I think most of your are much more a seasoned traveler than I am, both domestically and internationally, but for some of the places I have visited, in the back of my mind, I would be like, nope, this area would never produce or attract the level of talent, companies or technologies, vs. pockets of the U.S. such as Silicon Valley, SF, Boston, and etc.
I mean, even for big college towns, say, Texas A&M at College Station, outside of those are tied down because they work on-site at the school, why would anybody stay after graduation…?