Create West Virginia

Wow....And Thank You

After last year's inaugural Create WV conference, we wondered if we could recreate the same magic that was sparked by so many people from so many different parts of the state with so many different backgrounds coming together to explore this "creative community" concept.

This year's 2nd Create WV conference was different and special in its own way. Snowshoe Mountain was beautiful (and cold at times!) and more spread out. The audience was much larger. But the end result was just as magical:  Hundreds of creative West Virginians banding together to learn about and discuss major challenges and exciting opportunities for their communities and our state.

We have so many to thank. The attendees, the volunteer organizers, the speakers, the sponsors. In coming days we'll be sharing the slide presentations and handouts, photos and videos and comments from the attendees.

For now, we leave with a quiet, yet excited, confidence that the future is very bright for our state because of our commitment to creatively shaping it together. If you attended the conference, we'd love to hear from you with a post on this site or an email to [email protected].

Let's go create!

Pre-Conference Thoughts: It's Been a Creative Year!

As we get set to launch the Create WV 2008 Conference today, we asked ourselves "Has there been any impact on West Virginia in the past 12 months? Do we see tangible progress towards building the New Economy?"

We asked in a survey "Is your community actively including key pillars of building creative communities for the new economy in your local growth and development plans?" And here's what you said:

• We're actively infusing new economy thinking into our plans - 33%
• We're just getting started, but we're committed - 38%
• Not sure - 5%
• Not yet - It's not well understood, but we're open to the possibility - 14%
• Not at all - It's not understood or accepted in our area - 10%

That's pretty good momentum. We also asked you to help us build a list of what's going on out there. And boy did we come away feeling excited! Here are just a FEW of the highlights from the last 12 months:

QUALITY OF PLACE

• Community Development Hub launched
• 40% increase in total arts funding in West Virginia
• Create Huntington and the Old Main Corridor Project
• WV Music Hall of Fame launched
• Chuck Mathena Center in Princeton opened
• Gary Bowling's House of Art opened in Bluefied
• Clay Center Community Arts Programs in Mingo, Logan, Kanawha, Lincoln, Clay
• 30th Anniversary of the Morgan Arts Council!
• American Mountain Theater opened in Elkins
• Pocahontas County Artisan Co-Op and Opera House
• Charleston's East End Wi-Fi program launch

DIVERSITY

• Diversity Leadership Academy and Communities United Against Hate forums in Charleston
• One WVU Campaign
• Five Inclusive Communities program members in WV: Morgantown, Parkersburg, Clarksburg, Huntington, Ranson
• "Communities in Schools" in Greenbrier County

TECHNOLOGY and R&D

• Bucks for Brains and Bucks for Jobs program passes
• NETL Tech Support Facility in Morgantown
• CWP Inc - Fossil fuels research partnership with WVU, Carnegie Mellon and Pitt
• Statewide broadband plan revealed
• Robert C. Byrd Science and Tech Center at Marshall
• Marshall Institute for Interdisciplinary Research launched
• MATRIC expansion in South Charleston
• Tech Connect WV reveals Blueprint for Tech-Based Economic Development
• State support for SBIR grants
• Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute
• WV Angel Investor Network

EDUCATION AND TALENT

• 21st Century Learning Initiative by WV Dept of Education
• Center for Educational Technology at Wheeling Jesuit
• STEM initiative at Marshall University
• Come Home to WV campaign by WV Dept of Commerce
• Globaloria program - learning via online gaming

We know there are more, so please take the 5-10 minute survey to let us know what is going on in your community! There is nothing better to build momentum in our state than to share the progress that is happening in every county.

Coming Home Stories

West Virginia's Commerce Department, lead by Cabinet Secretary Kelley Goes, has quietly been implementing the "Come Home to West Virginia" campaign suggested by Governor Manchin in his last State of the State address.

You'll be seeing quite a few creative elements to this campaign shortly, including a sneak peek at the Create WV conference. But in the near-term, they have released a series of interesting stories of West Virginians who have already come home to create a new life and new opportunities for others in our great state.

What do you think, can we create a mini-boom of expatriates returning to the state to spark a wave of growth that will then attract others to create new opportunities here?

Check them out, and forward to your friends and family members to tantalize them with the thought of coming home to West Virginia - a great state to create!

