(jazz music)
>>Going as far back as
Thomas Jefferson times,
Charlottesville has long
been a place of music, art,
and innovation.
Today, we not only
encourage entrepreneurship
and creativity, we celebrate it.
Join us as we catch
up with Paul Beyer,
the man behind the Tom
Tom Founders Festival.
Come on.
(instrumental music)
>>It's just an exciting
time to be in the city
and see all the culture and the
energy of this little jewel.
>>Why is it called Tom Tom?
>>Well, it's Tom Tom because
it's about Thomas Jefferson.
>>Okay.
>>Ultimately, that's
where we got the name.
We want him to have
like a whimsical play
on Thomas Jefferson
without being stuffy
and powdered wigs is
a lot of this town
can be about Mr. Jefferson.
Just kind of a tip of the hat.
But it's about creativity.
It's about specifically like
cross-pollinating creativity.
Like the idea that
architecture informs music,
that it informed scientific
discovery, that it informs food.
And really Mr. Jefferson
had all of that
and what he was
doing at Monticello.
And it's kind of something the
festival was about as well.
>>Been excited about Tom
Tom since the beginning.
I think we've needed something
to showcase Charlottesville
innovators, makers,
and founders for years.
And this is the
festival to do it.
This is just the
beginning of what I see
is a mini South by Southwest
in Charlottesville.
>>I think I love the
fact that people ask,
"what's up with the Buffalo?"
and then it's related to the
Lewis and Clark expedition.
That's really tied here.
They brought back a Buffalo
hide for Mr. Jefferson.
>>It's exciting to see this
confluence of people with ideas,
entrepreneurs,
musicians, and artists.
We're all coming together
in the same spaces,
sharing about their
visions, their stories.
And that's why I just
had to come out this year
to make sure I
heard some of these
and to gain more inspiration
as I continue to work on my
own career and my own arms.
>>So how did Charlottesville
first received this?
>>Well, I think people have
always been pretty excited
by the idea actually.
I mean, I think we think of
ourselves as a music town.
I think music has always been
one of the driving attractions
and forces of the festival.
I've always pitched it as
like the bright shiny object.
It's like, people
come and they're like,
"Oh there's music,"
And then once they get
accustomed to that.
They're like, "Oh,
hold on a second".
Just across the street,
there's these panels
and there's these talks,
and then there's this art.
And so it really transitioned
more to innovation.
This is a really the
driver of the festival.
What's new?
what's emerging
out of this town?
what spurs startups?
what start spurs development?
And then also what's just brings
the community get together,
because that is really
ultimately people
most responded to,
which is just the idea that
Charlottesville can
be a silent place.
And you have these big events
that bring lots of
communities together.
It kind of feels right.
And it feels like it's kind
of where the city needs to go.
♪ baby you're so plastic ♪
♪ Baby you oou oou ♪
>>One thing going on
is the Block Party.
Talk a little bit about
the McGuffey Block Party.
>>Sure, the McGuffey is I
think probably the crown jewel
this chief spectacle of Tom Tom.
And again it utilizes this
beautiful historic school house
in downtown Charlottesville
where there's I believe
40 working artists.
And so it's been a longterm
institution in Charlottesville.
And then for Tom Tom, it says,
let's get the city there and
let's not just get the city
there to experience the art,
but let's shut down the
streets around the McGuffey
let's have food trucks,
Let's have acrobats,
lets have fire dancers.
Let's have a high
school step team.
Let's have the boys and girls
club, a hip hop dance team.
>>Yeah.
>>Let's have a funk band.
And so these massive
Block Party School
with two to 3000 people
come at any given time
and they go for six and
seven hours into the night.
>>Yes, that you guys got it
That is one of the
quintessential events
of all Tom Tom people go,
okay, well, I get it.
And now I'm going
to everything else.
>>And then across the
street, say at the Haven,
in the sanctuary at the Haven,
there are these wonderful
panels going on.
So give us some examples
of the different talks
that you've brought to
town through the years.
>>The underlying idea of
Tom Tom's innovation is that
Charlottesville is creative.
That there's a lot
of startup energy
and there's people
doing creative things
that need to be highlighted.
And then in the process of that,
there are a lot of people that
have already done huge things
and they need to be
highlighted as well.
Bruce Floor, for instance,
this last festival red light
management talked about
the global expansion of this
music industry heavyweight.
And then we looked at,
we had all the investors in town
talk about investing
in Charlottesville.
We had healthcare looking
at like mobile health and IT
and how mobile technology
is informing patient care.
Again, it's kind
of this hodgepodge
and you just go and you're
like, "all right, I'm here.
And I'm going to bounce between
this venue and this venue
and this venue".
And I will see a lot of
very interesting things.
And a lot of them are very
centric to Charlottesville
happening here.
>>So I'm here today
to talk to you
about this idea of agile Goliath
companies that can think big
but act small and continue to
evolve themselves over time.
So April 1997,
Clay Christiansen publishes
"the innovator's dilemma"
and the lessons of the
innovator's dilemma still hold.
And they are this,
one is that useful simple
solutions get adopted.
And so if you're a startup
and you're trying to build
an amazing product,
and you're doing all the
hard to build that product.
You can quickly
become the incumbent
and you can be quickly
become disrupted.
