It seems many endeavors, world class or regional, beg for a home field, a place to sit squarely on some type of map, geographical or otherwise. Wall Street is the mecca of financial markets. Madison Avenue is the hotbed of creative advertising.
Silicon Valley is the celebrated locus of emerging technology.
Not to be left out, there is a call to make New Jersey synonymous with telecommunications. Isenberg, along with the Advanced Telecommunications Institute of Stevens Institute of Technology, is attempting to pull the telecom community together by hosting a series of industry gatherings at the Hoboken university. It was Isenberg's idea to let the turnpike's infamous and widespread notoriety work for the cause. But some experts in the regional identity business don't think attempts to turn the blighted thoroughfare into a positive namesake are a good idea. And envy of the critical mass Silicon Valley has achieved among the technology-minded is at the core of this effort.