About

America Is About Ideas

When people focus on innovation, the focus tends to drift to the coasts of the United States. In what started as a conversation with friends over barbecue at SXSW in2008, an idea was born to travel the heartland of America to highlight innovation in the middle of the country.

The Car

Our friend, Scott Monty at Ford was able to supply us with a 2010 Ford Escape for our journey. Without the car, we’d be stuck with just an idea. We’ll be blogging and making media from this car on its tour from Detroit, Michigan, home of the American auto industry, down to Austin, Texas. Along the way, you’ll learn more about ideas, innovation, and America.

Why a Road Trip?

Road trips are one of those great American experiences. Originally, I was looking for a more environmentally friendly way to travel to the SXSW Interactive festival and thought that this would be a fun trip to take with a friend. That still is true, but it seemed like the trip could turn into much more of a story, especially if we were to focus on the innovation that we discovered along the route to Austin. The American Innovator’s road trip was quickly born.

Our Support and Our Team

Our very special thanks to our sponsors for the trip:

Our team is: Jim, John Jeff & Colin

Follow Us on the Trip

If you want to see our progress and learn who’s interacting with us, you can follow this blog, but also don’t forget to check in via Twitter Search, where you can follow the #iroadtrip hash tag.

Want to contact us directly? Use our Twitter handles above, or drop us email at: colin AT constructingsocial.com

And thank you. This will surely be an adventure.

/colin

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

ZuDfunck March 7, 2009 at 6:47 AM

I live in Detroit!
Oh My God!
Why on earth would you come here?

ZuD

Stephen charbonneau January 10, 2011 at 10:42 PM

I stopped by the Henry Ford home the summer of 2010. I had hoped that the Estey parlor organ would still be there. I asked a young lady who was greeting people about it, and she thought it had been actioned off many years ago. It would have been Estey organs number 100000. An anniversary line made around 1880 . The Brattleboro “Estey organ museum”, has an example of this organ, only missing it very ornate upper third. As a cabinet maker I had hoped to recreate it someday, to have it look like it should. If the that organ is still in your posetion, please could you let me know. I did not take the tour because time was limited. If you have a record who may have bought it, if it was sold, that would be a blessing. Thank you. Take care and God bless.
Stephen Charbonneau. Brattleboro, Vermont.

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