I’m really pleased to announce that we have a name for our blog, Creative Nottingham.com (big thanks to David Hyslop at Nottingham City Council for helping us secure that!) and a launch date of 21st September when we’ll go live with our very sparkly new site full of beautiful pictures and stories about what is happening in Nottingham (and not forgetting Nottinghamshire) encompassing all things creative.
We’ve chosen the tagline ‘CreativeNottingham – connecting Nottingham’s creative communities‘ to reflect how we want the site to be – not it’s own turret but more like inter-connecting walls which link together all the other interesting plot of land, castles, houses and things in between.
We’ve been working together as a team of four developing the design (with the invaluable technical help of Phil from Wheldon Computing, as his site says he’s a brilliant IT problem solver!) and will run the site every week as a team which is a great way of collaborating to make a site that will, we hope, be more diverse for the sum of its part. I’ll let the team introduce themselves on the new site.
Thanks to everyone who’s contributed ideas, moral support in the development of this project. The development of CreativeNottingham will continue to be a journey driven by the ideas, inspirations and needs of the city’s creative people.
Here’s the ‘official’ press release to tell you what it’s all about:
Starts:
Sept 2009 – For Immediate Release
New website launches to connect and celebrate Nottingham’s creative communities.
September 21st sees the launch of a new website which has been created to connect and celebrate the achievements of Nottingham’s diverse creative, arts and digital business communities, established by an independent team of creative practitioners.
CreativeNottingham.com is an interactive website which highlights the latest news and events, and celebrates achievements by creative practitioners from across the county. It compliments major initiatives to develop the city’s creative businesses – like Antennae, a creative business centre opening in September and Nottingham Contemporary gallery – by promoting creative activities to audiences and the business community. The website’s founder, Susi O’Neill, Director of consultancy Digital Consultant, explains:
“As the 15,000 creative workers in our city already know, Nottingham is a pioneering city for arts and creative events and a great place to run a creative business. However, the limited public funds to support the city’s burgeoning creative sector – compared to neighbouring cities Birmingham, Sheffield and Leicester – places the city at a competitive disadvantage. Social media technologies, particularly blogs, enable communities to publish and celebrate our achievements using shared resources with far lower costs than traditional publishing, which has enabled us to set up the project without any start-up costs. In a time when the recession is hitting independent businesses and the national media associate Nottingham for crime rather than design, through working independently and collectively to promote what’s good about our city we will create new opportunities for collaboration.”
The project is championed by local creative entrepreneurs. Iain Simons, Director of GameCity, the computer games festival taking place this October, comments:
“It’s impossible to ignore the groundswell of community and positive engagement that has emerged over the last year or so in the city, so the emergence of Creative Nottingham as a centrepiece for that activity is as brilliantly exciting as it is inevitable. What I think is especially encouraging is that the site functions – and even came into being - as an expression of confidence, not simply a list of apologetic reasons as to why we’re ‘as good as London’. At last, home has a homepage.”
Debbie Bryan, a designer who has recently opened her own studio and shop in St Mary’s Gate in the Lace Market, comments:
“The launch of Creative Nottingham fills me with optimism that Nottingham and its creative community will have a platform to shout about how great Nottingham and its creatives are.”
Mark Shaw, who is soon to launch a weekly column focusing on the creative industries in Nottingham every Tuesday in the Nottingham Evening Post, adds:
“This new website will be a great way for everyone to stay in touch on the latest thoughts and ideas from the creative sector in Nottingham – everyone should check it out and make it a part of their lives!”
The website will be run by a pool of four editors from different creative disciplines. Editor and software sales executive Phil Williams said:
“We’re all starting the Creative Nottingham blog on a voluntary basis because we believe it’s exactly what businesses in the city need. Eventually we hope to make the project sustainable through advertising revenues and other services. So far the response has been fantastic. Nottingham City Council gave us the web domain to launch the project.”
The website will link with existing business networks and publications like Nottingham Creative Business Awards, Left Lion and NottTuesday to profile the work of different creative groups, showcasing the best work produced by local businesses and practitioners from the city working internationally. Editor Camilla Zajac, Director of Green Light Copywriting, hopes the website’s remit will evolve:
“Initially we aim to join the dots, connecting together what’s already happening in the city. This will gives us a platform to galvanise the creative business community, giving us a collective voice. From January we will invite a series of guest bloggers from across the creative, digital and education sectors to talk about the work they do in the city and offer their views on how the city needs to develop.”
More activities are planned, according to Editor Charlotte Thomson, an artist and illustrator: “In 2010 we’ll be hosting a couple of special events to showcase the diverse creative talent in the city.”
Creative Nottingham is inspired by business community websites like Digbeth.org and CreatedinBirmingham.com which have helped to develop audiences for events and new business connections. Local websites are now seen as important ways of connecting communities since the decline in local newspaper readership. Ensuring individuals have the skills to communicate using online tools is high on the government’s agenda, as public-funded projects like Digital Mentors, Talkaboutlocal.org and the recent Digital Britain report testify.
Creative Nottingham will be live on the web from 21st September at the address: http://www.creativenottingham.com
For further enquires contact:
Susi O’Neill
Tel: 07981 222799
Email: susi@digitalconsultant.co.uk
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