Last week, there was an article published on the Washington Post's blog titled, "Where do Twitter trends start? Try Cincinnati."  In it, the author, Caitlin Dewey, expressed shock at the findings from a study done by Indiana University researchers.  Cincinnati, the study found, begins proportionally more trending topics on Twitter than it adopts, meaning that it spreads its influence online more than it is influenced by trends in other cities.  

Dewey muses, "It should be pretty obvious why major cities play such an outsize role in spreading information online...But how, then, do you explain Cincinnati? It has neither a major airport, nor a particularly large population nor a reputation for social media savvy."

Cincinnatians would beg to differ on that last point, as the city was designated "Most Social City" by social media and internet culture hub Mashable back in 2011, but I digress.

The WaPo article gave me deja vu, as I recalled another relatively large media company expressed surprise at Cincinnati's tech prowess.  You might remember that back in July, Entrepreneur magazine did a feature titled, "How One U.S. City Became an Unexpected Hub for Tech Startups," all about Cincinnati's vibrant startup and venture capital scene.

Thanks to our tech savvy, dedication to enterprise, and a very cool arts and culture scene, Cincinnati is a city on an upward move.  As someone who works in digital marketing and has had the opportunity to interact personally with some of the people behind Cincinnati's growth, I've known this about the city for awhile. Allow me to provide the doubters with some additional reasons they'll be hearing more from the Queen City soon:

• 10 Fortune 500 companies are based in the Cincinnati area, more per capita than LA, New York, or Chicago.
• Once a bustling beer metropolis, Cincinnati seeks to reclaim its notoriety as a lead brewing city.  Two new craft breweries have launched this year, Sam Adams is expanding their OTR operations, and at least two more breweries will be opened by the first quarter of next year, to bring the metro's brewery total to 12.
• dunnhumby, a UK-based customer science company that helps brands make sense of their data and use it to put customers first, will be opening the dunnhumby Centre downtown in early 2015, housing the company's US headquarters and approximately 700 workers. 
• The city is in the process of vastly improving its public transportation system by building a streetcar that will link Over-the-Rhine and downtown (the Brooklyn and Manhattan of Cincinnati).
• The Cincinnati Bengals are 6-2 and some sportswriters are throwing around the S-word. (Knock on wood.)
• Cincinnati will host the 2015 MLB All Star Game.
• The city's vibrant food scene has former naysaying chefs coming back into town to cook, open restaurants and sing Cincy's praises.
• Bunbury Music Festival, established in 2012, has experienced year-over-year growth and is poised for an even bigger outing in 2014.

I could carry on, but I think you're getting the point. 

Cincinnati is full of creative, hard-working, tech-savvy people with big aspirations.  When you're talking about cities that will be important in leading their region and the country into its next phase of growth, don't count us out.

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