This Is SoCal

Branding the innovation ecosystem

To take our innovation ecosystem to the world, we launched a communications campaign that clearly articulates what makes Southern California innovation so unique.

The SoCal Innovation Ecosystem is rapidly rising.

Our communities are making the world a better place and helping people in a multitude of ways. It’s time to bring those communities together as one, and let the world know that our region is a powerhouse of innovation.

This Is SoCal — this is our rallying cry that unites our richly diverse community.

It enables people and communities around the world to understand why SoCal is uniquely positioned as a major innovation ecosystem by amplifying regional specializations. Our messages complement community communication strategies and tactics, increase media coverage for the ecosystem and ultimately attract more investment, talent, startups and corporations to the region.

The Six Supporting Pillars

These are six truths about the Southern California innovation ecosystem. It captures the breadth, diversity, and awesomeness that infuses our unique, special blend of breakthrough doing and inspired thinking. Use the Six Supporting Pillars to express your own innovation or your community. The key is to express to others what is often difficult to articulate — hopefully this helps.

The Six Supporting Pillars

People and Planet First

We’re here to make a difference in the lives of others—and not just in our backyard but across the world. Whether we’re unlocking solutions for currently untreatable ailments or paving the way for clean transportation—we look outwards, not inwards, developing innovations that are truly meaningful and will positively change the future of humanity in unthinkable ways.

Life Redesigned

In SoCal, we apply an entrepreneurial approach to the way we live. Our active lifestyles, passion for entertainment and sense of freedom enables us to carve our own paths without being impeded by a rigid social or cultural structure—and the same applies to the way we work. As a result, we’re constantly exploring, reinventing and pursuing progress.

Maximum Inclusion

We invite everyone into our fold to work together and craft solutions through the pooling of perspectives, experiences and backgrounds, allowing us to listen, learn, challenge, collaborate, experiment and align. We’re a confluence of the best ideas from diverse people who unite and innovate through shared values.

Unstoppable Talent

We have world-class education establishments, an incredibly skilled tech workforce, the highest number
of engineering graduates in the country and some of the most trailblazing business leaders of our time. Every member of our ecosystem has a thirst for innovation and a cultural determination to overcome challenges.

Dimensional Diversity

The breadth of our sectors is greater than that of any other ecosystem, enabling us to provide an infinite number of possible collisions that spawn new creations and collaborations, as well as making us resilient and empowering us to set the pace of innovation.

No Boundaries

Our geographic and cultural freedom has no boundaries, and the same applies to the way we approach finding solutions to today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. We are never afraid to explore, take risks or do things that other regions don’t have the freedom to do.

For the full description of the six pillars and some ideas on how to utilize them, download the Communications Plan.

More on the Six Pillars

Get Involved

Showcase our innovation ecosystem to the world! Leverage the This Is SoCal communications campaign to clearly articulate what makes SoCal innovation so unique and how you’re playing an important part in its ascendance. Use your platforms. Join the movement, get involved!

IT’S OFFICIAL. THERE’S ONLY ONE SOCAL.

We’re the region that thinks and acts differently in everything we do. Through our global as well as regional and local perspectives, we see things differently, spotting the challenges that face the people and planet, and without limitation, developing innovative solutions.

We think bigger than any other region, making us the innovation beacon for the world. From Santa Barbara to San Diego to Orange County and the Inland Empire, we have the most progressive consumers in the country, demanding sustainable and environmentally friendly products, meat alternatives, pet health monitoring, petroleum-free plastics and alternatives to textiles made from animal products. We listen to them, and we act because we care.

Our people and our sectors are more diverse than anywhere else in the world, enabling us to spark collisions and collaborations that no other ecosystem can. As an example, our obsession with healthy living has sparked convergence between bioscience and fitness wearables to create sustainable and fashion-forward products. We’ve brought together tunes and tech and merged agriculture with medical imaging science like no other region has. We have all of the essential ecosystem components and so much more.

The culture—one of a kind. The climate—perfect. The standard of living—high. Our research, education and incubatory establishments are setting the course for national tech innovation. We’re the gateway to Asia and Latin America, and our two primary seaports (the largest in the Western Hemisphere) are ground zero for energy- efficient logistics. Our trailblazing leaders are setting the most progressive agenda in the nation because, in living in SoCal, they acutely feel the impact of the challenges around them. From the impact of climate change to mobility challenges to health crises and homelessness, they see these problems first hand and are fully motivated to drive the region to find solutions. Also, our unique personality and lust for life enables us to capture the attention of the world—and we haven’t even scratched the surface yet.

Regional Organizations in the SoCal Branding Consortium