What a great audience at the Clay Center yesterday for the launch of Create West Virginia. After some frustrating technical difficulties (#&*$#*@ computer!) slowed down our beginning, the guest Creative Community speakers piped in from around the state via video conference demonstrated the growing power of these innovative entrepreneurs, artists and local leaders. I knew they were going to speak of course, but I still got pumped listening to their stories!

A great article in the Charleston Gazette today by Sarah Winn  covered the announcement very well. WOWK TV Channel 13 covered it last night. If you see other articles, please let us know. We need to see some similar coverage from around the state.

In addition to thanking our guest speakers and the Creative Class team of A Vision Shared (www.visionshared.com) for working so hard to get feedback from around the state, I have to provide special thanks to some folks who have just been so tireless and dedicated to this cause.

Elizabeth Damewood-Gaucher of Terrell Ellis and Associates (http://www.te-associates.com) worked ridiculous hours on completing the Culture, Creativity and Innovation: West Virginia in the New Economy white paper.

Sarah Halstead and Rebecca Kimmons of Katalyst Development Strategies (http://www.katscandu.com) spent some intense weeks getting the launch event prepared and energizing the media. Skip Linenberg and the Maple Creative team did a great job providing our graphic design and web layout services (http://maplecreative.com).

And Holly Clark of A Vision Shared is one tireless, always-positive presence. Thank you so much to these folks and all the current and future team members will make this initiative a huge presence in the days to come. Let’s go create!