On the Road, MA - Crossing the bridge matters. Ow! I can almost hear the backlash to that comment right now, the singe of the flame that burns from the torch that says how self-sufficient and special our region is. But if we want to be taken seriously, cross the bridge we must.I recently crossed both the Bass River and the canal and lived to tell the tale. I was up in Cambridge for MHT’s Women to Watch awards evening which honors a group of women “who are dedicated to entrepreneurship, technological innovation and lifelong learning.” It was pretty cool to hear the stories from women who ranged from a president of a global pharmaceutical company, to company founders, to senior technology professionals.

It was even cooler to meet and mingle with the 300 or so attendees, people who are actively creating business around computers and energy and IT services and graphic arts and biotech and just an endless array of innovation sector companies. And it was invigorating to hear the stories of people who are working in science, technology, engineering, math, and entrepreneurial education at all levels.

But the coolest part was sharing the story of the Cape and SE MA back to all of these folks. You see, even though we know that there are lots of people creating products and businesses that compete globally in the innovation sector, most of the world doesn’t have a clue about this. And the only way they’ll get a clue is if we provide one.

Guess what? That means crossing the bridge. And doing so openly and with the intent of interacting with as many people as possible. We can no longer afford to be standoffish or to act like separatists. We can’t hide behind modesty and self-effacing behavior. And we really can’t afford to let the myth that the Cape and SE MA is a quaint backwater grow and spread.

I was tickled to see that the March issue of Wired (page 42, if you’d like to take a look) included Orleans (Unwired Village!) and Cape Cod on its map of public broadband. Of course with a headline that includes the phrase “In Places You’ve Never Heard of” the article was a bit of double-edged sword. But still, here in multiple Unwired Villages in Orleans and Falmouth, with test nodes in many other locations, we’ve successfully done something that our well-known tech centers have not accomplished with any greater success.

But, unless we tell the world, the world will not know this. And the world will continue to view our region as a place to rent a beach house, not a place to consider growing a business.

And guess what? People are interested. People would like to be here. In one small sample on one small evening, I had two people tell me they would love to live in our area, but didn’t think “anyone really worked here.” I had one person tell me she was relocating to our region for family reasons and was relieved to hear that it wasn’t a “dead zone.” One business talked about how it wanted to grow in the area. And an embarrassingly high number expressed surprise that there was any sort of technology on the Cape at all.

You can say that it doesn’t matter what people think. You can believe that words will never hurt us. You can mumble around about meaningless market fluff. You can take pride in being a well-kept secret. But if you do that, we’re going fall harder and harder until all those perceptions become our reality.

I use that personal pronoun very intentionally. You - and me, and everyone we do business with - have within each of us the power to spread the word and validate ourselves and our region as a place where cool and interesting things are happening. By talking about what we do and what our companies do, we are changing the myth. By being present and proactive and visible we show the proof that there’s more to us than cranberries and beach sand.

We can’t expect the world to come to us. So we must go the world. Networking events in Waltham, tech meetups in Boston, awards ceremonies in Cambridge … In order for the denizens of 128 and Boston to see us, we must first be seen.

And yes, dear reader, that means crossing the bridge. But you know what, the bridge goes two ways and nothing feels sweeter than the return trip. If you haven’t showed off your company lately, give it a try. You’ll be surprised how a few hours on the other side can change our world in positive and exciting ways.