Seattle Creative Economy MXR SEA, 2024
Topics Covered: Ai, Tech, Creativity, Arts, Business Development, Local Economy, Career Development, Networking, Community
Conference Overall Ratings: Venue (5/5) - Food (5/5) - Speaker Content (4.5/5) - Networking Opportunity (5/5) - Likeliness to Return (5/5) - (for more details, see the end of the blog…)
Initial Conference Overview - Why Attend? I was a little un-excited to go to this event beforehand. I felt like the promotional images advertising it looked very tech/electronic/Ai. I also saw it was a part of a series, but I didn’t understand the series. Even so, so much sounded like it related to me. Business owner, creative, interested in creative economy. It kinda seemed fool-proof. I saw that it was mostly socializing (though it sounded like some of it was structured from the agenda, which I also wasn’t too excited for, haha), but I was excited to hear the speeches. That being said, this event really surprised me.
Photo Collage & Commentary
Notes from Conference :
“If the government can get out of the way, art can be made”.
The purpose of MXR is to get people together and support the creative economy. Turn ideas into IP. Figure out how creative economy connects for Seattle.
Everyone in this room is specifically curated (the sponors/tables)
they invited people who usually they didnt’ bring to these things - universities, the library, coalitions
M5 Creative is a partnership with the Creative Economy, they have a building downtown a little bit longer - will likely extend it
Now that I re-rread this, I realize my notes aren’t great here… but what is going on here? They have a lease ending maybe wit their office with they may or may not keep? They may just go virtual or something? Or move offices? I’d be curious to know more what’s going on here.
Just seems crazy that one of the head departments of the human experience of the city (art/creative economy) would not even have an office!! Even the fact they’re threatened with it. That’s why i’m like - wait, what? Or maybe it’s a choice. But, makes me do a little double-take
I remember going to an event a year ago and it was posted on Eventbrite. The event was at the Botanical Gardens and it was celebrating a bill that passed for part of tax money for the next 10 years to go to the arts - arts enhancement or something. (haha makes me glad they didn’t have an open bar or food at this party! good to see, just incase any gov money is in here or that granted money. I’m glad they were stingy.). But at that event, one of the guys there told me that M5 is really influential on what gets made in the city. He also said that 5M is really influential in the city and making decisions.
But later I talked to a lady who works for the Seattle Creative Economy and she was thrilled that I had heard of “Harbor Studios”. This is the huge new movie studio they built at Harbor Island, where all the ships come and drop off stuff at the harbor. The turned one of the areas into a huge incredible movie studio. It’d be cool to get movies here in Seattle. But I’m not sure how many projects they’re getting at the moment. They want to attract big movie producers. I’ve learned that from touring the studio a few times (I even went to its opening, semi-randomly. It was pretty incredible.) Now that I mention it, they should print and display pictures from that in there… but they said it’s hard for them to keep anything in there because some movie groups want LITERALLY EVERY SQUARE CENTIMETER of the studio to use themselves… But also I wonder if people pass up opportunities here for reasons that are misunderstood but important - like we learned lots of businesses decide not to work in Seattle/Washington cause we don’t have cheap/enough energy.
Unify the city, empower and leverage opportunities
Seattle is competitive, wildly talented
West Seattle has an amazing roller rink with a stage in the middle of it.
“Nightlife is a sector in the creative economy… and everyone is going to bed too early.”
296 Business Partners are working together and getting paid for MXR, with workshops, multicultural
“Seattle needs to show up more.”
What can creative small businesses look forward to in 2025/2026?
focused on small businesses and engaging downtown seattle
creative an ecosystem and incubator, an investing by the City of Seattle to help people meet and create
In economic development, data is key. The more data you can show, the more it will make an impact
this makes me think… okay - so true. this is important to remember.
