News & Events

The Mississippi Economic Council in cooperation with the state’s citizens and private sector is building a collaborative vision for moving the state’s economy and community forward.  The process, known as Blueprint Mississippi 2011, has led to the development of a series of goals and recommendations on education, the economy, diversity, financial resources, health, infrastructure and other key areas.

A top focus is the creative economy.  The following creative economy strategies are based in large part on the study we completed with the Mississippi Development Authority and the Mississippi Arts Commission Development. The reports are available here and more on the effort is on the Mississippi Creative economy website.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Support the goals in the report, Mississippi’s Creative Economy, released by the Mississippi Arts Commission with the Mississippi Development Authority:
  • Facilitate efforts that make communities throughout the state more creative and vibrant.
  • Promote entrepreneurship and small business growth among creative firms.
  • Help communities preserve and generate added value from cultural and historic heritage.
  • Enhance the competitiveness of the state’s businesses and industries through increased use of art and design.
  • Enhance the support and networking infrastructure for creative talent across the state.
  • Build capacity to grow and retain creative talent living and working in Mississippi.
• Develop tools and strategies to support growth throughout the tourism industry.

The Jackson Clarion-Ledger has an interesting article on the work we recently completed for the State of Mississippi.  We are presently preparing additional vignettes and updating the data in a follow-on contract with the state.

On August 11th the Mississippi Development Authority and the Mississippi Arts Commission released our report on the state’s amazing creative economy.  Information on the strategies for the creative economy is found on the state’s new creative economy website. The report demonstrates that the creative economy generates more than 60,000 jobs within the state. You can find project director and RTS founder Stu Rosenfeld’s presentation on the report here.

The report examines the various segments of the creative economy including visual and performing arts, design, film, literary and publishing, culinary arts and museums and heritage.  We also detail the support structure for the creative economy such as organizations, education and training, creative spaces and the investments that the state has made to build the creative economy.

Working with the Authority and Commission, we also developed a series of recommended goals and strategies intended to help the state reap the full benefits of its creative people and creative economy.

The report has three parts.  A short Executive Summary succinctly presents the main elements of the study. The Main Report provides all the detailed data and information on the creative economy and is a great resource. Finally we produced a series of vignettes on the state’s creative assets titled Red Hots and Deep Blues: Stories of Mississippi’s Creative Economy that provides a rich feel for the depth and variety of creativity within the state.

Be forwarned that the files are pretty large, especially the vignettes, so be patient with the downloads!

RTS and its Board of Directors announced today that Chris Beacham, Director of Economic Development Programs, has been named principal, joining Trent Williams and Dr. Stuart Rosenfeld in this role. Chris is the fourth principal  in the 20 year history of the organization.

The full press release is here.

Chris Beacham, RTS Director of Economic Development Programs, was asked by the North Carolina Technology Association to present to their Annual Leadership Conference on the topic: Dare to Compare: How Does North Carolina Stack Up? Chris presented an overview of the dramatic change of North Carolina from a state built on traditional manufacturing to one based on knowledge and technology.  But in the constant battle for economic success, how does North Carolina compare to other states on policy, workforce, venture capital, entrepreneurship and other factors in building a strong technology-driven economy?  The presentation details the data that shows the state as strong in many areas like R&D and presence of scientists and engineers while lagging in areas like citizen’s access to computers and Internet access. Read the rest of this entry »

RTS staffers Chris Beacham, Director of Economic Development Programs, and Senior Research Analyst Jenna Bryant were requested by the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) to present a webinar on measuring the creative economy.  The presentation, “Analyzing the Creative Economy (note: it requires creativity)” details the issues analysts face and the creative strategies needed to develop an accurate measurement of the economic role of the creative economy within a region.  Properly done, the analysis can help communities develop strategies to further develop this increasingly important sector.

RTS is working as part of a team, led by Senior Associate David Dodd of DADCO, Inc., with the St. Bernard Parish Economic Development Foundation on a Strategic Workforce Contingency Plan for Fishing and Related Industries in Coastal Louisiana. The team, which also includes The Johnson Group of New Orleans and Ann Guissinger & Associates of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is examining impacts and developing strategies to help Orleans, Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes deal with the cumulative impact of hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the BP oil spill. The focus is on the fishing industry and the devastated livelihoods of the fishermen but we are also looking more broadly at issues of strategic economic targets and relevant workforce development strategies to help the region. The project, funded by the US Economic Development Administration, will be completed in early fall of this year.

The TA3 is a membership consortium of more than 30 leading community and technical colleges, and several state system offices, in the U.S., Europe and South Africa that promotes community colleges’ efforts to support their regional economies, and promotes the value and importance of a global perspective on community college missions.

The latest TA3 Connections provides updates on the May 1-4, 2011 TA3 Symposium in San Sebastian in the Basque Region of Spain and brings you up-to-date on member activities including an interesting outreach program by EUC-Syd with Dung Quat College of Technology (DQC) in Viet Nam. York Technical College in South Carolina, USA is profiled. Along with other innovations, York Tech has created the Hive Business Center (HBC), a work-based learning cooperative that opened in February of 2011. The cooperative offers start-up and small business support with a focus on Internet marketing and web design and development.

Learn more about TA3 here.

CraftNet is an international alliance of community colleges, created and supported by RTS, in North America, Europe, and Africa that work together to enhance their own arts and crafts-based teaching programs and to develop local and regional artisan-based economies. Please go to craftnetglobal.com to learn more about this exciting network.

Monthly, RTS publishes a newsleter, CraftNet Sketches, highlighting the network’s recent activities including the efforts of member colleges. The most recent edition highlights Haywood Community College and Western Piedmont Community College in North Carolina, the Montana Arts Council, and Hazard Community College’s Kentucky School of Craft. In addition the issue describes some recent events and news of interest and profiles CraftNet member Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology’s Furniture College at Letterfrack, Ireland. Click here to download the issue. All past issues are available on the RTS website.

The latest TA3 Connections focuses on the upcoming TA3 Annual Symposium scheduled for May 1-4, 2011 in San Sebastian in the Basque Region of Spain. The symposium will focus on creativity and innovation in education. The issue also provides extensive member news, discusses a recent TA3 Webinar with Julian Alssid, executive director of the Workforce Strategy Center, and profiles TA3 member Ivy Tech Community College, Indiana.

You can download a copy of the newsletter here.