May be the most memorable discussion since the breakfast keynote with Peter Shankman was the Regional Creative Economy Initiatives Panel. The highlight of it was definitely Karen Gagnon’s speech about the initiative called CoolCities, that addresses some urban revitalization and economy strategies in the state of Michigan. Her almost theatrical presentation and the stories told with a lot of humor not only entertained and kept the audience’s attention constantly, but also convinced in the success of such initiatives and spread optimism that the success that they had in Michigan could be achieved in Pennsylvania. According to Gagnon, who is a Program manager of CoolCities, Urban Revitalization Devision, the state of Michigan has been in recession for more than 10 years with a debt of billions of dollars. Then the current MA governor began talking about the creative economy and introducing new terms like “creative class”, “talent and place as currency”. CoolCities began as an attempt to change, transform the cities of Michigan into destinations for business and creative people. The problem and tasks were identified – cities needed to be reframed, and more importantly, they need an image, a story to attract young artists and entrepreneurs. Gagnon stressed on that word as it is of extreme importance to the management and revitalization of a city. Next, the CoolCities team did surveys and ask the public what they are proud about and what they find problematic. To illustrate the positive changes that came with effectively transforming public spaces and sponsoring small new art-related businesses Gagnon presented statistics showing the great leap from economy in crisis to a prospering economy.
Some of the other interesting moments were from the lecture by Jason Schupbach, Creative Economy Industry Director, Massachusettes Department of Business Development. His presentation introduced the audience to the successful initiatives in Massachusetts, which show that the requirements for successful creative economy support strategies require unity and consensus between all parties involved – public and private, profit and non-profit, as well as courage to execute a decision or plan without delay.
