Presentation from Gillian Easson, Creative Dundee at the Creative Spaces//Creative Cities event in Inverness on 18th June 2014 hosted by IOTA (Inverness Old Town Art). Gillian Easson is a freelance Creative Producer with a background in innovation/design processes and a passion for enabling people and their places to shine. Gillian co-founded Creative Dundee in 2008 to amplify and connect creative and cultural talent in her home city. Creative Dundee regularly hosts Pecha Kucha Night Dundee. Previously a project manager with innovation agency Nesta for 7 years, Gillian managed the creative enterprise programmes and a digital research and development fund for the cultural sector. Last year Creative Dundee led the development and delivery of We Dundee, an online crowd-sourcing platform that enabled over 3,000 citizens to feed their cultural ideas in to the future of the city. www.creativedundee.com Twitter @Creative_Dundee

1. !Gillian Easson, Director!
@Creative_Dundee!
@GillianEasson!

2. Creative Dundee connects creative talent with opportunities and
amplifies the city’s creative pulse by:!
!
‣ Encouraging collaboration and networking to develop the local
creative and cultural sectors.!
!
‣ Increasing awareness of the creative and cultural scene, within
and outwith the sectors and city.!
!
‣ Acting as a partner and broker to impact positively on
communities, the city and the local economy.

3. Creative Dundee is a not-for-profit company, limited by guarantee. One part-time staff
member, receives a small grant from Creative Scotland, earns income through the provision of
external services and has no physical base or overheads. !
!
Creative Dundee activities:!
‣ Online/social media/news mailout - key activity, promoting and providing info. Top
audience locations - Dundee 40%, London 10%, Edinburgh 9%, Glasgow 4%.!
!
‣ Pecha Kucha Nights - quarterly events to showcase local scene, low barrier to entry. 200 -
300 people attend each event from all backgrounds (2250 attendees, over 100 speakers,
videos of talks reached an extra 10,000 people)!
!
‣ Events - Mid Week Meet, This Much We Know, creative christmas parties…!
!
‣ Strategic partnerships - CoC, cultural strategy, CAN network, We Dundee, sharing
resources to do bigger or different.!
!
‣ Paid opportunities - commissioning creatives through events + with other orgs.!

4. Constituted
PKN 5
PKN 1
PKN 2
PKN 3
PKN 4
PKN 6 PKN 7
PKN 8
XMAS 13
XMAS 11
XMAS 12
CoC
2012
20112008
2013
2014
INCORPORATED

6. Kate Pickering, Director, Vanilla Ink!
Jewellery incubator for start-up designers.!
!
“Creative Dundee is the glue that is bringing creatives together.
Forcing us out of our lonely studios to come talk to like-minded
people, done through many different mediums… Creative Dundee
is providing us with something to be proud to be a part of…
We are Creative Dundee!”
Martin Baillie, Graphic Designer!
Martin was given the opportunity to design the V&A
Dundee Museum of Design’s first ever poster campaign
- this collaboration was managed by Creative Dundee. !
V&A Dundee will be an international centre of design
for Scotland and will be the first design museum built
outside of London. Designed by Japanese architect,
Kengo Kuma.

7. Creative Dundee IncorpoRated - crowd sourced a guide to the city - built community, trust, reputation of
Creative Dundee and was valuable demonstrator project, pre-We Dundee…

8. !
WeDundee.com - a crowd platform which enabled 3,000+ people to be
actively involved in shaping Dundee’s UK City of Culture 2017 bid. !
It aimed to: !
‣Remind people what an incredible place Dundee is.!
‣Develop a model for co-curation of future cultural activities.

