In January of 2019, Dr. Antonio Petrov was invited by iconic global marketing communications company Young & Rubicam (Y&R) to join them on a San Antonio cultural immersion and be the keynote speaker of the NYC agency’s trip to our city. In this conversation, “San Antonio: The Old and the New,” Dr. Petrov shared the Urban Future Lab’s (UFL) work set against the backdrop of San Antonio as a microcosm of the United States and the issues, challenges, and opportunities found within the cultural fabric of the seventh-largest city in America.
Dr. Petrov’s wide-ranging and illuminating talk discussed who we are as San Antonians, our city’s historical narrative and geographic perspective set within the region, history and ethos vs. progress and development, San Antonio’s underlying aesthetic that helps us decipher the meaning of the term “Puro,” and even the way Big Data obscures our perspective regarding community. While contemplating the inevitable demographic shift and what it will mean for the future of our city, state, region, and beyond, San Antonians are actively discovering our geographic and cultural identity.
A precursor to the UFL’s Future of South Summit and initiative, it is evident that the exponentiality of research, strategic partnerships, future investments, and our collaboration about marketability with Young & Rubicam has already shown an increase in investment activity from other Latino marketplaces, positively impacting the region.