Champion for Greater ROC
Last fall we embarked on the most important and meaningful work in our time as Meshin Movement—leading the strategic development of our 9-county region’s place brand.
It was a life-changing experience that gave us the opportunity to connect and speak with hundreds of people from across our 9-county community. Hundreds of hours meeting our region through the experiences, stories and opinions of people from all backgrounds, races, geographies and socio-economic perspectives. A journey to meeting our region in a way we never knew was possible.
The Greater Rochester Region was suffering from an identity crisis. For years, disparate groups reflected their Rochester to the world, but without working in synergy, our story as a region has been diluted, misunderstood—and even perceived nationally as negative.
A unified identity that encompasses all this region has to offer is an economic draw. Rochester needed to align around one story to the world to help our region become the economic powerhouse we know it can be. A rising tide raises all ships sort of equation. And so, our task was to unearth the answer to the question, “What do we stand for?”
To say it was an incredibly humbling discovery process would be an understatement. What we heard across countless conversations was that our region did not have one common identity across the many different people of our region. Conversations fueled with palpable passion in each individual wanting to see the story of “their Rochester” [finally] being told and understood, not just to the world, but here at home. We experienced the waves of peoples’ frustrations over not feeling welcome to represent their Rochester.
We were weighted with the task of finding the common thread—the one identity of place—to represent an incredibly diverse mix of people, geographies and interests. Meshin Movement’s purpose is to surface connections that move people in unified spirit. And yet we found ourselves in the most difficult strategic challenge we’d ever faced. The question we had to ask ourselves was, “How do we do justice to representing the fierce passion that exists within each of these individual perspectives of what our greater Rochester identity needs to and can be?”
Countless hours debating our discoveries and what to do with it amongst the supporting economic development committee and agency partners, Dixon Schwabl and Optic Sky, certainly challenged Meshin’s purpose to create unified spirit. Not only that, but we knew that alignment in the room with stakeholders would not be enough to make for a new regional brand identity.
The identity of a place lives within the people. It is in their experiences, stories, visual and behavioral cues. It’s in the facts we live and in the resulting feelings we hold on to. We could only go so far as a stakeholder group. We needed alignment with the people of the region too. Again we were brought back to the question, “How do we align around who we are as a region if everyone holds a unique connection to Rochester, different from the rest of the region?”
The answer came through from the challenge itself: This region holds the most unique collection of people. Every one of them ready to see a change in our regional story. Every one of them deserving of the opportunity to take part in shaping our future and demanding recognition for their role within our community. We are certainly many strong. We are united by a common thread—the unique contributions of each and every individual strengthens our region. And rather than be divided by the fact that everyone of us holds a different Rochester in our hearts, let us celebrate it. Celebrate ALL that this region is—one collective force of many individual energies.
Our identity as a place is a collection of all that we are. And so, we launched Greater ROC not as the “thing” we will be known for, but rather the lens through which every individual can tell the story of their Rochester. We are only at the beginning of this place brand starting to take form. Our work is far from over, because right now, it’s just the lens. But with every positive story told, with every new voice brought to the table, with every new individual representing their individual pride, it becomes stronger.
We don’t consider ourselves, Laura and Mike, champions of Greater ROC because of our role in the strategic process. We consider ourselves champions of Greater ROC because we will continue to do all we can to help this place “brand” be a true lens for any individual to celebrate their Rochester and where we are going as one region, many strong.