10. !We Dundee created a real life network of supporters:

11. Creative City Network Review - EKOS!
!
Creative Scotland commissioned EKOS (an economic/social research
company) to study the impacts of 3 creative city networks, Creative Dundee,
Creative Edinburgh and Creative Stirling. Each is independent, but offers
similar services and are part-supported by Creative Scotland.!
!
EKOS’s review of Creative Dundee’s involved:!
!
‣ 80 completed online surveys with the CD network!
‣ 6 partner organisation stakeholder interviews !
‣ A focus group session!
‣ Attendance at a PKN!
‣ Review of our background info

12. Above: Results from the 80 completed online surveys
Meet likeminded people
Engage in cross discipline networking
Gain industry contacts
Develop collaborations
Gain industry knowledge
Promote / advertise business / practice
Access peer support
Develop skills / capacity
Access or signposted to sources of support
Access business start-up information
0 22.5 45 67.5 90
5%
22%
25%
33%
37%
42%
45%
46%
60%
85%
Online survey: reasons for engaging with CD, to…

13. Online survey: what + how did CD do?
Above: Results from the 80 completed online surveys

14. Online survey: outcomes of engaging with CD, now + in future
Above: Results from the 80 completed online surveys
Improved local knowledge of creative/cultural activity
Increased willingness to be located within Dundee
Greater confidence to develop/grow practice in city
Increased number of industry contacts
Greater understanding of support available to you
Greater exposure to wider audiences
Enhanced levels of innovation
Developed collaboration activity
Enhanced market knowledge
Improved business brand or improved marketing
Enhanced business skills
Entered or grew in Scottish markets
Brought new products to market
Entered or grew in international markets
None of the above
0 25 50 75 100
15%
29%
28%
33%
30%
25%
25%
47%
29%
42%
24%
36%
29%
16%
23%
13%
3%
6%
9%
16%
17%
26%
30%
32%
41%
47%
52%
55%
62%
76%
NOW FUTURE

15. • How important is it to be part of a creative community? !
!
91% Rated either ‘Very important’ or ‘Important’!
!
• Creative Dundee has had a positive impact on the creative sector in Dundee:!
!
94% Said ‘Yes’!
!
• Ability of Creative Dundee as either ‘good’ or ‘very good’ in:!
!
82% Enabling creative industry connections between individuals!
79% Enabling connections between organisations within/outwith creative industries !
79% Encourage interdisciplinary collaborations!
!
• Creative Dundee is having a positive impact on the perception of Dundee as a
creative city within and outwith Dundee: !
!
89% Within the city!
63% Outwith Dundee
Above: Results from the 80 completed online surveys
Online survey: some final stats

16. Community: !
• Being part of a community is important for practitioners.!
• Coming together allows for inclusion where individuals can share ideas, knowledge and inspiration in a
safe, trustworthy environment. !
• Connecting of people has led to some new collaborations, and new contracts. !
• Online platform enables individuals to promote their work/ideas to a large ready-made audience.!
!
Stakeholders:!
• Bridging the gap between the community and the public sector organisations. The development of
relationships with other organisations has been beneficial for the network and also the other organisations
to access and connect with this network.!
!
City Level: !
• Influential catalyst for the increase in the profile of Dundee, the city as a whole.!
• Involvement with City of Culture, Creative Dundee was able to improve the perception of Dundee (cannot
take sole responsibility for this, of course). !
• Played a role in the retention of talent within the city, more people choosing to remain, or move to Dundee
to access opportunities. !
• Working together with other organisations to support the development of the creative industries within
Dundee is fundamentally Creative Dundee’s city wide role. Creative Dundee is in a unique position, able to
speak with the practitioners as well as those influencing policy at a strategic level.
Stakeholder Findings - city wide impacts

17. • Cross-sector networking/collaboration encouraged - regular high-quality and
informal sessions.!
!
• Leadership and direction from the sector - programmes of support should be led by
the creative sector in partnership with local agencies.!
!
• Digital engagement is effective at raising awareness of local creative/cultural sectors -
locally/internationally and helps reach markets - it must be of a high quality. Helps place
making - tourism, regeneration…!
!
• Strong partnerships and leveraging expertise from organisations is essential –
civic authorities/enterprise agencies/bottom-up networks provide specialist expertise in
areas e.g. design processes; crowd-funding; digital innovation. !
!
• Local agencies should commission local talent where possible - by providing open
and transparent commissioning methods and discussions to talk through where the
challenges are. !
My wish list for creative place networks!

18. !
www.creativedundee.com!
gillian@creativedundee.com!
@creative_dundee!