Crucial Steps Taken Toward OCI Formation and Board Development

Same Legal and Accounting Team that formed Greenlight Greater Portland is on-board to form Oregon Creative Industries

The process of forming Oregon Creative Industries (OCI) as a new non-profit business alliance has been deliberate and methodical. We are building an organization to last so it can have a true impact on growing the creative economy in this state and rushing into it could set us up for failure.

Based on my past experience founding other non-profits, I’ve learned that starting with a high-quality legal and accounting team who are 100% on-board with and experienced in your mission is an essential foundational component.

Because OCI’s core mission is economic development for creative industries, our goal was to partner with a legal firm and an accounting firm who have demonstrated success in both of those areas.

I’m happy to report that we’ve found exactly what we were looking for because Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt have joined as our legal team and Perkins & Co. will provide our accounting support.  These firms are at the top of their game in the Northwest and both are listed among the Portland Business Journal’s Most Admired Companies and Oregon Business Magazine’s Top 100 Companies.

This is the same legal/accounting team that founded Greenlight Greater Portland, the regional economic development organization.  Both firms have strong creative industries-related practices and clients, so they understand the creative economy ecosystem and will also be helpful making important connections for OCI.

In short, we couldn’t ask for better partners to start this journey with.

Specific contributing members on the OCI team will be Michael Cohen & Katherine VanZanten at Schwabe and Dave Sullivan, Roy Abramowitz & Allison Elliott  at Perkins.  Looking at their bios, you’ll see that each has a personal connection to creative endeavors.  Both companies will have a representative on the OCI Board of Directors.

With this team in place we are already underway with the necessary steps to forming the OCI legal entity, which will be an Oregon Nonprofit Corporation with Federal 501(c)(6) tax-exempt status.

I’d like to thank Don Krahmer of Schwabe and Dave Sullivan of Perkins, both of whom I have had the pleasure of knowing for over 15 years, for being the internal champions for OCI within their respective companies.

SG

Add comment January 31, 2010

OCI Historic Meeting at AIA

October 8, 2009 was an exciting day for Oregon Creative Industries! Gathering at the offices of AIA in the Pearl, were staff and board members from the associations that support major sectors within the Creative Economy in Oregon: IIDA, AMA, AIA, ASMP, PAF, WAN, IABC, AIGA, IDSA, IDC, OMPA, Art in the Pearl and DevGroup NW.  All but one of our State’s 14 Creative Industries verticals were represented.

The order of business for this meeting, the big question: Do we want to move forward as an organized Creative Economy cluster? To do this would mean forming a new 501(c)6 non-profit trade association called Oregon Creative Industries to support the core missions as established from conversations and roundtables with the community and detailed in the draft Oregon Creative Industries proposal published in February of this year. The core missions are networking, promotion and advocacy as related to economic development of our cluster.

Jerry Ketel of Leopold Ketel & Partners and President of the Board of PAF made a motion to vote on the forming of this organization. The vote was unanimous! During this meeting an OCI working group called Creative Economy Council (CEC) was also formed, made up of association leadership.

There was a great energy around the table as all of the associations pulled together to support this initiative and those three core elements. The next step, the meeting at City Hall with city officials and Portland Development Commission. It was agreed that as a show of support and true collaboration all would attend this meeting at City Hall to present some of the findings from previous roundtable discussions and the proposal for the formation of the trade association, Oregon Creative Industries.

There is still a lot of work to be done. We look forward to future collaborative efforts that we know will strengthen the mission and goals of all involved. Stay tuned!!

JG

Add comment October 20, 2009

Portland Creative Conference announces Keynote Speaker Line-up

The Portland Creative Conference announced their keynote presenter line-up and also reminded the community that the nonprofit event is also a fundraiser for arts education in Oregon via fiscal agent Keeping the Beat, a 501(c)(3) public charity that supports arts education in Oregon.   Read and/or download the full press release here.

Add comment August 25, 2009

Save the Date! – Portland Creative Conference

Oregon Creative Industries is now the Producer for the Portland Creative Conference scheduled for Saturday September 12th at the Newmark Theater in downtown Portland, OR.

Register now and use the Code “OCI” to save 25% and support our Creative Community efforts.  More info can be found at www.cre8con.com.

Add comment August 13, 2009

Defining & Supporting the Creative Industries Cluster in Oregon

After many months and hundreds of volunteer hours reaching out and listening to the community, OCI recently published a draft document for public comment that defines the Creative Industries economic cluster in Oregon and proposes several objectives and initiatives for sustaining and growing Oregon’s creative economy.

The document, based on input from the for-profit, non-profit, public and education sectors of the creative economy ecosystem,  has already been downloaded over 170 200 250 times since it was released and we have been receiving valuable feedback.

The document uses the same general structure as the Oregon Business Plan’s “Policy Playbook: Initiative and Cluster Guide” so that when it reaches final draft it can easily plug into the next version of the Playbook in time for the 8th annual Leadership Summit in December 2009.  This is just one example of the value that OCI can provide as the cluster’s trade association.

We encourage you to download and review the draft document and provide your feedback. To download, visit http://www.box.net/shared/of9mtjl7it

2 comments March 4, 2009

OCI’s 2nd Association Leadership Roundtable Attracts 20 Groups

The 2nd association leadership roundtable discussion conducted by Oregon Creative Industries (OCI) brought together leaders from 2o different creative economy-related groups to discuss ways that OCI can help their organizations and constituents to thrive.

