Brampton Creative Economy Summit - Panel Presentation

It was my pleasure to participate in the February 2nd Brampton Creative Economy Summit, to be part of a panel called "Inspired Thinking, Inspired Leadership", where I discussed the connection between entrepreneurship, in particular young entrepreneurs, and the creative economy.

Below are my speaking notes - quite a bit longer than my usual posts but I hope worth the read!

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The concept of the creative class emerged out of research done by Dr. Richard Florida which defines labour markets by one of three classes - working, service and creative (and its super-creative core). Creative professionals are knowledge-based workers who draw on their higher levels of education to solve specific problems and include individuals working in healthcare, business and finance, the legal sector, and education. The super-creative core includes a wide range of innovative occupations such as science, engineering, education, computer programming, research, arts, design, and media.

756 Small Businesses in Brampton’s Creative Economy = 9.4%

Entrepreneurship has always come from a place of creativity, so true entrepreneurs might be confused by this “new” idea of the creative class. Small business owners were pioneers in the industrial age and in the information age, and will continue to play that pioneering role as the creative sector becomes a foundation of Canada’s economy. Small business goes out there to fight with a stick. Guerrilla style. So the constantly changing battlefield gives them the advantage.

What the assembly line did for the industrial age, and what the personal computer did for the information age, the Internet and social networking is doing for business in the creative age, with a focus in particular on marketing within consumer-based sectors.

And guess who is at the helm? The facebook class, aka Echo Boomers (this name given by old people) Millennium Generation, iGeneration, Google Generation and Generation@

So, the Facebook Class – Is it Really that Big a Deal? YES!
· Facebook: 800 million users
· Twitter pushes out 200 million tweets per day
· You Tube: 200 billion views per day

Facebook in Canada:
· 20 million users in Canada (as of Oct 2010)
· 9.6 million visitors on a daily basis
· Representing one third of the entire population (34.8%)

Furthermore
· Add all 3 of the major Social Networking tools = 82.7% of all internet users in Canada are utilizing at least one form of social media
· Twitter: 3.268 Million Canadians
· LinkedIn: 2.5 million Canadians

TEXTING:
• Adults 18+ 10 Texts/Day and Boys 14-17 30 Texts/Day
• Girls 14-17 100 Texts/Day
• Texting has surpassed email, phone, and face-to-face as the main communication tool for 12-17 year olds

Whether young or young at heart, members of the Facebook class are social media addicts. And they are building habits at a young age that they will be compelled to carry with them into the future. These young people were born into a world where:

· They don’t know how to use a rotary phone or paper version of the yellow pages
· Have never looked up a library book using sliding drawers filled with recipe cards * unless they learned on Jan 18 when Wikipedia was on blackout
· Don’t understand the phrase “be kind, rewind”
· Carry hundreds of songs in something the size of a match box instead of multiple, stackable milk crates
· Don’t know how to fold up paper maps (ok, maybe we didn’t either!)

When we were kids, we thought our parents didn’t know anything; as we grew up, we discovered how smart and wise they actually were. Our kids still think their parents don’t know anything, but maybe this generation is actually right! If you are a parent of young adults like I am, I am sure you are continually amazed by their breadth and depth of knowledge on world issues, business, politics and of course pop culture.
They have grown up in a world with diverse Internet resources, iPods, MySpace and intense multi-tasking — simultaneously chatting on IM (instant messenger), finishing a problem set, watching television and listening to music. These kids are the kids of the Baby Boomers, heavily immersed in a digital world.

In case I haven’t convinced you yet, here are some more little factoids:
· 48% of people check/update their Facebook and/or Twitter after they go to bed
· 18% of people < 25 yrs old can’t go more than a couple of hours w/out checking in on FB
· 61% of people < 25 have to check in on FB at least once per day (55% > 25 yrs)
· Even 11% of people over 25 can’t go more than a few hours without checking
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So now that we have a handle on young and young-at-heart consumers, let’s get back to young entrepreneurs, who also share these traits and habits.

“It’s been done before” – doesn’t calculate with the New Gen of Super-Entrepreneurs. Because it hasn’t, not in the way they are thinking. Internet and Social Networking is creating a whole new paradigm for business. Social media has become essential for all businesses, and small businesses lead the way in exploring its possibilities. The catch is that social media is also very time-consuming, which of course is particularly challenging for companies with fewer employees. But savvy young entrepreneurs know a few key things:

1. their business is about their customers, and how their customers behave as consumers
2. business thrives when its connected to community – and social networking is a new, faster, more efficient way to connect to a variety of communities, the local geographical one not necessarily the most important one
3. That social networking is about an ongoing conversation with customers, not a pushed-out statement. People have changed the way they listen, so organizations much change the way they speak
4. It’s about networks of networks – fast, powerful; many-to-many is replacing one-to-one and one-to-many communication techniques

These young entrepreneurs also have the technical skills and curiosity to use the plethora of digital tools now available. Add to that, the New Generation of Super Entrepreneurs knows that the Internet and Social Networking is more than just Marketing/PR.

