Tag: Quality of Place
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Bridging Eras, Transitioning Images
Legendary marketing guru Al Ries has suggested that companies or branded products can only “own” one position in a consumer’s mind. Those brands that focus on a powerful, singular image are more successful than those who try to stand for two or more things at once. In other words, “Low prices, always” is more likely…
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Either/Or?
We are thrilled that many of the ideas represented by the Create WV initiative are being incorporated in a wider statewide dialog. A recent example is the op-ed piece by William Schweke of the Center for Economic Development in Durham, NC in this week’s State Journal. It is a good sign that more people are…
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“Country Living with a Cosmopolitan Edge”
A great profile of Lewisburg, Greenbrier County, in the Charleston Gazette today provides some valuable insights into the hard work and attention to the “little things” required to transform an area into one of the nation’s best small towns. It’s a lesson on vision, leadership, persistence and trade-off decisions. In the case of Lewisburg, architect…
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Can West Virginia Compete in a Creative World?
The success of academic Richard Florida’s effort to broaden awareness and action around the growth of the Creative Class has sparked numerous efforts around the world similar to Create West Virginia. Here is an initiative from Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. If everyone is making a mad dash to attract these New Economy creatives, it begs…
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Updated! Check Out the New Createwv.com
We are happy to announce the updated createwv.com web site, full of useful links for anyone interested in learning about or developing the Creative Community in West Virginia. Thanks again to Maple Creative for their hard work on this site. Here are a few things you’ll find: Don’t forget we still have the statewide CommunityWalk…
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What is Your Vision for West Virginia?
We talk a lot about vision as human beings, don’t we? We like politicians who seem to have a vision for the country (it helps even more when there is an actual plan behind the vision, but that’s another blog post). The Book of Proverbs states “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” The…
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Can Old Money Fuel New Progress?
One fascinating topic that bubbled up during the Hinton Creative Communities Assessment Workshop was the need for resources to back innovative ideas for growth. Does West Virginia really have a shortage of funding sources to make bold visions become reality? In addition to the normal foundations and government grant programs, one source of potential backing…
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A New Vision Beside the New River
On Tuesday July 24, the second Creative Communities Assessment Workshop was held in Hinton, Summers County. We learn more each time to we do these workshops, and we appreciate Mayor Cleo Matthews and the team of local folks in Hinton willing to be our second guinea pig. Hinton is a town like many in West…
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Nurturing Creativity, Destroying Stereotypes
What are your iconic images of West Virginia culture? A group of old-time fiddlers? Crafts at Tamarack or the Mountain State Arts and Crafts Festival? Most likely these images include older, white folks keeping Scotch-Irish traditions alive in the rural hills. A great avenue towards sparking creativity is combining things that may never have been…
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Clusters of Opportunity
It’s great to see some progress on West Virginia State University’s Media Center project. Combined with the numerous marketing firms that line Capitol and Summers Streets in Charleston, we could ultimately incubate a nice little marketing-media industry cluster in downtown Charleston. Economists have been learning a lot about the “cluster” dynamic of industries. Basically, independent…