St. Louis Tries to Rebrand the City for Meetings With a New Music and Tech Festival
Photo Credit: The band YACHT performed at the Murmuration Festival 2016 in St. Louis. The event is part of the city's effort to reposition its destination brand. YACHT
Skift Take
St. Louis is fortunate to have one of the more advanced startup communities of any third tier city in America, and it's leveraging that aggressively through the Murmuration Festival to reposition itself as a forward thinking destination for meetings and events.
The inaugural Murmuration Festival last month in St. Louis explored the “convergence of art, music, science and tech,” where people debated things like the role of public sculpture and the ethics of algorithms.
Programming included a maker expo and innovation showcase where attendees could meet startup companies working in robotics and artificial intelligence. A divergent mix of musicians and artists provided tech-inspired entertainment and immersive art installations, and a series of thought panels discussed subjects such as: “The Seduction of Automation From the CIA to Social Media.”
As reported in Skift last month, the city of St. Louis is aggressively trying to reposition its destination brand image as a hub of Midwestern innovation and entrepreneurial spirit following widespread criticism of the city and its suburban areas because of violence and unrest in Ferguson.
The Murmuration Festival is a marquee manifestation of that process. The event also provides a
