A to Z of Marketing: Q is for Quell

If you’ve noticed the Marketing Genius blog has been surprisingly quiet lately, it’s because Skip and I have been attending the first annual Create West Virginia conference all week. This event brought together a mixed bag of the state’s leaders for an insightful planning session on how to attract and retain New Economy jobs in our region. It was an amazing, productive experience and I encourage you to see for yourself at http://www.createwv.com/.

There’s no doubt that the Create West Virginia conference was a smashing success. But if you rewind the tape about six weeks, here’s what you’d find:

> A nervous planning committee that needed at least 200 registrants, but only had 60.
> A five-figure budget deficient.
> A few secondary team members voting to stop work altogether for fear of going down with a sinking ship.

How do you overcome negative numbers? As any seasoned event planner will attest, you dig in, you target, you expand your reach, you mail, you call and, yes, you physically get in your car and go tell people why they need to attend. It takes leadership, grit, tenacity, faith, and a lot of shoe leather to make it happen – but it can be done.

On the other hand, it is far easier to sit in the corner and poo-poo the effort, so that’s what most people do. Don’t be one of them. Quell the pessimism. Quell the inherent voice that says, “This will never work”, “We’ve never done it that way”, and so on.

If you find yourself becoming a CAVE person (i.e. a Citizen Against Virtually Everything), realize that you are holding back your team, then make a vow to find the germ of greatness in every “bad” idea. Build on that until it becomes something you can rally around.

Finally, work like hell.

And that’s exactly what the planning committee of the Create West Virginia Conference did - which is why they had well over 200 attendees at their event - and why they are already planning for next year.

Cultivating Connectedness among Creatives

Our team has had the pleasure of working with the Creative Communities Team of Vision Shared, under the leadership of Jeff James and Elizabeth Damewood Gaucher. Our goal has been to help Jeff and his team create a place on the Web for creative folks in West Virginia to link up, share big ideas and to engage in conversations. We hope that their newly launched Web site helps those creative folks do just that. We're using some really cool new Web tools, like Google maps (via the Community Walk app), Two Brains (shared learning), an online merchandise mart (via Cafe Press) and a companion blog. We're working on integrating a Facebook group, as well. Have a look - check it out!

Jeff has created a companion blog to support CreateWV. In his usual inclusive and generous fashion, he mentioned us and recognized our work on this great project.

We are happy to announce the updated createwv.com web site, full of useful links for anyone interested in learning about or developing the Creative Community in West Virginia. Thanks again to Maple Creative for their hard work on this site.

Here are a few things you'll find:

Big Ideas - A listing of existing suggestions on how West Virginia can break through to become one of the most innovative, prosperous states in the U.S. - and a form for you to submit your own ideas.

Action Resources - A long list of interesting organizations and resources that can help inform and empower you locally to drive improvement in education, technology, arts and culture and more.

Create WV gear - You knew the bumper sticker was coming, didn't you? Stickers, shirts and more with the Create WV logo available for purchase. All proceeds go towards the Create WV Conference and local workshop expenses.

Featured Creatives and Places - This list will grow, but we love telling the stories of innovative people and places in West Virginia.

Don't forget we still have the statewide CommunityWalk map that needs your input! Please add any interesting New Economy or Creative Community location in your community - anything from small business development centers to museums to wireless hot spots. To add your locations, just click on the "Build This Map" link near the top of the page.

Leading the Creative Charge in WV: Jeff James

We are excited to be working with Jeff James on the CreateWV initiative! Jeff is a marketing genius, who hails from Microsoft. For the past several years, Jeff led the Microsoft's Executive Circle program. Now, he has launched a marketing venture, Mythology Marketing.

Jeff and other leaders within Vision Shared have made great strides in advancing the creative sector of the West Virginia economy. They have identified, quantified, spotlighted and are now actively linking up the many creative people, places and networks that are found all across the Mountain State. You can learn more via the group's recently released whitepaper, "Culture, Creativity and Innovation - West Virginia in the New Economy."

Jeff is the lead blogger on the CreateWV blog, now a part of our blogroll. We are working feverishly on the launch of the CreateWV web site, which features tons of information, resources and social networking tools for the West Virginia creative community.

The Maple Creative team has been proud to have provided graphic design, Web design and public relations support for Jeff and his talented, creative cohorts! It is always a treat to work with a visionary and marketing genius like Jeff!