By Crystal Good
For the past five years, a quiet transformation has taken place in communities all over West Virginia, and it all began in October 2007 at Stonewall Jackson Resort.
The first Create WV Conference was held on two beautiful fall days. Organized by what was then a volunteer working group of Vision Shared (www.visionshared.com), the concept of gathering business, government, education, arts and community leaders under one umbrella to discuss the creative class and its impact on West Virginia’s economy was quite unique.
In a state where traditional industries such as manufacturing, mining, retail and tourism dominate the hearts and minds of labor and business, the first question to answer was, “What is the creative class and why does it matter to West Virginia?” The second was, “If this is important, how do we attract and retain creative class companies and workers to a rural state like West Virginia?”
First, some brief definitions. The creative class is a term coined by academic researcher and consultant Richard Florida, author of the ground-breaking book “The Rise of the Creative Class.” His research, which developed into the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto, outlines how job roles that create or work with intellectual property (IP), or new ideas, drive about one-third of the U.S. economy.
For many, it is easier to understand the terms creative class and innovation economy by using examples. Industries and job roles such as engineering, research and development, architectural design, software programming, certain health care jobs and several higher education jobs are examples. All are involved in either adding value to existing intellectual property or creating new IP of their own.
While these types of jobs represent one-third of U.S. jobs, they represent 50 percent of the total wages in today’s work force, which is a clear indicator that these jobs pay far more than average.
With challenging global competition in manufacturing, where so many jobs are automated or outsourced, it is critical that a healthy creative class of workers and entrepreneurial activities to drive the innovation economy in West Virginia be developed.
That’s where the Create WV organization—which is now a separate spin-off nonprofit organization that remains in partnership with Vision Shared—and the annual Create WV Conference come in.
Attracting and developing a creative class requires the development of creative communities. Creative communities are those communities, big or small, who embrace innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity. Embracing technology, education, diversity and quality of place are all key pillars to this transformation.
Several West Virginia communities such as Shepherdstown, Lewisburg and Fayetteville have received national recognition for their commitment to building a creative community. Others, such as Spencer, Princeton, Fairmont, Huntington and Buckhannon, are well on their way to transforming their communities around these principles.
During that first Create WV Conference, organizers hoped for 100 attendees; more than 200 showed up. Since then, the momentum has grown and local groups like Create Huntington, Create Buckhannon and Create Fayetteville are achieving amazing progress in their communities.
“Attending Create WV has been pivotal in inspiring us to build Create Buckhannon,” says Stephen Foster, executive director of the Upshur County Development Authority. “The networking and creative learning opportunities have been phenomenal.”
On October 26th-27th, 2012, the Create WV Conference will come to West Virginia’s capital city for the very first time. The theme is “Start NOW,” and the conference will offer an exciting array of opportunities to learn, network and make plans to develop and launch your own creative idea.
An exciting new component of the conference in 2012 is the first statewide crowd-funding competition in which creative people in business, education and communities get to pitch their new ideas and win seed funding at the final keynote dinner.
If you have an idea you would like to pitch, or you would like to learn and apply creative, entrepreneurial principles to transform your business, school or community, you should be at Create WV 2012.
Skip Lineberg, chief innovation officer at Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC, says it this way: “Create WV is different. It’s a unique opportunity to engage West Virginia’s thought leaders and the most innovative people in the business, arts, education, government and nonprofit communities.”
Nikki Bowman, one of West Virginia’s most innovative entrepreneurs, joins filmmaker Mary Mazzio and Dr. Brian Hemphill, West Virginia State University’s new president, as keynote speakers. Training tracks for educators, entrepreneurs and communities are all offered.
As if you needed more reason to attend, the organizers of FestivALL, the ground-breaking arts festival in Charleston held each June, have developed a special FestivALL Fall lineup to demonstrate West Virginia’s finest artists, musicians and theater talent. For more information, visit http://www.festivallcharleston.com.
To learn more and register for Create WV 2012, visit www.createwv.wildapricot.org. For ongoing news about Create WV, visit www.createwv.com.
About the Author
Crystal Good serves as the Director of Brand Experience at Mythology and is a member of the Affrilachian (African-American- Appalachian) Poets. She serves on the board of directors for Create WV, the Ohio Valley Environmental Council, the WV Public Relations Society of America, and she is a programming committee member for the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences and a founding member of OneKanawha. Good is a St. Albans native and graduated from West Virginia State University with a degree in Communications and a minor in African American Studies. She currently lives in Charleston with her three sons.