Create Huntington Wants to Bridge Gaps, Welcome Diversity

The Huntington Herald-Dispatch has tuned into the grass roots movement Create Huntington and the peoples' efforts to forge an exciting future for West Virginia's "other" major college town:

Marshall President Stephen Kopp and Huntington Mayor David Felinton established a steering committee for the Create Huntington project, which asks, what’s your vision for the city of Huntington?

As part of the steering committee’s search for a livable, progressive, creative community, they learned that the city has a rich cultural history. Prospects for the city seem favorable for attracting the creative class, who can choose where they work and live thanks to communications technology. Specifically, the group wants to connect the dots from missing components to ideas that will increase the city’s uniqueness and livability.

There is great momentum, passion and leadership in Huntington - the recipe for meaningful change. You'll learn more about what's going on in Huntington in the Resources & Tactics track at the Create WV Conference Oct 20-22 on Showshoe Mountain.

Need a Good Real Estate Investment? Follow an Artist

We were happy to find yet another validating article that reinforces one of the strategies we've championed via Create WV. BusinessWeek outlines why artists are a driving force in redevelopment:

The reason is that artists are happy to move where real estate investors aren't prepared to go—crime-ridden inner cities with trashed-out apartments, inside rat-infested buildings that seem destined for the wrecking ball.

Artists aren't looking for the next hot neighborhood, just large, affordable spaces where they can grind, hammer, saw, and generally make a racket in the name of creativity. But they often set the stage for redevelopment, and home buyers who follow their lead can sometimes get in while real estate prices are affordable.

Can this model work in rural, small town West Virginia? It can, and it has. Artists were core drivers in the success of Berkeley Springs and Lewisburg. Small cities such as Cumberland, MD, have used "arts and cultural district" designations to spark artist relocation programs, which in turn have sparked growth in their formerly dying downtown area.

Artists are artists due to many non-financial motivations, but one can't help but think if they positioned themselves as real estate tastemakers they could earn quite a bit as economic development consultants. At the very least, this growing awareness should generate more appreciation, inclusion and support for artists in your community and throughout West Virginia.

Psst, Young Professionals...What's on Your Mind?

Only three days left to help Generation West Virginia obtain 1,000+ responses to their economic demographic survey. The cutoff is Wednesday, October 1, 2008, so if you haven’t already submitted your feedback, please log onto:

http://www.cesdonline.org/surveys/GenWV

Your input is extremely valuable! Not only will the results of this survey be used to inform GWV's programmatic agenda, but state leaders are anxiously awaiting these findings knowing that the data provided may help unlock the mystery behind how to entice our 'best and brightest' to call West Virginia home.

Other questions? Please visit http://www.generationwestvirginia.com or email [email protected]. 

Catching Creative Economy Dreams

There are a handful of creative economy pioneers in West Virginia who are still going strong. Scot Jackson and his Dreamcatcher web services firm, launched in Charleston in 1996, are certainly among those who have blazed the high-tech trail within this industry segment.

Scot and his growing staff were profiled in the Charleston Gazette-Mail. We're also pleased to note that Dreamcatcher was selected to re-design the createwv.com web site, which (fingers crossed) should be completed this fall to enhance our ability to stay connected and share new economy best practices and ideas across the state.

Scot is also a major supporter of West Virginia's creative economy growth and finding ways to hire great local talent. "The push for creative business is a good thing. Most [local creative talent] want to stay," he said. "We try to figure out a way to use them."

There are creative, web-centric businesses like Dreamcatcher popping up all over West Virginia, some in places many would not expect. For example, Matterhorn Marketing, an Internet search engine optimization and marketing firm focused on the tourism industry, is based in Hico.

The beauty of these growing businesses is their ability to locate themselves almost anywhere and serve markets within West Virginia and beyond. The major growth inhibitors aren't necessarily tax related or legal climate (although we certainly agree those need work); it is the ability to find or attract the creative talent required to fuel these businesses. That's why Create WV and others are championing West Virginia's need to improve and market our "quality of place," those tangible and intangible characteristics that make a place attractive for young talent to thrive.

With this model, the economic development slogan shifts somewhat to "build it and they will come" to "they (creative entrepreneurs) will come and build it."

