It's No Secret: Cincinnati's Underground Ideas Come to Light

By: Jeremy Mosher, 3/23/2010

There are cans of Orange Crush, Mountain Dew, and Hoist on the table: green-bottled beers with labels worried away are held in hand, with cups of coffee, bottles of water and at least one Red Stripe, sitting empty.  Just as diverse as the choice in beverages are the professional backgrounds assembled in the Sycamore Street office of The Creative Department, as the weekend-long development session for Secret Cincinnati enters its seventy-second hour. 

Secret Cincinnati looks to make the city a better, more enjoyable place by creating an online community and database that collects and shares the best underpublicized discounts, events and places from around the city.  Rallying around egalitarian themes - Discover, Participate, Connect - the group's goal is to put the power of information in the hands of citizens, and stepping back to watch them wield it.  But this one weekend could serve an even larger purpose locally. Secret Cincinnati could be yet another asset inspiring professional entrepreneurs and giving them the tools to succeed here.
Joe Pantuso is one such entrepreneur, having come to Cincinnati to start a programming company called NeoWorx, and now, eleven years later, co-organizing the Secret Cincinnati session. Asked about his motivation, he says, "I see things in the world and I want to fix them. It's all the same spirit. I feel like I need to do all I can for Cincinnati."  To drive Secret Cincinnati, Pantuso teamed with Chris Ostoich, a UC alum originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana who founded Blackbook Experience Management Group. In itself, their partnership expresses its very goal: bringing people together to support entrepreneurship locally.

My Feature!

One of those people is Rodney Williams, a Procter & Gamble employee who relocated to Cincinnati just eight months ago. While he contributed the perspective of a marketer and Queen City transplant, he says he got a lot back from the weekend experience, even as someone working for a multi-billion dollar international company.

"I want to always be connected with the people doing start-ups," Williams says. "That's the heartbeat of the city. You can't be innovative in a corporate setting without those connections." According to the former Washington, DC resident, increased connectivity offers value to everyone, regardless of whether or not they are personally involved in a start-up. Simply put, he says, "It's a catalyst."

READ MORE