creative class communities initiatives
Tacoma, WA
Love Tacoma (Social Networking Program)
A group who coordinates and promotes events that bring young people to local venues to participate in cultural offerings – glass blowing, boutique tours, new neighborhood crawls, farmers’ market.
Arts Business Ecosystem (Arts Incubator)
A long-term project to build a multi-use art-business incubation campus that houses live/work studio space, shared support resources, classrooms, etc.
Green Alliance (Business Council)
A local association of businesses, government, and consumers to promote regionally produced green projects, products, and services.
Connected Individuality (Internship Program)
An internship program that places high school juniors in local companies to give students-of-color more work experience and professional contacts.
El Paso, TX
Binational Downtown Design Competition
An urban planning competition to design a cultural district that connects the downtown areas of El Paso, TX and Ciudad Juarez.
Digital El Paso (Free Wireless Network)
A free wireless network in the city of El Paso, TX coupled with technology redistribution programs. This project has given free technological resources to the region’s poor.
T3 (Mentoring Program)
A training program focused on cultural diversity. Target audiences include students, businesses and law enforcement.
EcoAwareness Council (Business Council)
A local business association focused on promoting regional ecotourism assets.
Border Canvas (Sculpture Garden)
A sculpture garden featuring work of local artists located on a piece of reclaimed land along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Tallahassee, FL
Tallahassee Film Festival (Cultural Celebration)
A three-day celebration of the region’s existing, emerging, and overlooked filmmaking talent. Also includes K-12 and college education programming.
Get Gaines Going (Neighborhood Revitalization Advocacy)
An advocacy group working to eliminate hurdles and create incentives for decision makers involved in revitalizing the central business cooridor on Gaines Street.
Greenovation (Environmental Advocacy Projects)
An umbrella organization focused on sustainable business and living practices. Projects include educational and recycling-in-schools programs, smart transportation policy advocacy, a regional green product and service inventory and building an urban green-design studio.
Jump Start Plan X (Small Business Incubator)
A business incubator designed to support small business creation. Programs include resource connections, community financing bank and physical office space.
Charlotte, NC
Charlotte Blog Project (Community Website)
A website to link to and host blogs on all subjects related to Charlotte.
E-Merging Arts (Public Art Project)
An effort to install local emerging artists’ work in public spaces, corporate lobbies, and other walkways and host a website to then sell the art to local buyers.
Third Places (Social Networking Program)
A branding effort to identify local workspaces for the mobile creative class. Participating venues – such as independent coffee shops - determine ‘office hours’ and offer small specials and coupons, which are then promoted on a local website to area freelance workers.
Green 100 (Environmental Advocacy Project)
A recognition and promotion project for green innovation that will 1) award 100 area leaders, organizations, and companies that are advancing sustainable practices and 2) host a 100-mile hybrid car race at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Creativity Festival (Cultural Celebration)
An outdoor festival to celebrate the companies, organizations and individuals innovating and creating in Charlotte.
International Corridor Project (Neighborhood Revitalization Advocacy)
A community advocacy group working to support and link organizations engaged in the revitalization of an ethnically diverse lower-income residential corridor. The goal is to promote this area as the international crossroads in Charlotte, increase public appreciation of the growing multi-cultural community and in turn foster more economic development.
Duluth - Twin Ports, MN
Brain Gain (Young People Retention Projects)
These representatives from area colleges and universities are working to find homes for special projects, including The 10,000 Hours Show and 40 Below, that welcome and connect students/graduates to Twin Ports communities and business.
We Mean Green (Environmental Advocacy Projects)
A group focused on developing eco-industrial opportunities and supporting green innovation to attract the creative class and venture capital and promote innovation. At the last check-in they were still inventorying local assets and interests and had not picked any clear direction.
Art Works (Art-Business Summit)
A business-arts summit on improving the livability of the area, encouraging creativity in business and art industries, and increasing local consumption of arts and culture opportunities.
Pathways (Bike Trails and Amenities)
A team focused on making Duluth-Superior a bike-friendly metro area by facilitating the creation of bike lanes, installing public bike storage decorated by local artists, connecting existing bike trails and distributing an accompanying trail map, and hosting a local bike race.
Mix It Up (Tolerance Advocacy Project)
A marketing project aiming to demonstrate the economic impact of diversity in the workplace and broader community.
Dayton, OH
The Young Creatives Summit
Young talent is leaving the region and it is hurting the area’s ability to grow economically. We propose the first annual Young Creatives Summit, which will bring together diverse young talent, business leaders, non-profits, universities and elected officials, to address the flight of young talent from the region. The Young Creatives Summit will air the concerns of young people, engage them in the region’s decision making process, and help build a shared vision of how the region can be improved.