New Songs, New Talent Found by WV Group

For the past seven years, NewSong has been a highly respected source for discovering, nurturing and launching new singer-songwriter talent to the world. Through an array of contests, events and academies, NewSong encourages new musical artists to spread their wings and reach new heights.

NewSong, which is owned by investors in West Virginia and New York, has helped launch numerous artists. You can find a sample on YouTube or the NewSong web site.

NewSong has crafted a highly successful partnership with West Virginia Public Broadcasting's own Mountain Stage. You will often hear NewSong contest winners on a Mountain Stage show, and the two organizations have partnered to deliver the Mountain Stage NewSong Contest in the United States and Canada. Regional contests have been, or are being, held in cities around the country such as Austin, TX, Atlanta, Chicago, LA, and New York City.

We were thrilled to learn that Huntington's Jeff Ellis was the winner of the Southeast Regional contest in Atlanta. Congratulations Jeff!

The Mountain Stage NewSong Contest culminates with the final competition right here in West Virginia on October 11. The finals will be held at the Cultural Center in Charleston, with the winner debuting on Mountain Stage the very next night.

We encourage everyone in West Virginia to consider coming to support this great event with such a powerful national reputation for discovering and developing new creative talent! Watch for ticket information on the NewSong site for the finals contest, and the Mountain Stage site for the October 12 show. 

For those considering attending the Create WV Conference Oct 20-22, 2008, at Snowshoe Mountain Resort, consider this a teaser that you might find some NewSong talent in the lineup. 

Creative Class Roadkill

Dr. Richard Florida, the leading voice of the creative class concept, often highlights the fact that creative class workers cluster together in just a handful of major creative hubs in the U.S. and the world.

What does this mean for those regions that do not currently have the creative magnet industries? Should we give up and stick to traditional "old economy" industries, or work harder to develop critical mass and momentum in the creative industries?

Clearly we in the Create WV initiative believe in the latter. West Virginia may never achieve the creative industry scale of Southern or Northern California, or Boston, New York or Washington, DC/Northern Virginia. However, the creative sector already accounts for well over 1/4 of all West Virginia's jobs, and it is the fastest-growing segment according to Workforce WV reports.

Although West Virginia will never be a Detroit in terms of auto manufacturing (which is a good thing, these days), we can still be the very best we can be by building a high-tech auto manufacturing niche (which we have been doing). In the same way, there is no reason that West Virginia can't become a unique, attractive base for creative class entrepreneurs and workers who are more inclined to set up their creative shop in a rural setting than a major urban center. 

Benchmarking Our Creative Efforts With the World

Now and then, it's a good thing to check in on other regions and their efforts to build a creative economy and attract the creative class of entrepreneurs/employees that are required for it to thrive. Here are a few groups around the country (and world). What can we learn from their successes and failures?

• Innovation Philadelphia
• Creative Alliance - Baltimore (Arts-centric)
• Midcoast Magnet - Maine
• EngenuitySC - Columbia, South Carolina region
• Creative Scotland
• Creative Economy - Australia
• China Daily - not a group, but a fascintating news article outlining China's approach

Most groups seem to tilt towards art or technology, but rarely both (with the exception of Innovation Philadelphia, which seems to "get it" the most that these things go together). Very few mention the critical role of 21st-century education and the innovation we desperately need in our school systems to prepare kids to be lifelong, creative thinkers/workers vs. "trained" employees.

In most cases, the broad pillars that support the creative economy are shared goals by several West Virginia groups. For example, Generation West Virginia seeks to attract and retain more young professionals. The Young Entrepreneurs Support Network seeks to connect budding business start-up owners. A few groups are focusing on strengthening the technology (TBED) and arts/cultural industries. Two groups are merging to focus more effort on community development. Most are associated in some form with Vision Shared funded by the Benedum Foundation.

One thing seems certain: West Virginia needs to carve out a creative niche in order to compete with the myriad of other regions seeking to build this aspect of their economy. It's critical that all of our West Virginia-based groups collaborate closesly for maximum impact. The good news is, in the creative economy, it's not a zero sum game. The more ideas, the more entrepreneurship, the more wealth that can be created and hopefully enjoyed by numerous regions.