Services

Creative Communities

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 of economic development – Talent, Tolerance and Technology – and the Creative Class’s Group addition of Territorial Assets, the Creative Communities Leadership Project provides 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 to 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

• “Working with the Creative Class Group to deliver Noosa’s CCLP has been an inspirational journey. This 12 months project has been a great experience for myself as Project Manager, the Noosa catalysts and the Noosa community. From the two day CCLP to the ongoing follow ups the CCG team has been there to guide as needed. As the project moves into a sustainable model still striving to increase Noosa’s economic base we look forward to keeping in touch and sharing our successes.”- Libby Callister, Project Manager, Noosa Creative Alliance
• “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.”- Peter C., Chief Technology Officer, El Paso County
• “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.”- Comment from a 4T Seminar Anonymous Evaluation, Tallahassee, FL
• “The information presented was excellent, the facilitators were interested in us, insightful and highly approachable.”- Comment from a 4T Seminar Anonymous Evaluation, Charlotte, NC
• “To get Richard Florida[‘s Group] to teach you how to create an environment for growth is like getting da Vinci to teach you how to draw.”- Rob W., CEO, Area Partnership for Economic Expansion (APEX), Duluth, MN
• “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.”- Greg Brumitt, Recreation Director & Task Force Member, Dayton, Ohio
• “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.”- Denise Reig, President, Culture Works, Dayton, Ohio

Creative Class Communities initiatives

• Roanoke, VA

  

  • CNR 2030: Growing a Carbon-Neutral Region

    This initiative will partner with others throughout the region to educate and engage the community toward the achievement of sustainable living. CNR 2020 will also position the region as a proving ground for sustainable technologies. As progression toward the goal occurs, the region will attract new businesses, generate new jobs and become a model community for sustainable living. The ultimate goal is for the region to be carbon neutral by 2030.

  • 81 Reasons to Connect

    This year-long engagement will connect the Roanoke and Blacksburg MSAs through three key areas – economic development, attraction and retention of creative professionals, and leveraging our natural resources. This effort will be seeking feedback from at least 40 already identified regional organizations and the general public.

  • The Spirit of Tolerance and Art in the Region

    STAR is a movement toward inclusion. This is an umbrella initiative building upon existing events and organizations, as well as creating new initiatives such as BridgeWalk, the Open Doors Series, and the STAR event. The STAR movement will create a Web site and an online calendar. The aim is to have at least one new or existing event per month, beginning with Local Colors in May

  • YEA! Youth Experiencing the Amenities

    The mission of YEA! is to grow Roanoke’s Creative Class from within by encouraging youth to work, play, live, and stay in the region. Many of the region’s youth lack significant opportunity to experience the region’s amenities and economic opportunities. Plus, a new, expanding audience for cultural and recreational amenities is needed. To this end, volunteerism will be promoted by working with local arts and entertainment amenities to offer incentives by donating excess capacity at their events and venues.

• 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 corridor 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.