Getting creative: CEANS embarks on new era of business
By Lisa Guerriero/ salem@cnc.com
Thu Aug 13, 2009, 08:38 PM EDT
Salem - During the last couple years, the Creative Economy of the North Shore has increased its membership, hosted hundreds of local businesspeople at quarterly events and developed its web site.
State officials and business leaders cited CEANS as a prototype of the kind of cutting-edge business organization Massachusetts needs, devoting itself to furthering the creative economy — a term used to describe the industry of “knowledge workers,” from graphic design to art to computer programming. After all, the state has placed increasing emphasis on supporting and growing its knowledge-worker industries, even naming the first state director of creative economy.Then the state budget turned ugly and grant money began to dry up.Last year, even with budget cutbacks, CEANS secured a $65,000 grant from the state Office of Travel and Tourism. That’s not going to happen for 2009-2010, said CEANS leader Patricia Zaido.
Yet, the CEANS engine is still running.
“After six years, we feel we have now gotten traction,” said Zaido, who developed CEANS with Christine Sullivan. “There really is a need for this kind of thing.”The board agreed to change CEANS to a membership-based group. They will keep dues low, about $25 per year. And the four to six events they host each year will be offered at a reduced price to members — $10, versus $20 for nonmembers. That way, Zaido points out, members make their dues money back quickly.
Based in Salem but serving the entire North Shore, CEANS has some 4,000 businesspeople in their database, and based on the turnout at many of the events, organizers believe it shouldn’t be hard to entice many of them into membership. Read more...
The Big Tweet--Major Event Celebrating North Shore Creative Economy
June 17 at Endicott College’s New Center for the Arts.
Experience Twitter and the power of social networking
May 29, 2009, Salem, MA - The Creative Economy Association of the North Shore (CEANS) announced today their major event of the year on June 17 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Endicott College’s new Center for the Arts in Beverly MA. Titled “The Big Tweet” the event will focus on social networking. The featured speaker, Ben Bassi of CommonPlaces e-Solutions, LLC, will talk about how to use social networking to grow your business. Creative economy businesses from throughout the North Shore are invited to celebrate the past year’s efforts to organize and grow this major economic sector in the region. Admission is free.
CEANS will provide time for in-person networking and will use Twitter as a networking and social networking teaching tool. With support from CommonPlaces and cooperation from participants, we will undertake our own interactive live ‘tweeting’ experiment. Advance registration is required at www.ceans.org .
“The Big Tweet” is the culmination of a several years of work focused on identifying and growing the creative economy in the North of Boston region. Eight cities and towns have held their own events bringing together creative economy companies to understand and address their needs; a 128 Venture North breakfast for investors and entrepreneurs focused on the creative economy; several cross regional events centered on specific creative economy sectors including design, arts and culture, and business and management consulting were also held in the past year. CEANS has grown with help from the Enterprise Center at Salem State College, the Salem Partnership and by a grant from the Massachusetts state government.
“We know that the creative economy is an important and vibrant part of our local economy and that helping creative companies network results in new strategic alliances that grow businesses,” said Christine Sullivan, co-president of CEANS.
“People who work in creative companies are drawn to areas of high amenities such as history, culture, architecture, oceans. The North Shore is a hub for those kinds of individuals and a natural place for the growth of the creative economy.” said Patricia Zaido, co-president of CEANS.
(Boston, MA) – May 26, 2009. From a pool of international applicants, the Communicator Awards honored Metropolis Creative with three Awards of Excellence and an Award of Distinction for their recent design work. The Communicators Awards recognized Metropolis’ interactive and print designs as outstanding in their field and among their peers. Metropolis received the four winning designs from over 7,000 entries in print and interactive categories. The Awards of Excellence were for their execution of The Keating Group’s marketing brochure in the Business-to-Business category, logo design for Textaurant in the Corporate Identity category, and the Creative Economy website design. Metropolis Creative’s own website was honored with an Award of Distinction in the Website Self-Promotion category. Read more....
CREATIVE ECONOMY ORGANIZATION BOOSTING NORTH SHORE ECONOMY IN A BIG WAY
April 9, 2009, Salem, MA – It contributes more than $3 billion to the local economy, employs between 17,000 and 20,000 people on Boston’s North Shore, and is growing, despite the current recession. It’s what’s called the “creative economy,” and you can learn more about it through CEANS, the Creative Economy Association of the North Shore.
In fact, the new CEANS website (www.ceans.org) is packed with information about the regional creative economy, defined as businesses and organizations whose stock in trade is their creativity. Contrary to popular opinion, the creative economy ranges far beyond the arts to include such industries as marketing and advertising, architecture and design, management consulting and software engineering, for example.
The new website serves as an information point for people seeking information about the creative economy on Boston’s North Shore, but its most critical function is to support members and serve as a resource for all businesses seeking creative economy services. This is the place for creative economy businesses to find and post jobs, advertise events, and identify collaboration partners and opportunities. Additionally, the online directory will help all businesses find creative services from video production to website design, party performers to photographers, landscape architects to game designers.
Even in a down economy, CEANS is flourishing. Membership has grown from a few hundred to 1,200+ in the past year alone. The organization has sponsored a series of creative “bumps” or networking events in ten North Shore towns and cities, as well as events for industry clusters such as designers and consultants, with nearly 40% reporting that they have subsequently hired or collaborated with another creative organization. Many of the host communities have already had or are planning follow-up events.
CEANS has also been instrumental in developing a statewide creative economy initiative and in making Massachusetts the first state in the nation to have a Creative Economy Director, Jason Schupbach. Two CEANS board members sit on the Commonwealth’s Creative Economy Council.
None of this is surprising, given the results of the 2008 Economic Development Report commissioned by CEANS in conjunction with the Enterprise Center at Salem State College and the Salem Partnership. In addition to the revenue and employee numbers cited above, this study found that there are more than 2,200 creative economy enterprises on the North Shore.
The creative economy represents 10 percent to 12 percent of the North Shore’s total private sector (non-government employment. This is a significant figure; by comparison, it’s larger than the share of biotech and manufacturing industries within the Boston metro economy. In short, creative economy enterprises are an important contributor to economic development on Boston’s North Shore.
To learn more, please visit www.ceans.org. or contact Jennifer Lincoln at 978-542-7576 or jlincoln@enterprisectr.org.
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