CREATIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN - STRATEGIC ACTION PLAN PROCESS

The Purpose An Action Plan for Creative Entrepreneurship for Donegal – to support the creative business opportunity, within the wider Culture and Creative Industries Policy context. REGISTER YOUR INTEREST & The objective is to devise a strategic framework and action plan that can be implemented over a 5-10 year timeframe. TALK TO US TODAY It will inform priority actions for the Donegal Local Enterprise Office (LEO) as well as potential collaborative action with other partners. e. [email protected] t. 074 916 0735

The Process - How It Works

Building on Existing Research Emerging Drafting the ● Options Strategic Initial Workshop ● Action ● Solutions Plan 1:1 Soundings

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SUPPORTING CREATIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN DONEGAL

BACKGROUND The Donegal Local Enterprise Office (LEO) is developing a Strategic Action Plan for Creative Entrepreneurship in Donegal. The purpose is to provide a strategic framework and action plan to support the creative business opportunity within the wider Cultural and Creative Industries policy context.

The objective is to develop the Action Plan by January 2015 setting out actions that can be implemented over a 5-10 year timeframe. It will inform priority actions for LEO as well as potential collaborative action with other agencies/partners in the County. MCO PROJECTS has been commissioned by LEO to work with the team in preparing the Plan.

In October 2014, an invite to an open workshop was circulated widely and was held in the LEO offices on Wednesday 29th October. The invite was circulated to an initial database of contacts that the LEO gathered and by agencies and networks in the County.

The workshop was a first opportunity for people in the creative sector to participate in this strategic initiative by LEO. We very much welcome all feedback and would appreciate any help you can offer to circulate this information and our online survey among your networks.

SUMMARY OF WORKSHOP The purpose of the workshop was to: a) Inform the strategic focus to support creative entrepreneurship in the county b) Identify opportunities and priority actions that could be taken to support creative entrepreneurship in the county This document provides a high level summary of the discussions shared on the day.

A key outcome from the workshop was a request for another workshop meeting to be held in LEO to continue the conversation. This will be held on Wednesday the 3rd December at the LEO office in . Please register your interest in attending by contacting [email protected].

STAYING IN TOUCH… WHAT’S NEXT? During November MCO PROJECTS will be circulating an online Survey, and welcoming feedback from creatives in the County. Please contact Ciara O’Halloran by email [email protected] or by phone to 01 887 0630.

Michael Tunney and Ursula Donnelly of LEO will also be engaging with stakeholders, agencies and local authority departments on this initiative to develop opportunities for collaboration in the delivery of supports identified for the creative sector.

We hope you will:  Help share this information through your networks  Register your interest in attending the Workshop on the 3rd of December 2014 by contacting [email protected].  Join the mailing list to stay updated on news and information (E: [email protected] T: 074 916 0735)  Take a few minutes to complete a short survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DonegalCreativeEntrepreneurs  Send the survey to your contacts and networks Making Projects Happen

THE INFORMATION SHARING WORKSHOP – A SNAPSHOT

 Workshop participants were invited to fill in an info sheet  32 people attended on the day and participated in the workshop.  66% had previously engaged in some way with the Local Enterprise Office.  Participants were a diverse mix of creatives from across the county, including music, recording studios, TV, film, ceramics, jewellery, books, radio, textiles, visual communications and artists. There were also representatives from enterprise agencies, local authorities, and LYIT.  The top three reasons for attending were cited as: 1. To network / meet 2. To learn / find out more about what’s available 3. To find out how / inform how supports for the sector can be developed

 Michael Tunney, Head of LEO welcomed the attendees and presented the role of LEO, the purpose, context and rationale for the initiative.  Eve-Anne Cullinan, MCO provided an introduction to the workshop and a snapshot of the wider context in relation to Cultural and Creative Industries.  A number of information posters were around the room, and on each round table. As requested a copy of the posters are attached.

 Facilitated workshop discussions were held in round table format with volunteer table hosts on four key topics: 1. Visualising the Opportunity – what does the creative sector in Donegal look like now? And what does success look like in 5-10 years? 2. How to harness existing local activity and networks in the cultural eco-system? 3. What spaces and activities are most important to enable collaboration between different stakeholders in the creative sector? 4. How LEO can best communicate with the sector?

