I’m not sure if the end of summer and the turn of another season inspires the travel bug, but my social media feeds have been filled with friends’ wanderlust inspirational quotes like ‘You’ll never know until you go” or “don’t listen to what they say, go see.”
There’s some truth to those sayings. Traveling opens your eyes and broadens your perspective. Sometimes it makes you appreciate what you have or where you’re from and other times it motivates you to change something about your surroundings or make a positive impact.
That’s why each year the Sacramento Metro Chamber coordinates a Study Mission to another city to explore what they are doing right and even what they may be doing wrong. For nearly 20 years, a group of regional business and civic leaders have hopped on planes, trains and buses together to observe San Antonio’s Riverwalk, New Orleans response to Katrina and the Twin Cities regional collaboration efforts supporting economic development.
This month, over 130 from the Capital Region will travel from the Farm-to-Fork Capital to the Live Music Capital of the World: Austin, Texas. Accolades range from the fastest-growing city, the best city to launch a startup, and the #1 city for creative job growth. Austin is both laid-back and bustling, urban and rural and you’ll see both skyscrapers and stand up paddle-boards along the Colorado River. Austin has struck the perfect balance of knowing how to get it done and how to kick back and we are going to take close look at their successes.
I attended my first Study Mission in 2010 to Seattle and returned home with a new group of friends and colleagues dedicated to improving our quality of life. Over the years, Study Missions have inspired some to open entrepreneurial spaces, foster public art and explore ways to brand our capital city.
I encourage you to track our updates from the road via #StudyMission17 and we look forward to sharing our Austin experience in the months ahead.
Source: Comstock’s