So that's a challenge.
It's a challenge for all of us.
>>I think it's the ability
to bump into folks and
to meet new people,
not just to hear the panel
speakers who are sharing
about where they've been,
and they've got a wealth of
knowledge that they can share
with people in the audience,
but even with audience members,
I mean, I just ran
into a local writer
Who's really kind of a hero
of mine who I haven't seen in
the past couple of years and
hearing about what he's up to,
what the inspiration he's
drawing from Tom Tom Fest
and his career is
something that kind of,
it makes me want to
get back to work.
And I think that's the thing
that I really enjoy most.
>>So I first got into
graffiti style art.
When I lived in
Frankfurt, Germany
When I was 11-years-old.
over there I would
see the artwork
on the streets and I would
pass by it all the time
and be pretty
amazed at what I saw
to the point where I
decided to go ahead
and pick up a can for myself.
So basically we have six
individual artists who are doing
their own unique expression,
but the whole thing is
still one cohesive unit.
>>One of the other
events was a mural,
a graffiti mural.
Every year it changes?
>>Yeah. So again,
public art is a big
part of the festival
that interact with your city.
Like, don't look at that
a retaining wall and go,
that's just a retaining wall.
Look at it as a canvas
where you can have
a collective of graffiti
artists from across the state.
Re-imagine it.
Don't look at a street in
Downtown Belmont and go,
"yeah, that's just a
street I drive over".
It's like, "no, let's
shut the street down,
have a Big Block Party.
And then in the middle of it
have three dozen school children
painted big street mural".
>>Which you did
>>Is what happened
to Downtown Belmont.
(laughs)
So the public art is really,
I think goes back to
my initial excitement
about the festival,
which is just see the
city in a new way,
and that can be Charlottesville.
It could be Tulsa.
It could be any city of
cost across the country.
Just do something cool
and interesting
with public spaces,
>>Yeah so pop-up art
>>Pop-up art.
>>What is that?
>>So this year we had
a competition called
Pop-up parking spaces.
And is with our
local arts council,
it was with the AIA,
the American Institute
of architects.
And it was like,
look we're going to
take parking spaces
and you can do whatever
you want with them.
So whether it was an
architecture class at UVA,
whether it was just
some artists locally,
just crazy little projects
popped up and they were mobile,
they were temporary.
And they just said, look,
think about parking space
in a different way.
>>Well we as the central
Virginia chapter of the AIA
are participating
and we are making
our interpretation
of the sleeping Alcove of
Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.
it's such a unique
space in the house.
We were just thought,
it'd be pretty fun
to try to give folks
the opportunity or that
experience in some way.
>>Tom Tom is great.
And it's that combination
of entrepreneurship
and innovation with the arts.
I'm very proud as
a city counselor
that we supported it
this year financially.
And it just want
to see it happen
every year.
>>So it's a nonprofit now.
And so, if you're not charging,
how is it supported?
How is it funded?
>>There's really
three components.
One is a private philanthropy.
>>okay
>>The main driver
is sponsorship,
corporate sponsorship
of various kinds.
We have municipal grants
and we have grants from
foundations come in.
And then we have beer sales.
People who really
wanted to compete
(laughs)
I mean it's not a huge compound
of how we raised money,
but it's a nice,
it's probably the most fun
part of how we raise our money.
And, and yeah, I mean,
this was the first year
actually we broke even
and had money to pay
salaries, which again,
it's like, wow, that
is pretty nuts to think
that a free festival just
based on private philanthropy
and generosity was
was able to do this,
but it sets a good
tone for the future
and it's kind of as
we continue to grow,
that's what we really, that's
the ask we make of people
is we just say, look,
this is the baseline of
making this happen this year
and if we want Charlottesville
to have an event
that has this caliber
of musician, this
caliber of speakers,
this is what's going to take
and are we going to get there.
And again I like
putting that decision
in the hands of people
in Charlottesville.
>>So what's the five-year plan?
That talking about the
future what's the plan?
>>We haven't actually
written out in a graphic,
and it's like a little sonar.
It's like first year it
was just Charlottesville.
And the second year
was Central Virginia,
this past year was really
about Virginia as a whole.
And I think increasingly we
had that kind of recognition.
And then the next two years,
it's what makes us a
mid-Atlantic festival.
What makes this so
people in DC and Raleigh
and Baltimore that they go,
"Oh yeah, this is a time
to be in Charlottesville".
(instrumental music)
>>When we were talking earlier,
you tell me how you
would know the festival
had truly arrived.
(laughs)
>>Okay.
I mean, when I first started
talking with those people.
It was like, if David
Byrne had a parade
Downtown mall of Charlottesville
and into what the
concert in the Pavilion,
it'd be like, "that's
when it arrives",
when you have this
national-level speaker
that is relevant to musicians,
he's relevant to urban planning,
he's relevant to like
the history of music
and of creativity
and how places create
and to have him be part of it.
And then having major light
sculptures installations.
I mean, I think that's
where, it's thinking big.
It's like, yeah, get this in
for a spectacle and just big.
>>We'll, call him up.
I think Charlottesville is
almost ready. Don't you?
>>Yeah.
He'll be on the line soon.
>>Thank you, Paul.
>>Yeah. Terrific.
Thank you.
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