>> So I graduated from Southwest Texas, which
is now Texas State, with an English degree,
and then stayed here to pursue
paralegal studies.
And then I took a job opportunity in Chicago,
and I was working with mutual funds up there,
and was really not enjoying it, I was just
kind of like, getting burnt out already.
And I've always used Twitter to kind
of stay up to date with what's going
on in Austin, like before I moved to Chicago.
So if there were new restaurants opening or new
stores or something, I would just use Twitter
to stay on top of business news,
and then when I moved to Chicago,
I was using it to build my social circles,
because it's easier to kind of find
out what people are talking about and see
where they're hanging out, and see what's going
on from a distance, and then
decide whether or not you want to,
you know, pursue that clique of people.
So I started to use Twitter more,
more and more, as I was in Chicago.
And when Kevin and I decided to
launch the Austin Grand Prix,
I started the Austin Grand Prix Twitter account,
and that's how we were very quickly able
to have these real-time conversations
with people around the world.
It didn't matter what time zone we were in,
you know, it didn't matter, language barriers,
because there are so many tools that we
have now to get over all those barriers.
So yeah, that's how we were
able to grow our profile
and our position really quickly
using the social media.