Social media as a tool for economic growth
Mayor Tom Menino (right) with Galen Moore from Mass High Tech
The Mullen Cafe′ was alive with activity this week as Boston Mayor Tom Menino, the Boston World Partnerships (BWP) Connectors, Boston area press and numerous other “influencers” gathered to hear BWP announce new funding partnerships and results from its first 18-months of activity. BWP is an innovative economic development initiative using the power of social media to connect Boston-area business leaders with their counterparts across the globe. It is run by former Boston Redevelopment Authority executives and is chaired by the Mayor himself. BWP has helped companies like State Street navigate into the Brazilian financial services market and RueLaLa.com maintain their presence in the Boston market.
At this week’s event, BWP announced nearly $200,000 in new private-sector funding to sustain the organization. Mullen has become a BWP partner, investing in two “Connectors,” people from across industries who are media savvy, well connected in business and serve as advocates for Boston companies. Our President/CEO Joe Grimaldi spoke at the BWP event and said, “Extraordinary talent, innovation and creativity are the global resources fueling economic vitality and growth. BWP helps infuse the best of all of these into Boston, which brings a direct benefit to our company and the creative economy in which we operate.”
BWP Exec. Director Dave McLaughlin (left) dancing with joy
We first met BWP executive director Dave McLaughlin a year ago when Mullen was building-out our new space in downtown Boston as part of a major transition in the identity of the agency. We were intrigued by the concept of social media as economic development engine and are happy a year later to be formal partners with these guys and able to say that both of our “experiments” are paying off. The biggest applause line of the event was when Joe announced that Mullen has hired 100 people since the beginning of the year, a result of the new energy that has developed since we got more “connected” to the creative talent in this city.
