Yvonne Jacobs, President of Slifer Designs, joined Beth Slifer, CEO of Slifer Designs on a panel for the state of Colorado to grow the creative industry.

1. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Carol Johnson, 970-926-8200, carolj@sliferdesigns.com
JACOBS AND SLIFER JOIN COLORADO STATE CREATIVE ECONOMY ADVISORY
PANEL
Industry leaders advise state on strategic plan to grow the economy
EDWARDS, CO (December 17, 2009) The Colorado Council of the Arts (a division of the
Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade) recently convened a group
of notable individuals who represent creative enterprises and creative occupations throughout
the state. Among those invited to participate were Beth Slifer, CEO and Creative Director of
Slifer Designs, and Yvonne Jacobs, President of Slifer Designs.
The purpose of forming this new advisory panel is to make sure that the creative industry
continues to thrive; currently the creative industry is Colorado’s 5th largest economic sector.
Slifer and Jacobs, along with representatives from the Aspen Art Museum are the only mountain
resort representatives on the panel; most other members on the 50 person panel are leaders
from the Denver metropolitan area’s design, literary and publishing, film and media, heritage,
and performing and visual arts industries.
The panel is co-hosted by Lt. Governor Barbara O’Brien and the Office of Economic
Development Director Don Marostica.
“It is an honor to be included with this group of veteran creative industry leaders and have the
chance to collaborate with them in working toward such an important goal,” said Jacobs,
President, Slifer Designs. “Fostering new creative talent goes hand-in-hand with growing the
overall creative sector,” Jacobs continues. “I especially enjoy the strategic planning that our
panel is conducting, and look forward to being able to contribute my personal experience as a
Colorado native, as well as what I’ve learned from working in a creative field with other creative
people every day for the past 20 years,” Jacobs concluded.
Currently the Colorado creative sector represents over 122,000 jobs in almost 8,000 enterprises.
There are another 64,000 creative occupations that work in businesses not labeled as a
“creative enterprise,” such as designers in manufacturing companies. Other states have
recently made the creative sector a priority; Oklahoma recently coined itself the “State of
Creativity,” and Massachusetts and Hawaii have both established “Creative Industries” division
in their state’s Office of Economic Development.
The next steps for the panel are to develop goals and specific policy recommendations for the
Office of Economic Development. An online presence has been established at
www.thecivicnetwork.org/creativeeconomy to provide background readings and meeting
minutes, and to solicit ongoing feedback from the panel members and input from the broader

2. public.
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