General

How can I stay abreast of opportunities?

Georgia Made Georgia Grown LLC has an ebroadcast list for the Creative Economies initiative. If you'd like to sign up for the ebroadcasts, send me your contact information. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it georgiamadegeorgiagrown.com

Are there opportunities for Business-to-Business (B2B) marketing?

We would love to see artscentrics working with corporate partners in a host of ways. Anytime a corporation based in Georgia gives gifts, we would like them to have the option at their fingertips to Buy Georgia Made. I've tested the idea. I ask people if they would like to Buy Georgia Made. Every one says "Yes! But where do I find it?" The Tourism Foundation has a vision of providing the networking to make Georgia Made Georgia Grown Products available to corporate buyers, whether they are looking for gifts, office decor, or internal incentives. And this is probably where Georgia Made Georgia Grown LLC will make a lasting link.

Corporate, gift shop and other buyers tell us they are very interested in buying Georgia Made, but they do not have time to make relationships with 50 or 100 products producers, that they would rather work through one representative, place one big order, then have that order delivered in one shipment. We hear this plea and are working to develop a solution.

What resources are available for local Georgia makers and growers?

The Georgia Tourism Foundation and Georgia Made Georgia Grown LLC are researching programming already developed and available at little to no cost. We heard our Town Hall attendees tell us that they don't have time or energy to go to lengthy structured classes, such as those offered in technical schools, but they would be very interested in Saturday or short workshops about making a business plan or learning modern technology. Georgia's Small Business Development Centers offer workshops, including "Maximum Marketing" and "Maximum Finance" to Entrepreneur Friendly Communities. The Arts Development Council of Georgia (www.adcg.org ) has scheduled three workshops in art business development in 2008. Lee Nelson leads an excellent day-long "The Entrepreneurial Artist" workshop (www.teaworkshop.biz ). These, and others, will be in our Resources portfolio.

Is there a state-wide database of Georgia producers?

The state of Georgia Tourism Foundation through the Creative Economies Initiative has done just that. The State will soon host an online registry of Georgia Producers and we are all very excited about the possibilities. That database / registry will be suitable for individuals, businesses, festivals and buyers to locate and learn about Creative Economies businesses. It will weave together a state-of-the-art site that creative industries can add their own content to, that will give searchers enough information to make contacts with exactly who they are looking for, and that will be a model for other states' own stars. As of this writing the state plans to open the database for initial registrations on November 17, 2008. Beginning around the first part of 2009 the registry will be opened and promoted to the public for regular use.

Our own GeorgiaMadeGeorgiaGrown.com online store will itself be a source of information about locally made and grown products and services. We will also provide lists of and links to more local resources over time.

What is the Creative Economies Intiative doing for Georgia artisans and growers?

The Creative Economies initiative became an official Statewide program when it rolled out at the Governor's Conference on Tourism in Tifton in September, 2007. Our first pleasure was to invite Creative Economies business people to ten Town Hall meetings to listen to what they want from programming.

At each of the meetings, we asked each attendee to tell us what their best assets were, what their roadblocks seem to be, and how the Creative Economies initiative could best help those who chose to, to move to the next level.

From these conversations, the commonalities of assets, roadblocks and how to move forward indicated that we could put into place three useful programs in 2008 - a statewide database of Creative Economies business people; resources for business development; and business-to-business networking.

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