Creative Minds in Prince Edward County
The following is a post originally published on April 5, 2010, at http://princeedwardcounty.biz, the blog for Prince Edward County’s economic development office.
Rick Zimmerman (left), founder of CAPE! (Centre for the Arts in Prince Edward), Carlyn Moulton, founder of Oeno Gallery
Creative Minds is a networking event held regularly in Prince Edward County for people in the creative rural economy.
Creative Minds started a few years ago as do many of the projects of the County’s economic development office: as an experiment. The E.D.O. wanted to connect the scattered brains working locally, often in isolation, and cultivate what it knew was an existing creative rural economy. They knew creative minds were out there, but the people had nowhere to regularly connect as a like-minded group.
The events since the first experiment have evolved into much-anticipated opportunities for people to make business connects and meet intersting people. The last Creative Minds event on March 23 at the R.O.C. (Recreation Outreach Centre in Picton’s MacCauley Village) attracted just over 140 attendees. Not bad for an island municipality with less than 25,000 residents.
Creative Minds events are free to attend, which removes the biggest barrier to participation for the usually-self-employed creative types. They always include formal presentations by local talent, which allow us to familiarize ourselves with other professionals and resources. They always involve some sort of locally-sourced refreshments, which enables us to sample local food and drink. They’re hosted at a different venue each time, which allows us to see new places in our sprawling community.
You can see from the videos we took at the last event the networking is working! Just ask Kerry Ramsey, professor of public relations at Loyalist College; or watch creative minds networking in the crowd; or see for yourself from the vibe of the event.
Prince Edward County has always been an inspiring place for creative people. Creative Minds events allow us to make local connections to help our businesses.
Related links
Co-sponsored by the East Central Ontario Training Board
Facebook fan page for Prince Edward County
Twitter references to Creative Minds
YouTube videos from Creative Minds at the ROC
Flickr photos from Creative Minds at the ROC
Flickr photos from Creative Minds at Indie Arts
