Collaboration vs. Silos – You need to silo enough to recognize the key emphasis of your group – You need to know you like chocolate before you can try vanilla, but sometimes you need to try both.  You also need to know the key emphasis of other groups so you can cross promote and refer.    Collaboration allows you to come across things that will inspire you that you may not have found before.   Sometimes you need to network with others who don’t have the same perspective.   The leadership of the communities have to the driving force to bring collaboration.   The attitude of Collaboration vs. Silos becomes very different in different cultures and environments – ie.  tech vs non-profit vs arts vs entrpreneurial.

Philadelphia as a Creative Center

There are vibrant differences in the types of creativity being fostered in Philadelphia.  The various sub conversations among the participants is evident.  Philadelphia is unique as a creative center.  The environment  that is born of the history from Ben Franklin and the founding fathers binds the Philadelphia creative community in a method solely unique to the city.  The participants were impressed by the sheer volume of creative events born from the creative community in Philadelphia.   The creative community extends to the innovation occurring in the technology field.    One of the things that makes Philadelphia such a vibrant creative community is the affordable cost of living.  It allows the people in the creative community to be able to afford to pursue their passions.   The diversity and intersection of the industries, charities, education, culture and creative communities drive the economy in Philadelphia.    There is a strong interest by the general public in the cultivation of the creative community in Philadelphia.

Nurturing Creativity

You always have to find a way to attract the right audience whether that is a demographic or a culture.  You have to be creative on ways to nurture creativity.  The participants presented several different examples of creative ways different organizations are attracting new organizations.   Breaking down the stereotype of who is your audience becomes a necessary function of nurturing your creativity.   There has to be an exploration of new business models to allow greater flexibility, especially in the non-profit creative ventures.

Executing Your Big Idea

The participants were sharing their ideas and challenges getting their ideas executed.  Multiple discussions on how to get your big idea executed.  Various viewpoints on whether education and industry are supportive of execution.   How to use education and industry.  Biggest hurdle is funding.    Second biggest is fine tuning your idea.   Who have to know who your target audience/consumer is.  You have to know your goals.  The goals need to be defined and concrete.  You have to define your vision.   But you also have to be willing to be flexible and adaptable.   You have to manage your fear of failure in so that you are prepared to succeed.  A healthy fear of failure keeps you in check and focused.

Creative Economy and the Global Marketplace

Appreciation for the attention, positive attitude and funding for the creative economy. Groups like Innovation Philadelphia work to advocate for the local creative economy on a national and global level.  The creative economy is the future of most global  Improving and embracing our creative skills are the key to building a new economic culture.  We need to move our workforce into more avenues of the creative economy.  Innovation is the high octane fuel that drives the information economy.  Collaboration on both an individual and organizational level is a necessity to build the creative economy on a global level.    There has to be a cross-pollination of the creative movements across industries – for profits, non-profits, arts, education, technology, etc.   We all have different definitions of what creative economy means.  DCMS is an example to be followed.