I was honored and delighted to be invited to a reception to view the launch of the NRVHub.com  The Hub is up and running on a development site and invitees watched an introductory film at the Lyric Theatre in downtown Blacksburg, Virginia explaining what the site is and how it works, then a slide presentation with live commentary.  The public launch is October 15, 2009.

Termed a "hyperlocal" news portal, the Hub's straightforward focus is on the New River Valley of Virginia. Information tabs at the top of the site listed local counties and a local city in the area.

Both personally, and in the context of our recent discussion of regional economic development on Handshake 2.0, I respected the boldness of the founder, Monica Hebert, and of her business partner and daughter, Shannon Loughridge, in hosting an event to announce a business, particularly one that included a showing of an online enterprise still in beta.  That takes courage and a deep belief in the merit of the undertaking, and a willingness to risk all to make it succeed.  That kind of belief fires an economy.

Do I fully understand what the NRVHub.com will mean to me as a resident, consumer, and company owner in the New River Valley?  Not really.  Were a dozen people at the reception?  Nope, 50+.  Was the Mayor of Blacksburg there?  Yep.  Does the NRVHub.com do news?  Yes.  Does Handshake 2.0 do news?  Yes.  Could that be a problem?  Possibly.

And, yet.  I saved the invitation, removing the NRVHub.com's address I had cut from the envelope and taped to the paper for the photo above. 

I think I understand enough to know that this invitation might some day be an historic document.  If the NRVHub.com ultimately embodies its bold tagline (Do we see a theme emerging here?) - "the center of everything" - or even becomes the center of a lot of things?  That would be big.