There are nonprofits that help get women into media, tech, entertainment
as a producer/leader of the company, she’s obsessed with data, spreadsheets, and calendars
Creative Sectors: Music, Live Events, Dance, Theater, Tech, Literature, Performing Arts, Tech, Literature, Production, Night Life Culinary Arts, Journalism, Entertainment, Graphic Design, Photography, Radio, Fashion, Gaming, Interactive Tech, TV Film
200,000 W2 employees in Washington in Creative Economy
120,000 gig workers
WA State strategic plan for creative economy:
we were told we could google it but I just tried searching for a while and can’t find it. I did find an interesting ppt that I will post two interesting charts from it here:
But then the next thing I wonder is: why does one include “creative technology” but not the other. The other explicitly doesn’t. I asked Ai for its guess/reasoning:
“Chat GPT: Depends on the Intent of the Analysis. The data itself is accurate, but its presentation can be misleading if the exclusion of "Creative Technology" is not made explicit or if the charts are viewed independently without explanation. The key issue isn't the numbers—it's how they're framed and interpreted.
With "Creative Technology" Included: You get a more comprehensive picture of the entire creative economy, showcasing the overwhelming dominance of tech-related employment within this space.
Without "Creative Technology": The focus shifts to traditional creative sectors, highlighting their relative importance and contributions when tech is excluded.
Misleading Perception of Growth or Decline: Someone might mistakenly believe that the traditional sectors have grown significantly between the two perspectives because they now represent a larger percentage (e.g., "Music, Performing & Visual Arts" jumps from 15.4% to 36.7% when "Creative Technology" is excluded). This isn't growth—it’s just a change in framing.
Overemphasis on Traditional Sectors: Excluding "Creative Technology" makes other sectors appear disproportionately important, which might not reflect their actual size or impact in the full creative economy.”
You know, I don’t mean to be overly skeptical all the time, but this search started cause they made it sound like it’d be easy to find this statement online. And I can’t easily find it. Only things from 2 years ago.
Also, financial literacy is so hard to be good at - even now I’m like obsessed with it, and dont’ feel that confident with business/city economies. It’s really hard to understand money, feel confident with budgeting, negotiating, etc. Shopping around, longterm thinking. So… I just think about all of this money flying around from investments, government grants, taxes funds added, etc etc. And it’s like the speech I heard the other day about the power grid. How many people in power, in charge of the power grid, don’t have that understanding of how things work, yet they’re in charge of decision making. The senators have to read through bills nonstop and agree or not agree to things, etc etc. So, when you notice little things like this… it does make sense how… ah! hahah, I’m about to say it: buttttt WELL INTENDED Ai and more organization and more collaboration and more events like this can really help unify things and get them more on the same page. So that there is more education, awareness… and also more accounatilibty for money and how resources are used. I would like to see the city thriving, fun, filled with art and entertainment. I’d like to see this happen efficiently, and so many people would!!! It’s just not easy.
20% of things that come out of Washington come from a creative technology company.
This industry struggles to get paid well and to get gigs.
Display a hustler mindset and confidence.
Workshop random ideas with random people time to time (Friends won’t be brutally honest)
Lean into your community
If you are confident, you add values, you can ask for money, you can negotiate… you are contributing to the economy.
Constantly be saying aloud what you’re looking for and looking to do.
You will constantly get clients telling people what you’re looking to do
If you have an idea: “that would make this city cooler, this is my rate”
There are 24,000 freelance photographers in the state of Washington.
Favor economy is not investing
710,000 students in Washington in the Creative Technology Education sector and will need jobs in the future. They’re ready to work in this creative economy.
Creatives are ready to work.
It’s your responsibly to teach others
Meet people, tell them, I think you’re cool… I want to learn “______” from you. They will teach you. They will like the specificity and goal.
It is your job, too, to teach others
Be out there, learn from people, be open - not defensive
Always ask for reviews
let your work speak for itself
utilize the co-op model
partnership or other creators: diversify the coworking
Just walk into local businese sand introduce yourself. Tell them about your business and maybe a partnership will happen. People want to work toegehter
The state of Washington will give free counseling businesses and help them grow. They’ll help aspiring entrepreneurs target there markets and build there business.
Funding comes from the US Small Business Alliance
Seattle Office of Economic Development / Creative Industries
Love helping the communities
activate and make Seattle imp’ortant
Trying to get more people going downtown and loving it
Seattle Public Libraries can offer law advice, help you with your business, help you tell your story of success in the future, they have workshops, classes, events - all free.
lots of these services an be used online
they’re providing over $5 Million in services per year for free. They really want people to keep using their services.
