This is it.  Tomorrow morning, at 7am, our group departs to Colorado for the start of our Spring Break Trip! We have come a long way to get here. From Kalamazoo to Detroit to Chicago to Grand Rapids. After being in contact with the start up communities in these cities, we are ready to plunge into our next adventure in Boulder, CO and from there to Austin, TX, excited about what we could possibly find and learn.

Last week we had our meeting to discuss the readings and the preparations for the trip. We talked about what we had learned so far in the class and some of the plans that we had set for the trip. Everyone shared their views on what our experiences and what they learned from the books. It was a vivacious discussion, and we got to see every person’s video that explained some major points about the book they read.

There’s much excitement about what we may find in Boulder and Austin. From what we have learned, Boulder is a great example of a thriving startup community, with a big variety of technology startups and the home of Techstars, the biggest accelerator in the world according to their webpage. The Boulder thesis in the book “Startup Communities” by Brad Feld was discussed by the class. In Austin, we are excited to witness the beginning of South by Southwest (SXSW), one of the biggest music events in the country. The fact that we’ll get to see Austin in this transition caused by SXSW makes the trip more thrilling.

So, we have our WMU t-shirts, we have everything packed (hopefully), mind loaded with questions, ready to meet new people, and make this great journey.

Austin’s slogan adopted by the Austin Independent Business Alliance.