Creative Conference Whiteboard

Here’s one more indication that we’re right on track with the focus of the new Creative Conference — Design.

 A Zogby International poll commissioned by New York-based architectural firm, RMJM interviewed 1,000 residents in ten cities deemed to be leaders in design policy and practice. With the criteria including architecture awards, “green” design, and public transit systems, Portland ranked among the top five best cities!

“Good design makes better communities by boosting the economy, creating jobs, and, particularly today, sponsoring environmental strategies,” said Peter Schubert, AIA, design director of RMJM Hillier.

Chicago grabbed the number one slot in the poll, while Portland ranked #5 in the country, higher than Seattle and San Francisco. You can read the entire article in the June 26 issue of the Portland Business Journal.

One of the goals of the group of people working on the new Creative Conference (Cre8Con) is to help facilitate a creative community.  Cre8Con is one way to do that but there are others as well.  As part of that larger vision we have developed an unconference concept called Cre8Camp that takes the technology-centric BarCamp concept and adapts it for creative professionals.

Part of the concept is that the series of Cre8Camp unconferences (which can be self-organized in other cities just like BarCamp has been) will be affiliated with an annual “mothership” event—Cre8Con, the Creative Conference in Portland.   I don’t think this combination of a series of unconferences affiliated with a single traditional conference has never been done before.

The inaugural event, Cre8Camp Portland, will take place dowtown at souk on Saturday, July 26th from 10:00am - 3:00pm.  Pre-registration is required but there is no charge to attend.  This will provide a perfect ramp up to the Creative Conference happening on Sept. 6th, the day after Inverge: the interactive convergence conference on Sept. 4+5.

Cre8Con & Cre8Camp Portland are related non-profit projects fiscally sponsored by Keeping the Beat, a 501(c)3 public charity that supports arts education in Oregon.

For more information on the Cre8Camp concept and specifics on Cre8Camp Portland, including options for following updates and registering, visit www.cre8camp.org.

The Program committee for the Creative Conference has developed an outline for the event on Sept. 6th that should make for a great day.

The program schedule calls for 6 or 7 keynote-style presenters for 45 minutes each from a variety of design categories such as film, theater, advertising, interactive, footwear/apparel and comics.   The 45 minute slots include Q&A time, an audience favorite during the initial 12-year run of the Creative Conference.

One innovative feature will be the inclusion of 4 or 5 high-energy, rapid-fire, 5-minute presentations on other design areas (examples might be architecture, sound, video games or fashion) in between the longer presentations.  These shorter slots may also include performances and/or short films.

The program will be bookended by the founders of On Your Feet, a nationally-recognized creative consultancy recently featured in the New York Times.  They will start the day off using improv to help the audience get in the zone and maximize their creative take-aways from the day. This will include fostering some innovative introductions and networking between people in the audience. At the end of the day On Your Feet will do a 15 minute “speed recap” of the day using improv.

To stay up-to-date as this program outline is filled out with specific presenters, use one or more of the methods we have provided for tracking news about the event.

Today the Board of Directors for Keeping the Beat,  an Oregon-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity that supports arts programs in Oregon, announced that they agreed to be the fiscal sponsor of the new Creative Conference in Portland.

The Creative Conference planning committee and KTB leadership see strong alignment around supporting and celebrating creativity and the arts in a variety of forms.

From the beginning of the process to develop a new Creative Conference I thought it was important to structure it as a nonprofit community-based project like it was before.  We accomplished this goal with today’s vote by the KTB Board.  This milestone in the planning process means the Creative Conference can move forward with accepting tax-exempt donations and sponsorships to help manifest the event.

On June 11, renowned designer and Microsoft principle researcher, Bill Buxton (who spoke at the original Creative Conference in 1996) presented at an event in Portland.  In some press articles prior to his presentation (entitled, Design Thinking: Action and Ecosystem) Buxton said, “I can’t think of Portland without thinking about the physical context in which it is situated, as it is almost synonymous with innovation and design.” Then recalling his previous experiences in Portland he added, “My friendship with Will Vinton and participation in the Portland Creative Conference are some of my best memories.”

Here are links to two articles about Buxton’s Portland appearance.  They both mention the Portland Creative Conference:

Article in the Oregonian

Article on Broadcast Newsroom

Great news! At the Creative Conference meeting yesterday we reached consensus for moving forward.

The primary driver is that after a generous pledge of individual financial support by the new planning group (made up of several Board members and volunteers from the original Creative Conference along with some new blood), along with sponsorship commitments from the Oregon Media Production Association and Greger Peterson Associates, we have the funds we need to put the deposit down to hold the venue for a September 6th design-focused conference in conjunction with Inverge: the interactive convergence conference, happening on Sept. 4+5.

The next steps include committee meetings for sponsorship, program and marketing.

Thanks to everyone who has agreed to help bootstrap the event so far.  We will need a lot of additional financial support to make it happen with the same quality of the previous event, but we are off to a great start and I am confident that we have the momentum we need to pull it off.

One of the things that I enjoyed most about the first iteration of the Portland Creative Conference in the 90’s was how the creative community came together to make it happen.  The collaborative work of the event’s Board, production crew, volunteers, in-kind service providers and sponsors was something like magic.

I’m happy to report that as we work on a re-launch of a similar event that spirit is being rekindled!  The most obvious early example is that many people in the new planning group (several Board alumni from the original event plus several new faces) have personally pledged $100 toward the deposit required to hold the venue for the proposed Sept. 6th date.

If you are interested in helping out in any way (personal contribution, company sponsorship, in-kind service, etc.), please contact us.

We’ve already known for some time that creativity is alive and well in Portland.  After all, for over a decade the Creative Conference had been a lightening rod for imaginative, inventive, and ingeniously creative people.  It could even be argued that the conference helped boost Portland’s reputation as a creative center.

Now you can get a quick summary of exactly how Portland measures up by reading the May 23 issue of Portland Business Journal. On page 4 an article cites a report funded by the Oregon Arts Commission — the “Creative Vitality Index” — and confirms that creativity abounds in Oregon and that Multnomah County is the state’s creative hub.

The index measures the financial health of a creative economy by looking at both creative occupations and participation in the arts. With the national average of “creative vitality” arbitrarily set at 1, Multnomah County ranks 2.27. You can find the full report along with some creative company profiles at the Oregon Arts Commission.

A sponsorship opportunities document is now available for anyone interested in sponsoring the re-launch of the Portland Creative Conference.  Sponsor categories start at just $1,000.

For complete details and contact info, download the sponsor information document from the “Shared Files” box in the lower right corner of this page.

On Friday April 18th twenty Creative Conference supporters—former board members and a few new faces—met to strategize and kick around some initial ideas for getting the wheels in motion for the re-launch of the Portland Creative Conference. September 6th is the proposed date and the former conference venue (Newmark Theater) is available for us.  There is a lot of detail to work through, but this was a great start.

As the event will be a “beta” re-launch, Steve Gehlen, the architect of the re-launch, has proposed a single-day event which, because of the proximity of dates, would tie-in with other events such as Inverge: the Interactive Convergence Conference, the Time-Based Art Festival and MusicFestNW.
 
Sub-committees will be meeting in the coming weeks to plan the Organizational Structure, Sponsorship, Program/Presenters, Marketing, Partnerships, and Facilities.
 
We’ll continue to update this site as things develop.  To be notified as plans take shape, see the various subscription options.  If you would like to help with the planning process, let us know.

Taken at the initial planning meeting on 04-18-08: