On the 12th December from 2pm till 5pm, the general public is invited to Creative City Partnership’s discussion: “Growing the Creative Economy – Your Invitation to Find Out more About Investment and Plans for the Sector”. That all sounds like a little bit of a mouthful but it’s actually really important. Creative City Partnership is trusted by ‘The Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership’ (GBSLEP) to look after our creative economic growth. Bit lost in all of this? Then that’s probably exactly why you should go. I’ll also add a link from a previous article posted by the Birmingham News Room in February 2012 that might give a bit of handy context as to what’s going on.

If on the other hand you completely understood all of that, then you are probably looking forward to hearing what the proposed plans from Creative City Partnership are. With speakers such as Anita Bhalla, the chair of Birmingham Mac gallery; Jonnie Turpie, who is deeply invested in the broadcasting and digital media side of Birmingham’s creative ventures; Stuart Griffiths, the Chief executive of the Birmingham Hippodrome since 2002; and Jo Birch from Birmingham City University – it’s a great opportunity to hear from people at the top of our biggest creative venues in Birmingham. The discussion about the finer points of Creative City Partnership’s is a great way to understand more about how these sectors work and anyone else who is concerned, personally invested or even just interested in our city’s creative potential should come along and not feel afraid to ask some questions.

I’ve taken the time to scout out a little bit of information about each of the speakers and I’d recommend that anybody who wants to go should do the same. It’s always good to be prepared. Once you’ve got all your information then you can go along and ask as many questions as you like.

The following link will take you to an Eventbrite page where you can book your ticket (which is absolutely free) and also states the address of the venue which will also be mentioned at the bottom of this post!

And a brief summary of the presentation nabbed straight from Eventbrite itself:

“2.00 Welcome address – (Birmingham City Council Leader/ Deputy Leader)
2.15 The Plan – (the where why and how and what it means for you – Anita Bhalla, Creative City Partnership Chair)
2.35 Skills – (Presentation by Jonnie Turpie, Maverick TV with interactive facilitated session from the audience about needs)
3.00 Growth – (Presentation by Jo Birch, Birmingham City University on 3 big ideas and rationale)
3.15 Growth Breakout (Teams consider what additional issues they would like addressing)
4.00 Access to Finance – (Presentation by Stuart Griffiths, Birmingham Hippodrome on big ideas and process moving forward)
4.20 Interactive Feedback session – (Open Q&A to review concerns and thoughts from presentations)
4.50 Closing remarks – (Anita Bhalla including what will happen moving forward.)
5.00 Close.”

Parkside Building,
Birmingham City University, City Centre Campus,
Curzon Street
B4 7XG Birmingham