Can Technology Redefine Detroit?

I moved back to Ann Arbor from NYC about six months ago. I think I had to move to New York to see how truly awesome things are here. There is a lot top notch technical talent, the cost of living is low, and abundant cheap space makes it a startup's dream. The quality of life in Ann Arbor is very good, particularly if you want to start a family. To be honest a lot of the really talented people I met in NYC were midwest ex-pats looking for work.<p>Our start-up is banking on the notion that things are coming full circle for technology, and that we'll see a shift from consumer facing web-applications to physical hardware. Lately it seems that the New York Times agrees:<p><a href="http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/technology/silicon-valleys-hardware-renaissance.xml" rel="nofollow">http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/technology/silicon-vall...</a><p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/business/new-wave-of-adept-robots-is-changing-global-industry.html?pagewanted=all" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/business/new-wave-of-adept...</a>

I grew up in Detroit when it was at its peak, then I watched it crash and burn. Though I live outstate I've been in Detroit at least monthly for the past two years and am convinced that I am witnessing its rebirth.<p>Detroit is like a startup there is huge opportunity with a capital O along with huge risk. As a result Detroit has become a magnet for ambitious young people.<p>The city's despair has made it open to bold ideas where you'd never get a hearing anywhere else.<p>Want to start a farm? The city will sell you the land and even tear the buildings down for you.<p>Want to own a skyscraper? Detroit has over fifty for sale and according to the Wall Street Journal they're at the lowest prices anywhere in the world.<p><a href="http://www.dailywealth.com/952/The-Cheapest-Skyscrapers-In-The-World" rel="nofollow">http://www.dailywealth.com/952/The-Cheapest-Skyscrapers-In-T...</a>

I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately. I live in Ann Arbor (about an hour west of Detroit) and the area does seem primed for a revolution. I think it will take a handful of well-known people to say "this is the next spot" for everything to explode. Hopefully this conf is the start of that.

I think one or two big time tech company campuses would make a world of difference in downtown Detroit. Open a big dev shop, recruit underpaid people from local companies and best and brightest from Big 10 schools. Just please, don't feel obligated to focus on automotive customers just because you're in Detroit.

I've also thought quite a bit about this the past year. I moved to downtown Detroit after graduating from school, and I absolutely love it down here. Granted it isn't as bustling as the valley or SF, but we are slowly building a community of super talented individuals. Hopefully Techonomy can get a few more people out of the woodwork and interested in the community. I'm personally very interested in who is bootstrapping their business from the ground up. I have been doing so for about a year and it has been working out great.

What's the idea behind that "Submit a Story" uncollapsible floating tab on the left side of the page? Seems like you're obstructing a pretty important, content-dense part of the screen with something unimportant and obnoxious that doesn't even generate revenue. Please reconsider this design.<p>EDIT: It's come to my attention that this only appears to be an issue at 1024x768, which I'm currently using because I'm at work and my employer's computer hardware is ancient. This is probably not a problem for the typical user.

$500 for a ticket? As a student, I'd love to go, but that's a little much. Does anyone know of any student tickets, or company sponsoring tickets? I'll wear as much company swag as you want, and be there the whole day.