It is about two way communications, and also about
· Building client databases
· Conducting Polls and surveys to refine and improve their service offering
· Driving attendance at events
· Hiring staff
· Bulk Purchasing

It’s about competing at a super speed, because the present only lasts a nano-second!
They’re using applications such as …
· Social Networks – LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, Twitter
· Blogs – Wordpress, BlogSpot (corporate, individual, public – Ulitzer)
· Wikis – product/solution enabling
· Forums – Google groups, open knowledge sharing
· Online Video – YouTube, blip.tv, Vimeo
· File Sharing – Scribd, Slideshare, Instagram, Flickr, (my add: YouSendIt) and
· Bookmarking – Digg, Delicious, Reddit, Stumbleupon
...to further their business effectiveness and success

Leading a movement from:
· Restrictions
· Opaqueness
· Censorship
· Risk
· License
· Structure
· Top-Down
To an environment of
· Freedom
· Transparency
· Expression
· Reward
· Obligation
· Organized Chaos
· Bottom-Up
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Let’s get to know a few of these young entrepreneurs:
You’ll find them all at http://www.canadastop40under40.com/
An, awards program for outstanding young Canadians in all fields.

Leonard Jason Brody
President
Clarity Digital (Examiner.com)
Leonard Brody is a two time Emmy nominee and President of Clarity Digital Group. He conceives and drives digital strategy at one of the world’s largest sports, entertainment and media companies. CDG is responsible for overseeing one of the largest online news conglomerates in the world, including Examiner.com and NowPublic. Leonard has authored two bestselling books including Everything I Needed to Know about Business I learned from a Canadian. All proceeds from his books are donated to a variety of charities.

Naman Budhdeo
CEO
FlightNetwork.com
Naman Budhdeo immigrated to Canada from Kenya when he was 4. Today he owns the #2 online travel agency in Canada. FlightNetwork.com generates 2.7M unique visitors and 6M searches a month. 85% of FlightNetwork.com’s customers are Canadian. The company has grown from one part-time person in 2006 to over 180 fulltime employees. Naman takes great pride in his highly diversified work force. An early innovator in the age of Internet advertising, Naman leveraged pay-per-click to attract customers and slash marketing budgets, passing on significant savings to customer and driving profitability up 90% since 2009.

Sean Patrick O’Reilly
Chief Executive Officer
Arcana
Sean’s life-long love of comic books has turned into a company that’s one of the world’s largest publishers of graphic novels. He is founder and CEO of Arcana Studio Inc, an innovative leader in developing content for various media including comics, graphic novels, video games, short-form animation, live-action shorts, toys, merchandise and feature-length films. Arcana has published over 150 original comics and books with sales of over a million units. Arcana now employs 40 people in conjunction with their animation studio Luximation, which is producing The Clockwork Girl, an animated feature film based on a graphic novel he wrote and published. His company’s work can be found in 15 different countries and seven languages around the globe and have worked with Disney, Mattel, HBO, KISS, Harper Collins and many more.

Angela Santiago
Chief Executive Officer
The Little Potato Company Ltd.
It’s the potatoes that are small, not the business. Angela Santiago is the President and CEO of The Little Potato Company, a grower, processor and distributor of specialty potatoes in the under 41mm category. She owns the proprietary rights to several unique little potato varieties, and has created a premium niche product used by foodservice and retail customers across Canada and in the U.S. The company, which she founded with her father, has grown from 5 employees to a diverse and dedicated team of over 100 people from 29 countries on 5 continents, utilizing a Web Information System as a key part of efficient operations. Her website is worth checking out as well.

Keith Bilous
President & CEO
ICUC Moderation Services Inc.
· Social networking experts/consultants
Keith Bilous founded ICUC in Winnipeg in 2002. Its team of specialists manages, moderate and monitor millions of social media conversations, comments, photographs and videos inside some of the largest online communities in the world. It allows users to have direct, real-time conversations with industry brands but can also remove inappropriate commentary or posts. The company has grown from 11 to 150 in three years and uses the concept of the virtual office to manage their growth. It is a world leader with clients ranging from Unilever to Rogers to the Government of Canada.

~~ A pretty impressive bunch! ~~

So just a few key points to wrap up with:
· The newest generations have grown up in a digital world.
· Internet and Social Networking creates a whole new paradigm for business.
· Social media has become essential for all businesses because it builds community, which is a key to business success
· This new generation of super-entrepreneurs might be young but they understand that business success is based on knowing and connecting with your customers and being active in your community
· Finally, you’ll have noticed that small businesses leveraging the power of Internet and Social Media don’t stay small for long

· I hope I’ve been able to offer examples and a little insight today into the power that digital resources and social media can put behind your business to further your success. If you are not currently using social media for your business, a great way to test the waters is to dip your toe in on the personal side – not to be mixed with your business side.
· Research, Research, Research, Plan then execute your Social Media Strategy