Mary Carty

Last September I met a really talented Transmedia expert at the Etsy Conference in Berlin. Cecilie and I got talking about entrepreneurship, business models and moving away from State funding programmes. From these conversations; we realised we had lots in common, wanting to help creative people build sustainable businesses with the tools they need to succeed in this new economic and social landscape.

From my participation in iGap I have realised that the creative sector is missing out. Lean Startup (Eric Ries) and Customer Development (Steve Blank) is just as necessary to these types of industries as it is to the software or manufacturing sectors.

The cultural and creative sectors are limited by the types of funding they can seek and the zero budget system constrains in may negative ways; at the very least, not allowing organisations to show a surplus at the end of the year, least funding will be reduced the following year. Budgets are cut and State finance is reducing for these organisations year on year. This is happening across Europe and beyond.

I believe that the current economic situation may be the salvation of the creative sector by spearheading cooperation, partnerships and looking at innovative ways to finance and grow their services, products and audience.

From these discussions, Cecilie invited me to present on Growing Pains; a business development programme for 12 selected Transmedia producers from Denmark and Sweden. Over six months the participants will undertake training in key areas of business development, sales, new business models, financing and presentation skills.

My session on sales, new services and financing will help producers define their business idea and look at bringing it to market and finding customers.

Growing Pains is a really innovative programme at a time when there is so much opportunity to start a business and to get your work out there using social media. Here is what the participants will explore on the Programme:

Session 1: Defining growth and individual goals
Session 2: Sales, new services and financing
Session 3: Media training
Session 4: Dilemma scenarios
Session 5: Participation in Nordic Game Conference
Session 6: Summary of program and individual goals

Growing Pains is organised by Cecilie and funded under the EU Regional Development Fund in partnership with Nordic Game Resources.