Hi, I’m Katie—SproutBox enthusiast and one of their summer interns. I’m helping SproutBox with odds and ends this summer, and when I’m not hanging out at The Box, I’m researching tech development in the Hoosier State. My interest in innovation and creative culture is what brought me to the masterminds at SproutBox, and it’s what I want to share with you.

Creativity and innovation researchers commonly cite the works of Richard Florida, who has written abundantly on the topics. Among his best-selling titles is Who’s Your City?, a book about why your location matters more than your career or your significant other. If Richard Florida spent more time in the Midwest, it’s likely that he’d write an epilogue titled Hoosier City?, a chapter about how foolish he feels for not considering the booming innovation happening right here in Indiana. The state’s promising future of innovation and development is due to a combination of factors, and it’s happening all over the place.

Let’s take Bloomington, Indiana—SproutBox headquarters and emerging tech hot spot—as an example. It’s a city of 80,000 nestled in the rolling hills of south central Indiana. Home to Indiana University’s main campus and a branch of Ivy Tech Community College, Bloomington is an ideal place for starting a business. The ties between the universities and the city offer interactions critical to the entrepreneurial spirit while connecting start-ups to the bright students that will comprise the future workforce. The city is a hub between several major Midwest cities—Indianapolis, St. Louis, Nashville, Cincinnati, Columbus, Chicago—making it a center for commerce all its own. Even better, the area offers small town charm while still managing to do great business. Technology is changing, and innovation doesn’t just happen in big cities anymore.

Here in Bloomington, we’re doing our part to continue growing creative startups. Organizations like Bloomington Tech Partnership and Bloomington Life Sciences Partnership strengthen the ties between innovative companies already and connect them to future business prospects. Bloomington is also host to The Combine, an annual gathering of creative people and tech savvy individuals for idea swapping and connection making. We’re all about bringing new business to the area, but we’re also into making the city an even better place for the innovators already here. The recent TEDxBloomington event brought together many of the area’s best and brightest, but more than that, it attracted individuals from all over who wanted to see what was going on in Bloomington, and they weren’t disappointed.

And Bloomington’s not the only spot in the state where innovation is spreading. If you check out a map, it’s not hard to figure out why Indiana is commonly referred to as “Crossroads of America.” A number of the country’s major interstate highways converge in the state center, Indianapolis. Really, any city or town in the state is an “ideal location” for a business to start up or relocate, because the infrastructure connecting you to the major cities in the Midwest (and the country) is already in place. It’s a quality touted on nearly every Indiana county’s economic development page, and it’s one of the reasons why a recent Wired magazine article shows Indiana as one of the hottest states for innovation right now. It’s no surprise to us, but if it’s something you didn’t expect, maybe it’s time for you to start listing the Hoosier state as a frontrunner for relocating or starting your business.

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