This Is Dayton
“This Is Dayton” is focused on rebuilding community pride. The initiative will highlight the region’s many unique assets and diverse population through billboards, kiosks, bus signage, and window signage throughout the region. By rebuilding community pride, residents will become ambassadors promoting the area’s strengths- thus making the region attractive.
The Innovation Collaborative
The area’s rich concentration of artists, engineers and skilled workers are unique regional assets. Our mission is to integrate these talented groups into synergistic relationships to stimulate a stronger economy and promote job creation through innovative collaboration. To initiate this collaborative discussion, our group will issue an annual challenge to collaborative teams of artists, engineers and skilled workers.
Film Dayton
The Film Dayton Initiative will support, retain, and attract local creative talent, a key indicator of the region’s ability to achieve economic competitiveness in a creative economy. Film Dayton will leverage existing assets of regional filmmakers, cast and crew, institutional programs, and related technology in order to grow the existing industry and to export the region’s film product. This will raise awareness of the region and its strengths.
Dayton Creative Incubator
The Dayton Creative Incubator Initiative is conceived as a project to bring life back to one or several vacant downtown spaces by working with building owners to allow local artists to use the spaces for creating and displaying art- as well as providing community spaces where artists, musicians and other creatives can hang out, network and simply exchange creative ideas.
Noosa, Australia
Noosa A-Live – Feel the Vibe
Designed to connect and support artists, performers and creatives via a series of events, night markets, etc.
Green Sunshine
The aim is to build a regional framework to deliver green initiatives including a sustainable streetscapes program.
Ignition
Showcase diversity through new media powered by youth, resulting in a new media festival in May 2009.
Enterprise Excellence
Feature the Sunshine Coast as a centre of entrepreneurial excellence by building off existing networks and business programs.
creative communities leadership project
The Creative Communities Leadership Project (CCLP) gives emerging leaders the tools they need to generate greater economic prosperity in their region.
Community Workshop:
- Two Day intensive workshop with our team of experienced community researchers.
- Empowering your leaders to move your community forward.
- Six months of ongoing support and dialogue with Creative Class Group team members.
Tools include:
- A proprietary framework for building regional prosperity
- Cutting-edge community-building practices
- Tool kit and playbook filled with the most current regional economic demographic information
The 4T’s
Based on Richard Florida’s international model of 3T’s economic development, Talent, Tolerance, Technology and the Creative Class’s Group addition of Territorial Assets – we have a one-of-a-kind comprehensive framework for building regional prosperity. Using these proven tools of success, our team of experienced community builders will train 3-6 of your local emerging leaders train the catalysts. After this two day workshop, your facilitators will fully understand the region’s current situation and will have the tools necessary to engage their fellow residents in building a stronger community.
Testimonials
A few words from our current Catalysts:
“The El Paso CCLP raises the consciousness of our community's quest for a better business environment based on a creative approach to technological businesses. The interaction of our participants and their ideas is generating communication across cultural, professional and personal roles and allows our region to look at ourselves in a fresh manner.”
“The two days we spent with the Creative Class Group were filled with amazing untapped energy, it was infectious. The knowledge we gained and the momentum generated for community initiatives was priceless.”
“I'm very excited about the [CCLP] project and in fact, feel as if this is not going to be another 'white paper' no one will ever read, but rather actions that will definitely impact this area for years to come.”
“The information presented was excellent, the facilitators were interested in us, insightful and highly approachable.”
“To get Richard Florida[‘s Group] to teach you how to create an environment for growth is like getting daVinci to teach you how to draw.”
“I have seen first hand in other cities how a vibrant work force is attracted to places that are thinking progressively, the creative class approach is not a substitute for classic economic development, but it's a layer of it.”
“Arts organizations have rallied behind the idea since October, we in the arts community have been working for years to leverage what we have here and see this as a confirmation of the torch we are all already carrying. It's not about whether all the entities here are doing their job. It's how to make what they're doing part of the solution in attracting the creative class.”
“Florida’s research has shown that today’s creative businesses are drawn to cities and locations that already possess the Creative Class members in action. It is these creative businesses that the Noosa Creative Alliance is trying to attract. They are innovative businesses that will strengthen and diversify the Noosa economy through high economic returns but a low environmental impact. They are the right type of businesses to grow with Noosa.”
About the two-day workshop: “We were given the most current regional economic and demographic data as well as cutting-edge community building practices to assist us with working out where our regional strengths and weaknesses lie.”... “Being empowered with such research and tools, gives us the power to make informed decisions on how to move our community forward.”
For more information
Please contact Steven Pedigo at steven@creativeclass.com
for speech requests, email Rana rana@creativeclass.com
For Community Workshops
Please contact Steven Pedigo at steven@creativeclass.com
for speech requests, email Rana rana@creativeclass.com