Think Bigger. Think Differently: Hugh Weber

As CEO of OTA, a network-building initiative for the three-state region, Hugh Weber proselytizes daily on the power of “creative collisions — those chance meetings and serendipitous encounters that can completely change your trajectory.”

So where does the Sioux Falls social entrepreneur find it? “The Queen City Bakery on Eighth Street is where I go when I’m in need of inspiration or intersection. It’s a place where on any given day you can find educators and entrepreneurs, community builders and members of the creative class,” says Weber, who offices nearby just to bask in the diverse crowd the café attracts, and for easy access to the bakery’s famed Brooklyn Blackout Cake. “There is the side benefit of having the best baked goods in the whole United States.”

Queen City Bakery is the brainchild of Mitch Jackson and Kristine Moberg, a South Dakota couple who “boomeranged” back to the state after living in New York City, a circular route that Weber says can be great boon to innovation and creativity across the Bush Foundation region. “You don’t want to encourage youth to leave, but you do want to encourage them to explore, and then provide them a landing place where they can return and thrive.”

IF YOU GO: Order an Americano and a peanut butter square, a nearly frozen confection that Weber says “will always treat you well.”