CreativeNEXT Listening Tour - Rooting Our Strategies in Industry Needs

Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development

Helena Fruscio

Multiple Cities, MA

Project Dates:

Summer 2012

Tags

2013 CCX presenter, Business Planning, Leadership, Marketing, Networking, Policy, Workforce Development

Posted Date:

Dec 19, 2012

CreativeNEXT listening tour, an event series which engaged the creative industries of Massachusetts throughout the summer of 2012. The purpose of these roundtable events was to evaluate the needs and opportunities that exist within the creative industries and to provide insights to guide the development of the Massachusetts Creative Economy Council’s priority focus areas. The Patrick-Murray Administration’s Creative Economy Industry Director Helena Fruscio and the Massachusetts Creative Economy Council reached over 580 businesses, organizations, and individuals during the twenty-one events and discussed the growth and sustainability of the creative industries and their future in Massachusetts.

Project Goals

What were the project goals?

(1) Gather Input: Engage individuals working in the creative industries in a discussion about needs and provide an opportunity to be “part of the solution”. (2) Collect Data: Poll the industry about the size and scope of their businesses and organizations. (3) Mobilize Support: Provide an opportunity for community leaders and business support organizations to engage with the creative industries. (4) Enhance Visibility: Increase profile of the creative industries across the Commonwealth.

Have they changed over time?

Now the goals are to implement effective strategies based off of the information we collected throughout the tour.

Who are the project partners and stakeholders?

The CreativeNEXT events were hosted in collaboration with regional and industry partner organizations, each of which is invested in the growth and development of the creative industries in Massachusetts. Partner organizations secured dates and venues, generated contact lists, and promoted the events. The partner organizations were: AHA! New Bedford, Artisans Asylums and Union Square Main Streets (Someville), Berkshire Creative Economy Council, Boston Society of Architects, City of Holyoke, Cape Creative and the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod, Creative Economy Association of the North Shore, Cultural Organization of Lowell, Creative Haverhill, Fenway Alliance and Fort Point Arts Community, Fitchburg State and the Montachusett Regional Planning Commission, Grub Street (Boston), MITX and the Ad Club (Boston), Metro West Chamber, Stage Source (Boston), Design Museum Boston, Mass Digi, Massachusetts Artists Leadership Coalition, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Massachusetts Production Coalition, and Worcester Cultural Coalition. The CreativeNEXT tour also helped to guide the priorities of the Massachusetts Creative Economy Council. In order to root the needs and opportunities within the creative industry in their strategic focus, the Council voted to embark on the CreativeNEXT listening tour to hear directly from the business owners, directors, and employees running and operating businesses and organizations within the creative industries. The Council agreed that the findings from the CreativeNEXT tour will inform the Council’s priorities, and Working Groups will be formed around the top priorities identified as part of the listening tour.

Project Specifics

How was the project implemented? What were the steps taken?

The goal of the CreativeNEXT tour was to reach a diverse group of at least five hundred companies, organizations and individuals within the creative industries throughout the Commonwealth. The events were broken into three categories, Regional Events focused on a geographic region of the state (defined by Massachusetts Office of Business Development), Community Focus Groups invited participants in a specific municipality, and Industry Focus groups included members of a single industry within the creative industries. An online event was created for each stop on the tour using eventbrite.com and hosted in a central account by the Creative Economy Industry Director. In addition to providing information about the event, this system was used to identify the attendees as businesses/organization/individuals within the creative industries or creative industry supporters. This provided an opportunity to include parties interested in supporting the creative industries, but allowed for a survey specifically geared toward the businesses, organizations, and individuals within the creative industries participating in the tour. Host partners used this system in the promotion of the events and were given access to view attendee lists. Beyond promotion, this central account enabled the Creative Economy Industry Director to support and simplify event preparation tasks for the hosting partner organizations and also ensured all of the data was collected consistently. For more information Supporting the Creative Industries Report, can be found here: http://www.mass.gov/hed/docs/eohed/industries/creative/creative-industries-report.html

Have they been refined over time?

