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The Morgan Hill Downtown Association is busy gearing up for its annual Wine Week, a series of wine-related events occurring in the downtown area on evenings leading up to the Morgan Hill Wine Stroll on April 25. Since the main event began in 2009, the Wine Stroll has been an opportunity for local businesses to attract new visitors and for wine lovers to taste wines from local wineries, all in the downtown area of Morgan Hill.

On June 2, I had the opportunity to spend some time with visionaries. Not the type of visionaries that change a community or the landscape you live in—although I guess ones I’m talking about can do that too—but the kind that provides previously unimagined conveniences and change how we live and function.I have to admit that I may initially think about some of our local folks when I think about that kind of visionary. But my mind typically goes north to all of the innovation that has made Silicon Valley what it is today, which is not just a place but a way of thinking and behaving.That way of thinking just changed a bit for me after attending the first ”Morgan Hill Disrupt Forum.” This was a day where the focus was on innovation and how to bring more of those that innovate to Morgan Hill.Let’s make no mistake that there are already great innovators here right now. We have a visionary that dreams of hydrogen power for all, a company that has brought the technology of Formula 1 to human powered bicycles and one that protects the grey matter between our ears if we fall off that two-wheeled technology. But I don’t feel the buzz of innovation.I grew up on the Peninsula and worked building high tech facilities. In that environment, the buzz of innovation was everywhere. In a coffee shop, cafeteria, park bench, meeting room—there was all of this palpable energy that there was something happening or about to happen.I sensed that buzz in the room at the Morgan Hill Disrupt Forum. Please forgive me if there is already a buzz of innovation in town and I’m just missing it (spend some time with Mike Cox and you’ll feel that energy around him like a force field). But it was fantastic for me to see the focus on it that day.The group who worked to put that event together should be lauded for their vision too. As mentioned, I usually think of Silicon Valley as the place of innovation. Well, we are a part of Silicon Valley and the organizers brought in one of those people that makes a living recognizing innovation and trends, and has mountains of statistics to prove we lead the world in innovation: Russell Hancock.Hancock is the president of Joint Venture Silicon Valley. I’ve seen him speak on several occasions at the State of the Valley Conference. The man has his fingers on the pulse of innovation and trends in the Valley, and he was here June 2 stumping for innovation to take a more prominent role in our economic development.For some time, there has been a discussion amongst our local visionaries about being that friendly and encouraging place for those willing to take the chance to succeed, or fail, on a dream—to create an incubator for innovators. The seeds of innovation were already here with our cadre of established innovators. Maybe openly promoting Morgan Hill as a place friendly to innovation will act as a catalyst and fertilizer to push us to be known as the new home for innovation.Let innovation grow in a place known for its fertile fields.John McKay is president of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association, city planning commissioner and co-founder of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance. He can be contacted at [email protected].

Next week will be the culmination of months of work for a wonderful and committed group of volunteers. All this hard work will bear fruit April 23 to 29 in the Morgan Hill Downtown Association’s Wine & Food Week and the Wine Stroll.Most of you, hopefully, will recognize the Wine & Food Week as a week where wine and food take center stage, and the Wine Stroll as a fun way to taste some great local wines, shop, dine, and socialize—all in the wonderful setting that is our downtown.The Wine Stroll is a fundraiser for the Downtown Association and like so many other fundraisers, in our community known for giving, you get the benefit of helping a good cause while having fun.The Wine & Food Week and Wine Stroll are special to me because not only are they “fun-raisers,” but they’re also aimed at exposing more people to our restaurants and shops downtown, as well as the Santa Clara Valley wine region.We get to make the events all about our downtown, community and region and the lucky ticket holders are immersed in it.I’d like to provide a little insight into the Wine Stroll that I bet most of you never think about—why do our businesses and the wineries participate?For some, it’s obvious—exposure. People being in a great mood puts a different lens on their day, and the hope is these same people will see something they’ll want to revisit later, maybe come back to the downtown and wineries to re-create fun memories.Some of our downtown businesses actually lose money for the day because their regular customers will avoid the crowds. Most of these businesses are pragmatic and see the overall benefit that this kind of exposure brings to the downtown. Some of this is done just to support the Downtown Association.The wineries are the featured guests and are compensated for the wine they pour. But in most cases, the compensation doesn’t really cover their costs. Many of these wineries also look at the Wine Stroll as a marketing opportunity and want the exposure, but many do not feel that this exposure benefits them.Wineries would like their guests to pause, taste their wine and engage in conversation. Seeing close to 1,000 customers doesn’t leave a lot of opportunity to do any of those things. So a good number of the wineries are doing something that we greatly appreciate: they are participating in the Wine Stroll out of community spirit, a belief that we can all work together to make not only Morgan Hill but the region a destination for wine, food and shopping.And thus, besides the Wine Stroll on Saturday, April 29, we have a week of wine and food related events starting April 23.During Wine & Food Week you’ll find no corkage fees on local wines at many local restaurants, special food and wine pairings and complete winemaker dinners (wines specially paired with each unique course of the dinner).This is the week that the businesses and wineries really enjoy because of the personal contact and manageable customer numbers.  Please come out and have a good time and support your downtown all next week. For more information about these events, visit morganhilldowntown.org/.John McKay is a Morgan Hill resident, president of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association and co-founder of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance. He can be reached at [email protected].