Socrates Cafe Online, each Tue, Fri, Sat, 1st. Sun, 6:30 pm Denver MDT (303)861-1447 Socrates Cafe Dialogue Groups: Watch1 Lead1 Start1. Meeting ID and password emailed to members 30 minutes before each meeting. For free membership write JohnScottWren@gmail.com.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 27, 2014

Contact:  John Wren cell (720)495-4949

CITIZENS OF COLORADO ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND NEIGHBORHOOD CAUCUS TUESDAY.

DENVER—In front of a coffee shop, the traditional setting for political activism until recently, long-time community activist John Wren invited people to share their thinking about our Colorado Caucus, what Wren calls the best chance the common person has for serving in elected public office.

Wren will bring up the topic again this evening and tomorrow at Denver Socrates Café meetings, which first started the Friday after 9/11. For more about it see http://Meetup.com/Denver-Socrates-Cafe or call Wren at (303)861-1447.

“Today we are flooded with information, but there is little chance for thoughtful conversation. Our Colorado Caucus is a powerful tool for fostering that conversation and channeling it in a very useful way, but that requires informed participation,” said Wren.

“I’ve been doing a very crude website, trying to be helpful in triggering better media coverage and as a result better participation.

“We will be announcing a new foundation to help improve media coverage of the grassroots next Tuesday. Stay tuned.”

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MEDIA ADVISORY (from earlier today, emailed to AP and other s)
February 27, 2014

Denver-- Our Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler and Governor John Hickenlooper have been invited to join John Wren (and you reading this now, hope you can join us, and please help us by taking just a moment to "Share" this now with your Facebook friends with your comment) TODAY, Thursday (Feb 27) at 11 a.m. at the Starbucks in the lobby of the Wells Fargo building, 1600 Broadway.

Also see http://Facebook.com/ColoradoCaucusNews  which will once again recognize the best newspaper and other media coverage of the Colorado Caucus.
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John S Wren www.JohnWren.com (303)861-1447  cell (720)495-4949) is a long-time community activist. He was one of the founders of Save the Caucus which defeated the 2002 Amendment 29 which would have killed the Colorado Caucus (outspent 1600 to 1, the group defeated the misguided effort 60% to 40%), he helped start the Denver Socrates Cafe in Denver (meets tonight at 7 p.m. at Trinity Church, 20th & Broadway), the IDEA Cafe Startup Workshop (5280 Magazine says it's "infused Denver with an entrepreneurial spirit.") and the Small Business Chamber of Commerce, Inc, a member of the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry, which cooperates with local chambers to provide more real help to startups and small businesses.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Grassroot Innovation

Have you read Nobel Prize in Economics winner Edmund Phelps insightful new book Mass Flourishing? Interesting discussion with Dr. Phelps about why he has such a reputation as a gadfly, his contraries view of the current state of innovation, and his surprising assessment of the role of values in the current economic slump.


I just talked with Edmund Phelps, Nobel prize economist...

I'm putting titles on the video and will post here ASAP. We talked about his book Mass Flourishing, the push back he's receiving for some of the cutting edge, contrarian insights in his book and how he is answering them.

Very interesting discussion, I'll have it up here for you ASAP.

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Popularity of Sports

Looking at the use of the frequency of the name of the sport in all the books and other printed word Google has on line, here are the most popular sports, at least the ones that get written about the most:

SmallBizChamber.org Start, grow, flourish!: How we can help you make a Good Living.

SmallBizChamber.org Start, grow, flourish!: How we can help you make a Good Living.: A personal message to you from founder John Wren. Help for you to make a Good Living! What's a Good Living? Work that delights your ...

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Is SBA-inspired "help" killing new business formation?

Kauffman Foundation Report-- Sharp Decline in Dynamism (click here for full report)

Kauffman has been pushing the Small Business Administration approach to startup, careful market research and strategic planning. Are they getting ready to admit defeat? From the conclusion of this report they just released:

In the post-2000 period, the high-tech sector is experiencing a process of economic activity consolidation, away from young firms and into more mature firms. The high-tech sector looked different than the rest of the private economy did during the 1990s, when the share of young firms was declining in the overall economy but rising in high-tech. In the early 2000s, entrepreneurial activity in the high-tech sector began declining sharply during what is well-known as the dot-com bust.

Less well known is that the share of young firms in the high-tech sector has exhibited a more pronounced secular decline in the post-2002 period than in the rest of the economy. Consistent with that pattern, we have found that the pace of business dynamism, as measured by the pace of job reallocation, has declined in the high-tech sector in the post-2002 period at a pace that exceeds that of the overall economy.

Empirical evidence suggests a link between business dynamism, innovation, and productivity growth. In this regard, the findings here point to the possibility of a slowdown in productivity and economic growth in the high-tech sector in the last decade. The slowdown we find for the high-tech sector might be an even larger source of concern than that for the overall economy, since young high-tech firms may be more important for innovation and new job creation than their non-high-tech counterparts are.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Groups disappearing? No. At least not talk about groups.

Are groups like startup businesses, the more we talk about them, the fewer good ones there really are? If groups are one of the primary sources of social capital, the glue that holds us together as a society, what would Robert Putnam make of this?


2-minutes on "Be kind-- Three ways." James Martin

Let's not wait, we can be kind right now.

 Best way to get a new group off to a good start:

Live interview with Edmund Phelps, Mass Flourishing

Today (Wed, Feb 12) at 9:30 a.m. Mountain you can watch my live interview with Nobel economist Edmund Phelps, talking with us again about his new book Mass Flourishing, which some have said is the most important book ever written about economics since the founding of this country.

After the live broadcast this will convert to a link to the recording, which you can also find on our Google+ Page and YouTube Station for your Small Business Chamber of Commerce, Inc.

If you'd be willing to be a guest on The Startup Show to share your experience, call me at (303)861-1447 and leave a complete message about what you have started, I'll get back with you ASAP.

Here's today's show with Dr. Phelps:


What has caused our econmic crisis?

Edmund Phelps, awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2006, observes in his new book Mass Flourishing, that the prosperity that had come from our new economy starting in about 1840 came to a rapid in in the early 1970s.

There was a loss of the vitalism and dynamism that had driven that prosperity. What caused the loss?  This nGram analysis, the frequency of words used as determined by a review of Google Books, sheds some light:


Monday, February 10, 2014

Happy 90th birthday Pop.

JohnWren.com Start!: John Edgar Wren, Junior
February 10, 1924 to Novem...
: John Edgar Wren, Junior February 10, 1924 to November 15, 1979 When pop was only 8 years old his dad died. In just about the last conve...

PERMA to Flourish

Great 10 minute overview of Martin Seligman's book:

Thursday, February 06, 2014

Let us reason together...

Today, Thursday, Feb 6 Good discussions about worthwhile topics. Denver Socrates Cafe at Trinity Church. More info, optional RSVP (walk-ins welcome) at http://Meetup.com/Denver-Socrates-Cafe Tomorrow, Friday, Feb 7 Starting in a new direction with your work? Share with others who are doing the same thing. IDEA Salon (discussion group), and IDEA Cafe Workshop http://Meetup.com/Small-Biz-Chamber
In many ways the perfect business card.