We developed a "Mixed Method Approach to Data Collection" with both Quanitative and Qualitative data collection. (1) Quantitative Data Collection In Massachusetts, as in other states, creative industries data is difficult to collect. To establish an initial dataset that can be used to inform the Council’s priorities moving forward, quantitative data was collected through survey questions within the event RSVP management system. Overall, 582 companies, which far exceeded the RSVP goal, signed up to participate in the 21 events in the CreativeNEXT tour and each submitted data along with contact information. (2) Qualitative Data Collection Qualitative data was collected at each of the listening tour events in multiple ways: First, the creative industry participants completed a form, with open ended questions, at the end of each of the listening tour events. Second, qualitative data was collected through notes from the discussion happening on the day of the event. Third, feedback shared throughout discussions at each of the CreativeNEXT events was evaluated by identifying the major theme predominant in each statement, suggestion, or idea. The number of times a theme was mentioned throughout the events was counted. (For example “Networking” was mentioned thirty-five times in twenty-one events). The themes, along with strengthening recommendations, are outlined in the findings section of this report. Lastly, address information for each of the registered participants was collected through the RSVP management system. Using the work address of the businesses, organizations, and/or individuals Maps were generated in Google Fusion. Maps were generated from information of 84% of the RSVPs due to incomplete address information. For more information Supporting the Creative Industries Report, can be found here: http://www.mass.gov/hed/docs/eohed/industries/creative/creative-industries-report.html

Obstacles

What were your major obstacles?

The major obstacles included: (1) Ensuring we had the right mix of industries and business types to get a range of input. (2) Setting the right "tone" at event, focusing more on growth potential more than obstacles. (3) Wanting to provide access and information about existing resources, but also needing to focus the event on listening.

Who or what was instrumental in overcoming these obstacles?

The event partners.

What top three suggestions would you give to others attempting a similar project?

(1) Pick the right partners or multiple partners. The partners have to be people with networks within all or most of the industries. If your main contact only has connection to arts and culture, or only design, it will effect the attendance and the feedback. (2) If asking about hiring potential, change phrasing to "Are you hiring in the next near future?", and don't ask "Are you presently hiring?" (3) Include the written component. It was important to get non-verbal feedback. Often times the written information was completely different than the discussion at the events. It is important to have both forms of input.

Project Impact

How has this project contributed to creative community building?

In Massachusetts the creative industries are a diverse group of businesses, organizations and individuals, each yielding particular insights and ideas. Also, the creative industries of each region had unique needs and opportunities. Distinctive characteristics were apparent at every event, but the synergies will help to guide priorities for the sector statewide. These findings gave us the ability to focus on the needs of a given community or region, but also see how those needs fit into the scheme of creative industries across the state. Each partner is not tailor fitting the strategies for their creative industries on the findings from this tour.

How did it achieve your original goals?

(1) Gather Input: We successfully reached over 500 creative industry businesses, organizations and individuals to get their input. We collected the top Ten Themes for Strengthening the Creative Industries of Massachusetts, which can be found in the Supporting the Creative Industries Report, found on our website. (2) Collect Data: The data collected from the participants can be found in the Supporting the Creative Industries Report, found our website. (3) Mobilize Support: Each region of the state is now undertaking initiatives to grow the creative industries. (4) Enhance Visibility: Multiple news stories covered the tour and the release of the report. The Creative Economy Council has also created a "Visibility Committee", so expect more new soon. (WEBSITE: www.mass.gov/hed/docs/eohed/industries/creative/creative-industries-report.html)

Were there unexpected impacts?

(1) The tour uncovered dozens of creative industry businesses and organizations ready to grow. The potential of these businesses can be game changing for our communities, and that change will only take a small bit of effort and can use many preexisting support systems. (2) The interest from economic development officials across the commonwealth. They are very interested in supporting this industry, but often times they would say "I just did't know they were here!" (3) The data collection was actually really helpful in proving the diversity and opportunity that exist within the creative industries.

Creative Economy

Upcoming Event

CreativeNEXT Listening Tour - Rooting Our Strategies in Industry Needs