Comic-Con and urban renewal

Alan Light with Shel Dorf, originally uploaded by Alan Light.

Earlier today I posted an image from an interesting set of storyboards for a charitable venture. Teasing aside re the bingo, if you've read my work for a while you no doubt guessed that I find storyboarding to be essential for any enterprise--nonprofit or for-profit. Ventures aren't just products and profit; they're interfaces, experiences and, yes, stories. Pictures can be far more effective the spreadsheets in making the whole thing work.

On a related front, today I also have been thinking a lot about this post on the passing of Shel Dorf, founder of the San Diego Comic Con. I've written before about how Comic-Con--a 501(c)(3) organization--blends commerce, charity and community, but as Mark Evanier observes the organization has also had a substantial impact on the revitalization of San Diego itself:

One point I forgot to mention in my piece and which I've included in all the interviews I've given is that it isn't just the comic book community that owes a debt to Shel. It's the city of San Diego, as well. You'd think that the world's largest comic convention would be established in New York or Chicago or Los Angeles. Why is it in San Diego? Because Shel Dorf was in San Diego.

And because the con was in San Diego, San Diego changed for the better. San Diego in 1970 was not the kind of town that attracted national conventions. It attracted some tourists because of the zoo and climate. It attracted a lot of sailors on shore leave because of the Naval Stations. But when, for example, the major political parties were considering where to gather to nominate their presidential candidates, San Diego was not even in the running. It didn't have the facilities or the hotels. Now, it has enough of both to lure major conventions and to warrant the building of huge Hiltons and Marriotts. The convention trade has meant a lot of urban renewal to San Diego and the Comic-Con was a major catalyst and inspiration.

So a city was transformed and in many ways reborn...and all because Shel's parents moved there for their retirements and Shel followed.