 Discussion prompts and maps were provided in relation to these key questions.  Thanks to volunteer table hosts who summarised and shared key points with the entire group after each discussion topic  All of the notes were gathered by MCO to collate the feedback from attendees  At the next workshop meeting on 3rd December, all notes and points shared in discussion, and through an online survey will all be presented by MCO as part of the workshop

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HIGH LEVEL SUMMARY – DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES BUT SOME COMMON THEMES

1. There is a lot of diversity within the creative sector working at different levels across the County that needs some consolidation and cohesion. There are some traditional sectors that are highly visible, well established and associated as distinctive to specific areas within Donegal (eg music, tweed, crafts). There are other active sectors that are less visible, dispersed across the County, under the radar and at an earlier stage of development. The Strategic Action Plan should take a broad view of the sector to incorporate the diverse activity and spread across the County.

2. There are geographic factors and regional pockets of activity which could be better connected. Different areas of the county have different clusters of activity / characteristics. There is an opportunity to support local, regional and peripheral activity that is connected in a County strategy. More information sharing is needed on a county wide basis.

3. A strong need to network with other creative businesses and social entrepreneurs. There is an opportunity for creative and social entrepreneurs to meet and exchange ideas with each other – in addition to the informal ‘pub as hub’ ad hoc connections that already exist. There is a need for more networking across the county and within the sector. A real benefit would be for not just one major hub, but a series of ‘connection points’ at diverse locations.

4. An open and flexible approach to better use of existing spaces and more awareness of activities and supports available is needed. Creative entrepreneurs are often mobile and on the road and have diverse needs. Flexibility and access to facilities like hot-desks, shared resources, ease of good internet access is important. Spaces, networks and programmes of activity should be open and inclusive in their approach. A programme of actions is required that are tailored to meet the specific needs of creatives.

5. Utilising existing or vacant spaces When considering physical spaces for clusters, hubs, pop-ups, or networking, there is an interest to re-utilise vacant spaces, or better utilise public spaces, buildings or existing spaces. Consideration needs to be given to regional and urban.

6. Opportunity for joint initiatives and collaboration There is an opportunity to address challenges of scale, geographic dispersion and impact through joint initiatives; joint marketing, joint cultural tourism projects; joint spaces e.g. “pop-ups”. There is an opportunity for these to be identified through greater connections across the sector. Being part of a group or network has worked well for other initiatives in Donegal.

7. Importance of skills development, links to education and training There is an opportunity to enhance training for existing businesses in the sector. Specific, high quality niche skills development that is sector specific is also needed to develop new creative businesses. There is value in existing creative businesses engaging as champions, mentors and as trainers.

8. Opportunity to improve communications and access to information There is a lot of work done by agencies, but there is not a wide awareness of what are the impacts or opportunities on the ground. Low level of knowledge among the group about who has engaged or benefitted from the local and European initiatives mapped. There is potential to improve awareness of the resources and supports that are available. There is also opportunity to develop supports that facilitate building data (mapping the sector, lists of suppliers) information sharing, calendars of events, news, virtual hubs, and knowledge about case studies from European projects. What were the actual outcomes, who benefitted and how, eg on the EU projects. Making Projects Happen

9. Showcasing, high profile and visibility / access to international markets There is a need to promote the sector beyond the County and internationally, building a profile and reputation for quality and distinctiveness for the sector in Donegal. Links to the cluster development in Derry and Northern Ireland are important, as well as opportunities to engage with trade and exhibition opportunities at a national and European level. The Donegal Diaspora is a key asset.

10. Need for a long term view and projects of scale as well as immediate actions Cultural tourism, harnessing the Wild Atlantic Way, and cross border links are an opportunity to take on a sustained major project for impact in the longer term. Potential to connect this to skills development and nurturing creative talent.

11. Focus on ‘people’ based resource to enable connections and projects A dedicated resource who can connect the diverse creatives across the different disciplines would be very valuable in the short term to initiate, mobilise and communicate with people. This would be particularly valuable for initiating joint marketing, promotion activities as well as feeding into potential major projects.

12. A lot of information at the workshop – request for another meeting Participants felt there was value in them coming together at the workshop to explore the opportunity to support creative entrepreneurship in Donegal, but felt that there was a lot of information to consider and discuss. Many people in the room had not met each other before. Many were unaware of the detail of the cultural and creative industries policy context, and the NW initiatives that already had been undertaken. The group requested another workshop in LEO to continue to engage with the Strategic Action Planning process. The group agreed that a summary of the workshop could be circulated in an open email to all participants by MCO for feedback.

STARTING TO MAP CREATIVE BUSINESSES IN DONEGAL

Architects

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