The name 83 Degrees emerged simply enough at sunset on a perfect day in April 2009 among a small group of early adaptors to the concept of creating a new weekly online magazine to showcase the region's success stories.
We were gathered around three tables on the balcony of the Columbia Cafe at the newly opened
Tampa Bay History Center talking about the magazine's plans to showcase Tampa Bay's TIDE - Talent, Innovation, Diversity, Environment - and how we would shape its content.
Sipping a round of
Ybor Gold, Mojitos and Sangria in a toast to the city's culture and its surroundings, we talked about what unites Hillsborough, Pinellas, Polk, Pasco, Hernando, Manatee and Sarasota counties, and how the media plays a role in the mood of a region as well as in how it is perceived elsewhere.
We listed community assets and opportunities in the context of global competition, and considered how we would best tell stories that help change the narrative about who we are, what we do and where we love to live, work and play.
Consensus quickly built around the idea that the Tampa Bay region's climate - both weather and economic - sets us apart for attracting and doing business, for inspiring youthful minds and experienced thinkers, for welcoming newcomers and learning from natives, for nurturing all of us who seek greater knowledge, lasting relationships and a better life.
How to define that climate? Well, of course, check an I-Phone weather app! And there it was: 83 Degrees, the perfect temperature for new ideas, innovations and investments in the place we call home.
Diane Egner, publisher and managing editor of 83 Degrees, is a South Tampa-based journalist who finds inspiration bicycling along Bayshore Boulevard and on the Pinellas Trail. Comments? Contact 83 Degrees.
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Diane Egner is a community leader and award-winning journalist with more than four decades of experience reporting and writing about the Tampa Bay Area of Florida. She serves on the boards of the University of South Florida Zimmerman School of Advertising & Mass Communications Advisory Council, The Institute for Research in Art (Graphicstudio, the Contemporary Art Museum, and USF’s Public Art Program) Community Advisory Council, Sing Out and Read, and StageWorks Theatre Advisory Council. She also is a member of Leadership Florida and the Athena Society. A graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BA in journalism, she won the top statewide award for editorial writing from the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors while at The Tampa Tribune and received special recognition by the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists for creative work as Content Director at WUSF Public Media. Past accomplishments and community service include leadership positions with Tampa Tiger Bay Club, USF Women in Leadership & Philanthropy (WLP), Alpha House of Tampa Bay, Awesome Tampa Bay, Florida Kinship Center, AIA Tampa Bay, Powerstories, Arts Council of Hillsborough County, and the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. Diane and her husband, Sandy Rief, live in Tampa.