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Hillary Brown, 28, already had been toying with the idea of moving back to her hometown after six years of living in Los Angeles.

But it took a Nadas concert this spring and talking with band member Jason Walsmith to really convince her it was the right move.

So, she e-mailed the Greater Des Moines Partnership, which sent her a packet of information and offered to give her a tour of Des Moines and post her resume online.

“All the pieces just started falling together,” Brown said during a phone interview, while packing up her belongings in L.A. The perks included receiving a handful of job offers. She was most attracted to a position with start-up consulting firm Lava Row, which would continue her marketing career in social media.

Brown’s return is the first success story from the Greater Des Moines Partnership’s sponsorship of the Nadas’ latest tour.

As part of its “Do More. Des Moines” marketing campaign, the Partnership is sending representatives to some Nadas concerts to hand out DVDs about the city and other Des Moines paraphernalia and talk with former Iowa residents who attend the shows about returning here.

Like many people her age, Brown left Iowa shortly after graduating from college. In this case, she went with a fellow Iowa State University graduate to the West Coast, where she planned to live for a year, but “ended up getting sucked up by the nice weather,” she said. It was shortly after 9/11, when marketing jobs were scarce in Des Moines and the city didn’t have attractions such as Wells Fargo Arena, the Science Center of Iowa and many downtown living options.

While in L.A., Brown worked her way from a media-buying agency to a firm that specialized in youth advertising to a start-up that created branded online communities for Fortune 500 companies. She met Nathan Wright, founder of Lava Row, on Twitter, an online social networking site, which led to the job offer in Des Moines.

Wright said that the knowledge and expertise he was looking for in an employee didn’t have to come from out-of-state, “but at the same time I was having trouble finding that background in the state, and that passion and energy level.”

Being ahead of the trend for the Midwest, Brown hopes she’ll play a big role in developing social media here.

“Des Moines is such a great town for entrepreneurs. There’s so much opportunity for people to start companies and be successful. … Whereas in L.A., if you start a social media company, there are 100 other companies that will sprout up.”

She also is excited about Des Moines’ growing cultural attractions, including the recent 80/35 music festival, as well as the increase in housing and nightlife options downtown.

She plans to move into a downtown loft, either at the Mulberry Lofts or in the East Village. She also wants to get involved with the Partnership and other young professional groups, hoping to “bring some of the things that I love about L.A. back with me.”

Some of her other friends are catching the Des Moines bug as well, she said, including a couple who have lived in Seattle and Chicago and are moving back to Des Moines the same day she is.

Brown plans to jump right in – she started her job a day after moving back. “I guess that’s the Midwest work ethic,” she said.