We are in the process of launching a great new interactive site called the Detroiter Online.  The site is in beta test now, and is not even available at it’s planned URL, detroiteronline.com, but that hasn’t stopped some impressive content from being added by the site’s early adopters.  The headline above is from a post by Tim Smith that sums up the feelings of many in the existing creative community these days.  It is really nice that some of the communities leadership are willing to put up some significant funding to attract new creative talent to the Metro Detroit area, but it is confusing that they would need to spend money on research to figure out how.  In essence, Tim makes the point that the focus should start first with support of the incredible amount of creative talent that already exists in the region before worrying about how to bring more this way.  And to do that, he recommends hiring local.  Here is his post - (more…)

There has been a lot of hype in the local Detroit media about hosting this Second Creative Cities Summit October 13-15th since Governor Granholm announced it and blogged about it February 15th. No location for the event has yet been identified. Neither the link in the MiLifeMiTimes article nor the Cool Cities page of MSHDA seem to provide any detail. MiLifeMiTimes goes on to say the first Summit was held in St. Petersburg Fl. in 2004, which is also listed in the Freep article released in the same media salvo on this issue. Digging in a bit further, I find that an organization called UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) hosted what they thought was the first one in Philadelphia last year, partnering with a local organization called Innovation Philadelphia. So I am confused - when was the first summit? From MiLifeMiTimes, the Michigan State Housing Development Authority’s (MSHDA) Cool Cities Team is a key organizer of the event. Freep also mentions Creative Cities Productions, which doesn’t seem to exist, at least to Google. Peter Kageyama, who is mentioned in conjunction with Creative Cities Productions is very active in Creative Class activities, more of which you can read about here. I am hoping to get some people engaged in this worthy effort, so I hope more information on this event is provided soon!

Detroit Renaissance wants to know what you think and where you live - if you are creative.  They have asked New Economy Strategies LLC to conduct a survey to gauge obstacles to build a creative environment and Crain’s Detroit to survey the community to create a map of all the creative sector businesses in our Metro area.

For the Creative Business Climate survey (which they will email you the results of) click here.

For the asset map survey (which they won’t send you results of), you can read Mary Kramer’s intro to the survey, or jump to the survey.  If you even remotely suspect that you or someone you may work with can loosely be defined as creative - take this survey.  This survey is aimed at business, not individual, so fill it out for your company, even if you are a company of one!

There are few options (1) if you are in the music industry, and there may be others that are not completely represented.  Go ahead and pick the ‘other’ checkbox - don’t be intimidated to explain how you don’t fit into any of the pigeon holes!  What is most important is to stand up and be counted!

Come to the DYC at 8am tomorrow to hear Smart Cities Radio host and CEO’s for Cities President Carol Coletta discussing what it takes to make a city successful and how Detroit measures up. Register here, get more info here, and get directions here. Joining Carol will be Detroit’s own Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future.

Don’t miss the opening event for Detroit’s newest young professional organization - Fusion! Come to Pulse Thursday, March 29th from 5:30 to 8:00pm to celebrate the launch of Fusion and mingle with the ‘D’s most influential young professionals. RSVP: Click here to RSVP
Location: Show map
Pulse Detroit
156 Monroe St
Detroit, MI 48226

Phone: 313-596-0488
Email: fusion@detroitchamber.com
There will be complementary food and drink specials
$5 Martinis
$3 Drafts

Apparently something is going on with the dress code over at the Detroit Public schools.  The students weren’t asked their opinion,.. now they’re mad,.. and they’re doing something about it. Actually Detroit Summer is doing something about it.

Detroit Summer is a multiracial, inter-generational, youth movement to rebuild, redefine and re-spirit Detroit from the ground up. Their main objective is to foster youth initiative through community beautification projects, visioning workshops, and inter-generational dialogues.

Awesome! This Thursday (tomorrow) is part of Detroit Summers’ monthly Breaking Bread community potluck series. They’re going to show students how to rock their uniforms and still keep their style with help from Detroit’s finest fashion designers. I can’t wait to see what styles these creative minds will come up with. Maybe the next big fashion trend will be walking down the halls of DPS! For more info visit Detroit Summer or check out their MySpace page.

It’s the hottest issue in our region right now. “Brain Drain”…the notion that we are losing our young educated professionals in droves, that Detroit has nothing to offer young professionals and no one has an answer on how to stop it. This was the front page story in the Detroit News two weeks ago “Brain Drain: CENSUS: 22,000 young adults leave Michigan” By Gary Trowbridge and Amy Lee.

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Today’s announcement by Google and Governor Granholm (read the Detroit News Article here) of 1,000 new jobs is welcomed news for Detroit’s creative class. From the Detroit Free Press article (read full article)

“The jobs will vary in skill demands and pay. The average salary for new hires is expected to be $47,000 a year.

“This is a huge, huge, huge, huge thing,” Granholm said Monday. “It’s a tremendous statement about Michigan having a cutting-edge workforce.”

David Fischer, Google’s director of online sales and operations, said Monday that the company’s focus is on hiring bright, motivated people.

“We worry less about experience than raw talent. We’ve had tremendous success hiring people straight out of universities, with majors from engineering to art history.”

While tax incentives and government assistance are crucial to attract major investments by such companies as Google, “raw talent” is mentioned as one of the deciding factors to locate this new facility in Ann Arbor. This is further proof that talent attracts investment by new economy companies. If we are to become and remain competitive in the global economy attracting and retaining talent to our region must be the number one priority.

Our region is in a painful but ultimately necessary time of transition. With tremendous losses in manufacturing in our state we continue to push forward with gains in knowledge-based jobs. While smaller in number than the thousands of reported job losses in manufacturing, the gains in “creative class” jobs are vital and yet often go unnoticed. Hopefully Google’s announcelment today will be an encouraging sign of an upward trend to potential creative class workers considering relocating to or from the Metro Detroit region.