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Toronto Considers Strategies for Building Regional Creative Economies

In a report released last week, a Toronto group says that creative industries may soon overtake ICT and business services as the fastest growing sector in the region’s economy. In order to preserve this momentum and ensure that other industries benefit from the presence of a strong creative sector, the authors recommend enlisting regional leaders to create programs that support creative people, creative enterprises, affordable spaces for creative work, and a shared community vision.

The report is the culmination of almost two years of work by Torontos Creative Cities Leadership Team, with support from the University of Toronto, the Ontario Ministry of Culture, the City of Toronto, and the Ministry of Research and Innovation. Similar case studies by the Strategies for Creative Cities project are now being undertaken in New York, San Francisco, London, Barcelona and Berlin. A report on London was released earlier this year.

According to the project, creative industries are those producing cultural goods, including media and broadcasting, architecture, the performing arts, advertising, design, and publishing. Creative workers, however, can be found in any industry, but rely on creativity in their daily work. This includes writers, graphic designers, musicians, illustrators, artisans and photographers. From 1991 through 2004, the compound annual growth rate of creative occupations in Toronto (6 percent) far surpassed the overall growth of the labor force (2.3 percent). In fact, between 1990 and 2000, creative employment grew faster than in many well known creative cities, such as San Francisco, Montreal and Los Angeles.

The Toronto study focuses on the region’s need to build on this growth to advance Toronto as a center of North American creativity and to connect creative firms with partners in other industries. These partnerships give creative firms greater access to the capital available to more traditional industries and provide those industries with access to the region’s creative talent.

Highlights from the recommendations include:

* Creative Leadership: A leadership team with a mandate from local government should specifically oversee the creative growth of a region. This team can assign individuals to bridge the existing gaps between traditional and creative industries.

* Business Training and Mentoring: Creative institutions, like art and design schools, rarely provide business training. Doing so could bring new talent into the economy.

* Creative Business Support: Regions can offer entrepreneurial training and incubation opportunities tailored specifically to the needs of creative businesses.

* Developing Connections Between Industries: Local economic development programs should connect creative entrepreneurs with new and existing biotech, medical and manufacturing firms. The report recommends using creativity convergence centers to connect creative firms with high-tech start-ups.

* Increasing the Availability of Cultural Risk Capital: Though creative industries are becoming more important to many urban economies, risk capital for new ventures is still rare. Traditional investors are hesitant to invest in the sector. Creative Capital Funds, such as the one established by London in 2005, can help encourage investments.

Find out more about the Toronto strategy at: http://www.imagineatoronto.ca/

Copyright State Science & Technology Institute 2006. Redistribution to all others interested in tech-based economic development is strongly encouraged. Please cite the State Science & Technology Institute whenever portions are reproduced or redirected.

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