A Conversation in Three Parts

Join Bank of America and Creative Tampa Bay as they host an afternoon with three International and National thought leaders in the area of technology, economics and community as they take the stage at Jaeb Theater to challenge us to rethink and plan for the future.

Date: Wednesday, September 22nd
Time: 1:00pm-4:30pm (main event) 4:30pm-6:00 hours d’orves and happy hour
Location: Straz Center for the Performing Arts – Jaeb Theater. Parking information.
Fee: $15.00 – Pre-registration is closed. Please register on-site beginning at 1 pm.

Success today is as much about staying relevant as it is about making money. Businesses constantly shift to meet emerging consumer demands, markets shift on attitude changes, and communities rise, fall, and rise again as they seek to remain relevant in the global conversation.

How do people & businesses build relevance in shifting economic times?

They get technology. They get entrepreneurial. They get creative!

Are you prepared?

Today we can no longer merely chase relevance. Today we must make relevance.

Discover the future. Apply it today.

Speakers:

• Dave Gray – Innovation & Entrepreneurship Expert and Q&A Panelist
  Dave Gray is the Founder and Chairman of XPLANE, the visual thinking company.the world’s
  leading consulting and design firm focused on information-driven communications. Dave’s
  time is spent researching and writing on visual business, as well as speaking, coaching
  and delivering workshops to educators, corporate clients and the public.
• Dr. Snaith – Director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness
  Dr. Snaith will discuss the future economic trends for Florida and the Tampa/Orlando
  mega-region. Dr. Snaith is the Director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness
  within the College of Business Administration at the University of Central Florida and is a
  widely recognized economist in the field of business and economic forecasting.
• Peter Kageyama – Creative Communities Expert & CTB Board Member
  Kageyama is an international consultant in the area of creative community development.
  He will speak about the emerging trends in communities and how the economy and technology
  are shaping the future of our cities. He focuses on how communities move their
  citizens to become more entrepreneurial and engaged.
• Brent Britton – Partner, Gray Robinson and Q&A Panelist
  Recently described by 83 Degrees magazine as “arguably the most sought after one-man
  think tank for entrepreneurs across Central Florida,” Brent Britton has been advising
  startup companies for more than 20 years at MIT, in Silicon Valley, on Wall Street, and
  right here in Tampa Bay.

Event Registration

Pre-registration is closed. Please register on-site beginning at 1 pm.

Next American City

Next American City has partnered with IBM’s Smarter Cities to challenge you to show us why you live in the Next American City.

How does your city open its data, promote public transit, recycle, use vacant property?

From now to Sept. 15 tell us what you and your city are doing to make your city greator email your idea directly here and include:

-title or topic in the Subject field
-content in body of the email.
-Important: include the tag “nac”

You can even submit different kinds of posts such as pictures, text, links, quotes and video.

The city with the most posts will get a feature about it on our website, and the three most popular posts will win a free subscription.

The Wall Street Journal

The tales of three entrepreneurs who launched companies—for less than $150

You don’t have to break the bank to start a business.

For many would-be entrepreneurs, money is the insurmountable hurdle. They hunger to strike out on their own, but don’t have a big pile of cash to invest in a start-up that might not churn a profit for years to come. And they’re reluctant to stake what cash they do have while the economy is still shaky.

We decided to see if you could launch a venture for less than people think. A lot less. We set out to find bootstrapping business owners who started companies in recent years—without shelling out more than a couple of hundred dollars.

The ground rules: The entrepreneurs had to be either paying themselves a salary or reinvesting substantial profits in the business, as well as planning to continue down the entrepreneurial path for some time to come. We also nixed people who opened consulting firms in fields where they had already built careers. While that’s certainly entrepreneurial, we wanted people who were truly starting from scratch.

What did we discover? With creativity, commitment and resilience, an entrepreneur can turn even a small investment into an impressive business.

Full story

St. Petersburg Times

Life along Beach Drive begins early. Lines full of tourists wait for the Chihuly Collection to open, residents walk their dogs and restaurant workers begin raising umbrellas and clearing tables.

The restaurant tables that dot the street are full by noon, before Beach Drive slows down to catch its breath before happy hour and dinner. Then, it comes alive again.

Business owners have flocked to Beach Drive in the past few years essentially on the promise of what it would become. Today, with its art museums, fine dining, parks and condos, Beach Drive has grown into St. Petersburg’s place to be and be seen.

Why did they open there? Well, business owners say, why not?

“It’s like if you go to New York City and you say, ‘Why did you pick Fifth Avenue?’  ” said Philippe Berriot, who owns Cassis American Brasserie. “Because it’s the best place to be.”

The transformation on Beach Drive is a few years in the making. When Steve Westphal opened the Parkshore Grill in 2006, it was one of the first new restaurants on the Drive.

Full story

Creative Clay Inc., Cultural Arts Center expands its focus to include wearable art with its new retail store, and wholesale line-Artworks, now open for business.

More than a branded coffee cup or baseball cap, Artworks, a new retail store to be located at 1128 Central Avenue, is producing trendy usable and wearable art, all created from the works of Creative Clay Member Artists.  The retail store will be supported by an expansive online website launching as part of the new creativeclay.org, providing opportunities for national and international sales.

This summer at the New York International Gift Show from August 12 to August 19, Creative Clay’s Artworks retail line will fill a booth (#30012) at Pier 92 as part of the gift show’s New York’s Newest section. A team of four Artworks representatives made up of Creative Clay staff and retail advisors will travel to New York and take wholesale orders from companies.  This new wholesale business is part of an entrepreneurial business venture four years in the making.

“It has been a long-time dream to bring Creative Clay’s artwork to a new medium through retail,” said Grace-Anne Alfiero, executive director, Creative Clay Inc. “Artworks offers everything – trendy clothing, fun house goods, greeting cards, artful gifts and more.”

As a micro business of Creative Clay Inc., Artworks will be co-managed by Creative Clay staff members and Member Artists. The new online retail website will be managed by Creative Clay and EncounterCreative, the agency responsible for the redesign of CreativeClay.org.

Grace-Anne shared, “Artworks offers our member artists’ valuable real-life business management experience that will help expand their problem solving and communication skills.”

Artworks will be open for business on August 11, 2010 with a store grand opening planned for September 15, 2010. The full line of retail items will be available for sale online at http://creativeclay.org.

Creative Clay, Inc., Cultural Arts Center’s mission is to provide accessible arts experiences to the Tampa Bay community. Creative Clay implements nine programs and began serving persons with developmental disabilities and mental health challenges in 1995. In June 2010, Creative Clay was named non-profit of the year by the Tampa Bay Business Journal in the category of Arts, Culture and Humanities.  For additional information please call 727-825-0515 or visit us on the web at www.creativeclay.org.