Demand is rising!
Online Entertainment and Sports MBA now offered at Seattle University. Join and help build out our sports teams.
Conference “Overall Rating” Further Elaboration:
VENUE - 5/5
Allow me to Elaborate: This was a perfect size venue for this crowd and it was a smart layout facilitating both networking and the band. I loved the lofted area up top with the live jazz music. The band was fantastic. It was smart to keep the music/sound up top (cause sound travels up 🤓 - and let people talk downtstairs while you could groove upstairs. There was so much networking going on before/after the speeches - and groovin’!
FOOD - NA, 5/5
Room for Improvement: This event had no food but they did have a bar. I think it’s a 5/5 that they didn’t have food since this was a non-profit/as I said above, idk where the money for this event came from, but I think food would have been expensive. And this event was like “choose your own adventure” in that it only ended up having one official hour (less than) of speeches/talks
SPEAKER CONTENT - 4.5/5
Room for Improvement: The speeches were so great, though I’d have loved to better understand that they were starting (I thought it was more of a casual announcement, chat, then the speeches were starting… but I realized they were starting so I whipped out a notebook and took notes standing up! I woudl have moved to a table if I’d realized what was happening - but then again, it wasn’t a bad experience to take notes standing up. Never did that at an event haha). Also, I would have liked to hear more - or go to an event where they report more on the city, projections, etc - and also hear Q&A. Though this wasn’t meant to be formal in that way, but I think it could be something they do in the future. Lots of people love learning about the creative economy & that kind of stuff.
NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES - 5/5
Allow me to Elaborate: Yes, even me, in this anti-social state, made some great connections last night. I didn’t exchange any numbers/contact, but I don’t really want to. Again, my career is so confusing/forming at the moment. Instead, I ended up having conversations with a number of people there - all sorts of personalities. I liked the community and I was also able to offer some helpful information to a few people - one I was showing them (Runway Ai and the video I made for AMC using Ai entirely)… another I accompanied as the wing woman while he shared his frustrations with the head of the Music Economy, I talked to people at the library (who said the library offers free legal advice, etc), etc etc. It was kinda “my people” - lots of musician, artist, creatives, jokesters - lots of funny people. I liked this crowd and would be happy to see these people again in the future, though even more - i’d like to create projects together. More than just chitchat about ideas - I like to create.
LIKELINESS TO RETURN - 5/5
ALLOW ME TO ELABORATE: 100% if you can’t tell, hahah, go reread any part of the blog. It was a great time and I’d gladly join another. The attendees, the interactive elements, the music, the vibe, the value that came out of it - it was above and beyond. I probably won’t communicate it well enough on paper… but I’d say the summary is… (as I’ve said many times) I’m playing the long game with my career in Seattle… I want to make great things. I’d like to keep getting to how this city works and figure out my best role. I really would like to make amazing content, maybe full-fledge movies, shows, courses, interactive apps, art initiatives - etc. So it’s great to keep learning what is offered. Last night/this event showed me so much is offered to help creators in Seattle if you get involved and ask… (but they could share this info better to the community, now that I mention it. I could help more with thatttt - spreading helpful “gossip”/info hahaha —- and also, way easier said than done. I’d like to try this for myself and see… though, the city has provided me with some cool free services so far -and they always have good events. I really love Seattle hahaha.)
Kelly’s Remaining Questions:
What are some of the projects the city is most excited about?
What projects are incoming?
Why are projects falling through (if so) and can problems be solved with clever partnerships?
How is Seattle unique in what it can offer, and compete with other options for creative businesses to invest in their projects?
How truly helpful and accessible is the city in helping make projects happen? How do you best get this done?
Until next time, I wish you the motivation and success to search for opportunities around your area. Search and explore: Who is out there giving talks? There are new things happening all of the time
Find relatable or interesting topics you like and check them out! Maybe even something hosted at a cool venue, if there’s no other reason to go. Let’s see what you can learn and discover not too far from home. 😊
