Jim Storer

Trying to capture essence of the Innovator’s Road Trip in a blog post will be tough, but I’m up for the challenge. We met so many great people and toured truly great companies, I may miss someone or something in this recap, which says more about my ability to recall than it does about their hospitality.

First of all, a word about the iRoadTrip crew…

• Colin Browning was the “brains” behind the operation, the guy who decided this trip was a good idea and pushed it from idea to reality. He also put up with the shenanigans of the rest of us when we decided to ditch him in Cincinnati.
• Jeff Cutler came on board at my request a mere three days before we were due to depart. An able interviewer and veritable content machine, Jeff earned his keep despite the fact that he had a hard time keeping the wifi network up when we passed large 18-wheelers.
• John Johansen also joined the team late in the game when I reasoned that he already lived in Austin, so he only had to purchase a one-way plane ticket to Detroit to join the trip. John quickly became the go-to driver on the iRoadTrip, which was especially helpful when we needed someone to take the wheel after a tweet-up or BBQ dinner w/ beer (he doesn’t drink).

Suffice it to say we came together as a team and never really had any issues come up that we couldn’t work through. In fact, we’re actually contemplating iRoadTrip2, which is saying something.

The people we met along the way…

• The folks that came out for the Detroit tweet-up were great. Even after we mentioned our plan to drive to Cleveland that night, they smiled and said “that won’t take you too long.” Maggie Fox bought a bunch of thai food that night… enough that we were able to take a bag of leftover shrimp crisps with us in the car to Cleveland. They proved to have one of the more powerful odors we experienced on the trip (but not THE most powerful – more later).
• Gargi Patel from Rosetta was a gracious host in Cleveland at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, despite heavy rain and cold temperatures. She treated us to lunch and gave us an interesting selection of CDs to listen to in the car.
• Shawn Morton talked with us about his work at Nationwide Insurance in Columbus on the outside patio at Gordon Biersch (we really had to twist his arm). Despite being just two hours from Cleveland, Columbus rolled out the red carpet with sun and temps in the 70′s.
• All the folks at the Cincinnati tweet up. While they didn’t announce our arrival at Bootsy’s, we quickly found Daniel Lally and Dave Knox and felt right at home. Later in the evening we had tapas with Josh Resnick and Mandy Jenkins (thanks Josh) in a crazy private room at Bootsy’s.
• The team at the Cincinnati Enquirer, Gannett and Mom’s Like Me. From Editor Tom Cullinan to Online Director Brian Butts, we were given full access and told no conversation is off the record. Josh Resnick and Karen Gutierrez talked with us about Mom’s Like Me so long that Josh had to switch his flight home and Karen skipped a meeting. Great conversation! I think you’d be hard pressed to find a newspaper that’s embracing social media more than these folks.
• Dueling tweet-ups in Lexington & Louisville, KY…. we had two tweet-ups on our way through Kentucky. The first was affectionately called “Jeff’s Tweet Up” since it was organized by good friend Alison Kerr. We enjoyed BBQ and good conversation at Corky’s and ran into fried pickles for the first time on the trip. Later that night we arrived at Molly Malone’s in Louisville for a tweet up organized by Todd Earwood. Here we met Isaac Smitley who suggested he could show us inside the nearby Zappos distribution facility. Isaac was both knowledgeable and generous then next day, staying way past his scheduled stop time to make sure we saw the whole operation AND had time to check out the outlet store. If Tony or anyone on the executive team is wondering… Isaac is a rock star!
• Rick Redman & Vickie Boisseau of Louisville Slugger/Bionic Gloves took time to tell us all about the past, present and future of this great company. Rick gets full credit for prodding us into taking batting practice with bats from current/former major leaguers. Swinging Ted Williams’ bat is something I’ll always remember.
• Denny Potter from Maker’s Mark showed us their cutting-edge reclamation facility which, through my keen olfactory memory, will also be something I always remember. Our tour guide Herb showed us every nook and cranny of the bourbon-making operation, including the tasting room where we tasted several nooks and cranys of bourbon both before and after aging. What a difference!
• The folks at Sims Bar-B-Que in Little Rock, AR. It was too early for lunch when Memphis went flying by, but Sims made sure we had a great lunch of ribs, chopped beef and all the sides.
• The crew that welcomed us into Austin. Aaron, Heather, Adam and Sara made sure we had a cold beer when we finished the trip in Austin. They also kept us out too late, but that’s what you do when you’re in Austin. ;-)

The places we saw…

• Our first night we stayed at a very smokey hotel. It rhymes with Motel Stix. We asked for non-smoking rooms and they were marked as non-smoking on the outside AND inside on the bottom of the ashtrays in the rooms. While we left the hotel the next morning smelling like chain smokers, it was worth it for the endless amusement we got from recounting the story later in the trip.
• The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was amazing. Not necessarily amazing enough for a trip to Cleveland with the family, but if I could wrap a Red Sox/Indians game into the mix it’d be on my short list. Seeing hand-written lyrics from songs like “Walk This Way” and “The End” were worth the price of admission alone. I could have spent several hours on the Haight/Ashbury exhibit alone (I had five minutes).
• Columbus, OH gets my vote for most surprising city. It didn’t hurt that the sun opened up and gave us a beautiful day (vs. rain in Cleveland), but it also seemed to have a really interesting downtown arena area. Lots of activity and people having fun.
• Marriott Residence Inn. We stayed at three of these after the debacle the first night and always had a good experience. Clean, non-smoking and “free” full breakfast. Let’s just say I had my share of waffles… and Jeff summoned the cleaning lady more than once.
• The inside of the 2010 Ford Escape gobbled up all our gear and still had room to spare. Four guys and all our computer gear and no one was complaining about legroom. Sure, we had to buy that “New Car Smell” air freshener somewhere in Arkansas, but that was Colin and John’s fault for buying all the beef jerky… especially the jalapeno beef jerky.
• The Zappos distribution facility. From the static racks to the robots working the pods, this was an unexpected treat. It’s hard to understand the scope of what they’re doing here, but if you’re in the area (Louisville, KY) set aside a couple of hours to give it a look. It’s an impressive operation.

Our sugar daddies…none of this could have been possible without the support of these folks.

• Scott Monty from Ford. He pretty much gave us the keys to the Escape and told us to let everyone know what we thought, good and/or bad. He put up with public pranks like the accident we claimed we got into and the car no longer having that new car smell.
• Chris Brogan and New Marketing Labs. We couldn’t have done the Innovators Road Trip without a nod from Chris. He saw the vision and gave us the support we needed to get the project off the ground (well only on two wheels, but don’t tell Scott about that).
• Chris Kieff and Ripple6. Chris connected us with the right people doing real innovation and gave us the flexibility to move from the smokey hotel to the Residence Inn.
• Aaron Strout and Powered Inc. Aaron’s always been one to back an innovative idea and it was good to have his network behind us on the road.
• Bryan Person and LiveWorld. Thanks to Bryan and team for buying lunch on the road. Sims BBQ hit the spot and helped us finish our 12 hour stretch run on Friday.

The Innovator’s Road Trip was an amazing adventure. There’s discussion of an encore. Time will tell if I’m on the next mission, but whether I am or not it surely will be a great experience.