Our culture is at a crossroads and, oddly, is going in opposite directions at the same time.
While we view working remotely, online classes and webinars as efficiency multipliers, we may simultaneously be creating a generation of entrepreneurs and employees who don’t know how to make a phone call, shake a hand or look someone in the eye.
Perhaps because of these developments, collaborative spaces are the growing trend. Even small towns boast innovation labs, incubators, accelerators and maker spaces.
During the past 11 months, The Creative Coast intensely studied incubators, accelerators and innovation centers. What worked? What didn’t? As with most things, there is no silver bullet.
However, we saw consistently that centers with active creative communities thrive whereas centers that focus solely on the amount of rent a tenant can offer whither and disappear.
With the proper research under our belts, The Creative Coast is delighted to announce the formation of the Creators’ Foundry, Savannah’s innovation HIVE (home for innovators, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs).
When completed this fall, the beautiful and historic 16,000-square-foot former industrial warehouse at 415 Boundary St. will serve as an innovation hub igniting the wisdom, creativity and energy of Savannah’s burgeoning startup ecosystem.
Everyone is welcome to engage in the Creators’ Foundry through co-working space, workshops, meeting and event space rentals and our growing list of entrepreneurial events. Better yet, we hope you will become a Creative Coast supporter (www.thecreativecoast.org/supporters/our-supporters)
so we can invite you to attend our Supporter Sneak Peak in August.
Word is already getting out about Creators’ Foundry, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Running a successful collaborative space is going to require lots of hard work, but fortunately Savannah already possesses many of the key success factors we identified during our due diligence:
Community
Whereas other innovation hubs have to build their communities from scratch, the work of building Savannah’s entrepreneurial community is well underway. The Creative Coast has spent more than ten years building and nurturing a creative class in Savannah through such events as TEDxCreativeCoast, FastPitch, StartupLounge, Geekend, and specific workshops.
Cooperation
The Creative Coast is not alone in this movement. Savannah Economic Development Authority and the city of Savannah are both huge promoters of a diverse economy. Rob Davis, business development coordinator for the city, explains, “We enjoy supporting companies developing high paying jobs, and we are happy to see this next important step.”
Additionally, organizations such as ThincSavannah, Advanced Technology Development Center, Volta Collaborative, Guild Hall and Maven Makers are an incredible mix of for-profit and nonprofit organizations creating environments and events geared toward sharing knowledge, building networks and finding your “tribe” of like-minded creatives, makers and entrepreneurs.
Culture
National and global trends make 2014 a more attractive time for the launch of the Creators’ Foundry. Cloud computing and rapid prototyping have dramatically reduced startup costs, making less relevant the once insurmountable barrier that Savannah is not a hub for venture capital.
Crowd funding has exploded, and Georgia is leading legislation on allowing equity stakes via this Internet-based capital raising tool. Finally, whereas the high growth companies that launched Silicon Valley were ignited by a workforce of post-graduate engineers, today’s high growth companies can be fueled with smart, creative designers and innovators of whom Savannah has a vibrant community.
Communication
Telling the story has proven to be a critical success factor for innovations centers. Again, the timing is right for Savannah. With 13,000-plus social media connections, weekly podcasts, guest blogs, consistent exposure in SGTV and high profile coverage via this column, The Creative Coast is teed up to spread the gospel of entrepreneurship.
The Creators’ Foundry combines the past successes of The Creative Coast with the ideal time and environment that Savannah offers for explosive growth with innovative companies.
As an entity, The Creative Coast will transition from existing largely online and active only a few days a year to offering daily opportunities to connect, inspire and create. More importantly, the Creators’ Foundry will allow the thousands of people we serve to “collide” spontaneously and in person, which is a far more efficient, dynamic and powerful interaction.
Do something different today. Look a stranger in the eye, shake their hand and tell them why your idea will succeed.
Bea Wray is the executive director of The Creative Coast, a not-for-profit organization that promotes the creative and entrepreneurial community within the region. Bea can be reached at 912-447-8457 or bea@thecreativecoast.org