Who says innovation only happens on the coasts?

Hundreds of entrepreneurs, start-up founders and corporate representatives packed into the Temple for Performing Arts for the Thinc Iowa conference today, highlighted by nine guest speakers.

Two out-of-state speakers said they recognized the advantages of doing business in the Midwest. Andy Murray, founder and chairman of Arkansas-based Saatchi & Saatchi X, led things off, and was followed by Jerri Chou, founder and managing partner of New York-based Lovely Day. The two kicked off the event, which was designed to bring together ideas from the technology start-up world and the traditional business world. The Business Record caught up with Murray and Chou after their speeches and asked:

What was it about the Des Moines start-up community attracted you to speak here?

Murray: “Creativity comes from the fringe. If you look at tech start-ups, middle America would be considered the fringe. Most start-ups are Silicon Valley or East Coast-style. That’s kind of where a lot of that is happening. This is a conference I have an affinity to because I think Iowa is a lot like Arkansas in the sense of building an entrepreneurial community. And then the other thing that I think is really interesting is really good ideas come from the fringes. And in the middle of America, you really do get a sense of what’s real, what’s practical, what people need in their daily life. It’s more transparent in terms of real life, so that transparency helps us to hopefully come up with better ideas that are more scalable and relevant because you’re in a space that’s very close to day-to-day life.”

Chou: “It’s exciting to see what’s happening in Des Moines and the surrounding area. I think there’s a rare opportunity. I’m happy to see innovation in start-ups happening somewhere besides the two coasts. And also because I think it leads to some really interesting and different and important innovation, because the culture here is different and the companies here are different, and that definitely influences the kind of innovation that everybody wants. I think (Ben Milne’s Dwolla Corp.) is amazing, for example. It’s definitely social. In places like New York, I feel that there’s a lot more support of very social, but not necessarily industry-heavy development. I think that’s just something interesting that’s happening here.”