Some were also represented at our first roundtable discussion in December that attracted 16 associations, but many new groups participated this time around.  Overall, 27 organizations have participated in these discussions.

The groups represented in-person or via Web conference at the January 27th meeting were:

  • Advertising Federation of Central Oregon
  • American Federation of Television & Radio Artists
  • American Institute of Graphic Artists
  • American Marketing Association
  • American Society of Media Photographers
  • Artists for the Arts
  • DevGroup NW
  • Industrial Design Society of America
  • Innovation Theatre Works
  • Internet Strategy Forum
  • Legion of Tech
  • Museum of Contemporary Craft
  • Oregon Media Production Association
  • Oregon Music Educators Association
  • Oregon Writers Colony
  • Portland Advertising Federation
  • Portland Art Dealers Association
  • Search Engine Marketing Professionals of Portland
  • Self-Employed Creative Professionals
  • Social Media Club of Portland

After two association roundtable discussions, two Cre8Camp townhall discussions and dozens of one-on-one meetings with creative economy leaders in the private, public and educational sectors, certain key themes are starting to emerge that will be the basis for OCI’s initiatives and programs moving forward.

More detail to follow.

2 comments January 31, 2009

A New Movement is Captured and Gains Momentum

oci_oregonian_article_12-14-08

Oregon Creative Industries (OCI) is not just a new organization, it’s a movement.  The Oregonian article about OCI that was published on the front page of the December 14th Sunday Business section puts it this way:

There’s reason to believe this is a movement with potential…Portland’s soon-to-be mayor, Sam Adams, says the creative economy is a priority.  A growing chorus of public- and private-sector groups rally around the idea.

The response to the article has been tremendous, with many people from a variety of disciplines and locations throughout the state reaching out to us asking how they can help.  Here are some examples of people we heard from:

Every conversation we have had with creative economy leaders confirms that this is the right idea at the right time.  We continue to gather input and ideas from the community in order to help us focus on areas that will have the greatest impact.

The article has helped us take OCI to the next level, building momentum in a way that we could not have done without it (who says print is dead?).  For example, a Facebook Group for OCI that was created just before the article was published grew to over 250 members in just two weeks.

Now our challenge is to harness the positive energy and passion that is apparent in this movement and apply it toward developing new initiatives and programs that are being defined via our various community town halls, leadership round tables and one-on-one discussions, leading to overall growth for the creative industries sector.

Let us know if and how you would like to help out.  You can also connect with us in a variety of ways (email list, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn).

by Steve Gehlen

1 comment January 7, 2009

Inaugural Leadership Roundtable Discussion a Success

Leaders from 16 different creative economy-related associations/guilds/unions in Oregon attended the inaugural leadership round-table discussion hosted by Oregon Creative Industries.  Our objective for the meeting was to gather feedback from various groups about how OCI could best add value to and benefit their group and the Oregon creative economy overall.

In addition to the attendees in the room, there were also several remote attendees participating via Web and phone.

Attendees at the OCI Leadership Roundtable Discussion

Attendees at the OCI Leadership Round-table Discussion

There was a lot of feedback,  input and questions from participants.  We will have more meeting notes later.  For now, here is a list of who attended:

  • ACM – SIGGRAPH (computer graphics)
  • AIGA (graphic designers)
  • American Federation of Television & Radio Artists
  • American Society of Media Photographers
  • International Animated Film Society
  • Internet Strategy Forum
  • Legion of Tech
  • Musicians Union Local 99
  • Oregon Media Production Association
  • Oregon Writers Colony
  • Portland Area Theatre Alliance
  • Screen Actors Guild
  • Search Engine Marketers PDX
  • Self-Employed Creative Professionals
  • Software Association of Oregon
  • Southern Oregon Film and Television

Thanks to everyone who participated.  We will have more leadership roundtable discussions in Q1 of 2009, including one for educational institution leadership.

3 comments December 16, 2008

Stronger Together

The diagram below represents the vision that OCI co-founders have for what it will take for Portland and Oregon to reach the full potential of our creative economy and its role in the global marketplace.

In the diagram, “Structured Networks” are industry associations, guilds, etc.  “Unstructured Networks” are groups of people who have come together informally around shared disciplines, such as technical user groups, graphic designer email lists and marketing-related Facebook groups.  In the context below, “Technical” refers primarily to software (writing good code is an art form), including Web apps, games, etc.

As a next step, we will be hosting a series of roundtable discussions (starting next week) with leaders representing all four of the quadrants below.

oregon-creative-industries-strength-together

Add comment December 12, 2008

OCI to Host Association Leadership Roundtable

Next up for Oregon Creative Industries: hosting roundtable discussions with the leadership of various creative economy-related associations, guilds, etc.  We have invited leaders from over 25 associations (either Oregon-based or Oregon chapters) to the first meeting this month.  We’ve already had 1-on-1 discussions with many of them, but this will be the first group gathering.  We’ll host a second roundtable in January for those who can’t make the first one.

This is a logical continuation of the approach that started at the inaugural Cre8Camp in July, which is to involve groups and community members across the multiple disciplines involved in the overall creative economy and then listen to input and feedback to in order to understand how OCI can add value and best serve the professionals,  companies and associations that make up Oregon’s creative economy.

The roundtable leadership discussions will be available via live Web and phone conference in order to facilitate 2-way participation from those around the state who can’t attend the Portland-based meetings in-person.

4 comments December 6, 2008

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