Creative Coast evolution underway

Successful knowledge-based business advocacy group gets overhaul

By Adam Van Brimmer

Sometimes improving on a good thing requires more than a tweak here or there.

In the case of The Creative Coast Alliance, the call is for an overhaul.

The committee charged with plotting the future of the knowledge-based business organization pushed for "exponential change." Led by locally based workplace consultant Zelda Tenenbaum, the Creative Coast transition team has completed it six-month study.

The recommendations include a revamped leadership and staffing structure, a streamlined vision and mission, a move from the current offices on Hutchinson Island into space in the Historic District and a rebranding, which could include a new name. Many of those recommendations are already being implemented.

"Savannah is sitting ready to be a creative hub for knowledge-based businesses," Tenenbaum said. "During our work we discovered the best way to make the Creative Coast better was to change the concept."

Formerly, the organization was an alliance of funding partners aimed at creating, growing and attracting jobs. The new Creative Coast will be involved in economic development indirectly - fostering that sense of a creative community that appeals to entrepreneurs and businesses looking for a home - but leave the recruitment of new businesses to the Savannah Economic Development Authority.

"It's not their job to recruit. Their job is to go out and support and show something that these companies want to join," interim SEDA President and CEO Lynn Pitts said. "These innovative companies won't come and just see us as a wasteland of container ships and manufacturing and tourism. They'll see a creative community."

The Creative Coast will cater to the existing creative community, acting as a "catalyst" by facilitating networking opportunities, giving guidance and advice regarding local resources, connecting small businesses with area corporations to share expertise, partnering with events and existing services, advocating for knowledge-based businesses and operating the www.thecreativecoast.org website.

The organization will be led by a nine-member board of directors chaired by Cathy Hill, Georgia Power's vice president for Coastal Georgia, and staffed by Fitz Haile and Jake Hodesh. Haile and Hodesh are already on the job, while the board will officially begin its tenure in September.

SEDA's board oversaw The Creative Coast Alliance dating back to its formation in 2008, and the organization was staffed by SEDA Vice President of Marketing Brynn Grant and three others.

Grant stepped down as the Creative Coast's executive director in early June, and two members of her Creative Coast staff, Jamie Wolf and Leigh Acevedo, now report to SEDA.

Haile, who was Grant's director of marketing, public relations and Web, will team with Hodesh in the more independent Creative Coast. Hodesh is an entrepreneur and the co-founder of the Geekend conference.

Haile and Hodesh will move The Creative Coast out of the SEDA building on Hutchinson Island and into offices downtown. They are currently negotiating the lease and expect to be in the new space in mid-August or early September. The new digs will allow the group to better serve the creative community and give the Creative Coast greater exposure to all of Savannah.

"It's important that we're visible, and being right smack in the middle of downtown helps our visibility and our street cred," Haile said. "And frankly, it will be convenient to be close to the businesses we serve and we talk to."

The lone Creative Coast issue still unaddressed is revenue generation. Funding cuts by the City of Savannah and Chatham County prompted concerns about the Creative Coast's future and ultimately led to the formation of the transition team.

The committee discussed several funding mechanisms, including membership, sponsorship and special events, but ultimately chose to leave those decisions to the new board of directors.

The current funding partners - SEDA, the city and the county - will continue to subsidize the Creative Coast for the rest of 2010. Two of those partners have pledged their support for 2011.

Those commitments will allow the board of directors time to get settled and explore revenue generation for 2012 and beyond.

Funding aside, the Creative Coast's future is vital to Savannah's economic future, Tenenbaum said.

"We have so much here that we haven't tapped the potential of yet. We think the Creative Coast can facilitate that," Tenenbaum said. "The new Creative Coast will help make Savannah's creative community something people want to come and be a part of."