tom fleming / creative consultancy / ‘Welcoming and co-operative hosts to the creative workforce’ Kent Cultural Summit III, Monday 19 April 2010

tom fleming / creative consultancy / about us We are a high profile creative economy and cultural planning consultancy based in London, and we offer policy and industry leadership across the creative, cultural and knowledge economy. Through research, strategy and partnership, we position creativity as a key tool for economic and social development.

tom fleming / creative consultancy / Desenvolvi mento de um ‘cluster’ Das Industrias Creativas Na Regiao Norte

tom fleming / creative consultancy / Five Opportunities; Three Considerations

tom fleming / creative consultancy / Consideration 1: Intelligence & Target ‘Sub-sectors’ - Which parts of the creative industries are we focusing on? - Different parts of the County have a distinctive profile and offer - Is it a wider ‘creative workforce’ agenda? - How do we grow from what we have and indeed grow what we have? - What is achievable locally Vs approaches that require regional and national input? - How do we measure impact – KPIs for business Vs KPIs for strategists?

tom fleming / creative consultancy / Consideration 2: Industrial Policy Vs Civic Boosterism - Creative businesses are producers and are attracted by a mix of industrial hygiene factors - Sector strategy should complement but not be dependent on ‘cultural’ and ‘quality of life’ factors - The relationship between higher growth creative businesses and the cultural ecology needs to be understood more clearly - The anticipated ‘value-adding’ role of creative workers and businesses needs definition

tom fleming / creative consultancy / Consideration 3: Supporting the ‘Exceptional’ Qualities of Creative Businesses - Creativity Vs Business - Portfolio & Project Focused - Combination of ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ skills - Low tangible assets - Need access to ‘privileged networks’ - ‘Prosumption’ - Embedded in place but globally connected

tom fleming / creative consultancy / Opportunity 1: The Intersection - “What is needed are not new or adapted instruments for knowledge transfer, but something quite different: the spaces in which interactions can take place” (Geoffrey Crossick, A lecture to the Royal Society of Arts) - Brokered networks with access to ‘privileged knowledge’, services and markets - Flexible co-created workspace & activity space; the formal relaxes into the informal - Plug-in opportunities for mobile creatives - A role for cultural infrastructure – the spikes & ‘sticky spaces’

tom fleming / creative consultancy / Opportunity 2: The Connected Next-generation, super-fast broadband will be a vital part of the emerging creative economy’s infrastructure, enabling dramatic improvements in connectivity and offering new possibilities for businesses, public services and local communities. - Attracting the growth orientated and highly mobile - Increasing the pervasiveness of connectivity - Providing knowledge on a multi-platform & multi-channel basis - Reducing entry costs for micro creatives - Brokering collaboration across the value chain

tom fleming / creative consultancy / Opportunity 3: The Convergent ‘Creativity’ is the generation of new ideas – either new ways of looking at existing problems, or of seeing new opportunities, perhaps by exploiting emerging technologies or changes in markets. ‘Innovation’ is the successful exploitation of new ideas. It is the process that carries them through to new products, new services, new ways of running the business or even new ways of doing business. - Opening up HEIs as brokers of convergent knowledge - Championing interdisciplinary working - Embracing risk

tom fleming / creative consultancy / Economic Drivers: Cost Location Value-chains & Markets Cultural Drivers: Integrity/brand Connectivity Inspiration Social Drivers: Knowledge Informality ‘The pioneers’ Opportunity 4: The Pioneering - A central role in place-shaping - A new agenda for creative work

tom fleming / creative consultancy / Opportunity 5: The Smart & the Slow "It's about the speed in our lives and how it can only result in a crash“ (Hussein Chalayan) - Locally embedded, globally conscious application of creativity - Development of an ecology of social innovators and smart creatives - Networks, services & branding & signage to link competitiveness to quality, integrity & consciousness - Talent strategy for connected, high speed, yet locally embedded practice

“A recession can be a good time to re-think corporate strategy, products, and especially R&D approaches. Indeed, what many companies want to achieve is the next breakthrough that launches the organisation forward or in a new direction - a disruptive innovation.” This applies to places as well as companies tom fleming / creative consultancy /

about us We are a high profile creative economy and cultural planning consultancy based in London, and we offer policy and industry leadership across the creative, cultural and knowledge economy. Through research, strategy and partnership, we position creativity as a key tool for economic and social development.