Wednesday 4 April 2012

Evolution of (creative) species

Warrington's great.  Whichever way you cut it, there's a hardcore group of supporters flying the flag high.  Even geography has been kind, putting it bang in the middle of two of the greatest cities in the UK and on a train line down to London and up into Scotland.  See, great!

WAcreative exists to connect the various creative greatness that exists around the town and, indeed, further afield.  When we stop and look back at a potted history of WAc, since October 2010 we've had presenters from the likes of MoneySupermarket.com, Monster, the BBC, Fuzzy Duck, Alexander Mann Solutions the University of Chester and Littlewoods/Very to name but a few.  We've secured sponsorship from the BBC Academy and had a massively successful non-conference back in October 2011.  We've also engaged with local small business and Warrington Borough Council in a way that, as far as I know, has never been done before.

We've also just setup WAspace, OnInWarrington and have started a campaign to unite the businesses around the Cultural Quarter to help promote the arts and businesses to as wide an audience as possible.

This is a big deal.

There is still a tonne of work to do.  Working alongside the likes of WBC, the Gallery @ Bank Quay House, the Cultural Trust and most importantly, local business, is the way to not only create a thriving arts and creative scene in the town, but also to redefine the town itself.

We'll be soon re-focussing on combining the best of what the town has on offer to drive home this message, but we also just wanted to throw down a challenge.  WAcreative offers a great, free, opportunity to network with the best of what the area has from the creative industries and we'd love for more people to be involved, to use these sessions to network, to pitch ideas and to put Warrington on the map for being a hub of creativity in the north-west.

Over the past 18 months, we've seen hundreds of people at WAc events and we've heard talk about ideas following them.  We need to keep this momentum and to start turning out some of the concepts that have been floated.  We need to focus on quality and focus on delivery.  Delivering a quality product, regularly and in new and unique ways is what drives word of mouth referral and ultimately, engagement.

Now is a great time to do this - the various groups are aligning and the vibe is there.  We would, therefore, ask that you do get involved.  Come to a meetup.  Write an article.  Make a difference.  We have a blank canvas to play with at the moment, we can make it something pretty spectacular.

Join us.