As I sit in our local Panera Bread, belly full of warm soup, after a day of traveling, meetings and recording an episode of Wine Library TV with my friend Gary – I’m reminded of this post about Panera and how it fills a void in our area.
As I read the post I began to think about how far northeastern Pennsylvania has come in the 5 years since I wrote it. I also realize realized how poor my writing was then, but that is the topic for another post for another time.
The truth is we’re not much better off than we were before. I’m sure the use of technology by businesses in our area has increased – as it probably has just about everywhere else – but there has yet to be any real impact in our area by any new companies leverage technology.
Consumer use of electronics is way up but for the same reasons people were using them 5 years ago – making phone calls and playing games. In 2005, pre-iPhone, I said "making phone calls" because they didn’t do much else. Now with Twitter, Facebook, Gowalla, etc. I suppose I should change that to "communications, networking and playing games".
I’m not sure what I am hoping for. Perhaps it is for a few companies that are truly innovative to succeed in our area. Perhaps it is for people to use technology to make their lives or business easier – not more complicated.
Maybe rather than waiting for it to happen I need to be an example. And perhaps I already am. I just have to share it. And I think I will.