique they completely break from the past. When all along they should have asked, what two existing things might people have twin passions for, and would these loves be noteworthy when combined?

Sved figured it out, and he didn’t have to build a new instrument to do it. All he did is combine his passion for classical music and hip hop. Here Sved is playing hip hop violin during Rochester’s Park Avenue festival. RSS viewers can watch it here. The video is a bit grainy, I’ll be sure to get a camera phone with improved recording quality once the contract is up.