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How good are you at keeping motivated to write regularly on your blog over the summer?

When working from home, distractions can be a problem anytime of the year, but trying to maintain a self-imposed publishing schedule over the summer can be particularly challenging. After all, there is all that gorgeous sunshine that needs to be enjoyed, and the garden that needs to be wandered through and admired while searching for all those weeds that need to be pulled: oh, and lets not forget the beach, and the ice cream shop, and……… OK, so maybe I tend to allow myself a few too many distractions

If you are like me, maybe this will help.

I happened to stumble across and interesting free blog challenge while I was wandering through the Internet this morning (yes, another distraction ).

The Ultimate Blog Challenge, located online at http://ultimateblogchallenge.com/ is gearing up to begin on August 1st and seems set to offer a variety of interesting forms of support and motivation aimed at helping blog writers maintain their writing momentum through the rest of summer.

One of the really great things about this challenge is that August 1st is only a few days away so I won’t have (too much) time to get distracted before it begins.

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See you at the Challenge

UNESCO

In 2004, UNESCO launched the Creative Cities Network, and has been building on this initiative ever since. But why is this something that creative location independent professionals should be aware of?? Let me explain.

The purpose behind this international network of creative cities is not just to promote these cities as great cultural and creative places to visit (which they all are, of course), but to encourage these cities to create policies and programs aimed at developing Creative Entrepreneurship, Creative Industries, and Creative Tourism. That is quite a task.

To be part of this Creative Cities Network, cities must adhere to specific policies defined by UNESCO. One policy that I found quite impressive was the following:

A key ingredient is the creation of public/private partnerships that help unlock the entrepreneurial and creative potential of small enterprises, which play an important role in the new economy. To underpin their development, small creative businesses also need innovative talent, and therefore cities with strong contemporary art, fashion, craft, music and design schools are most likely to flourish. The Creative Cities Network

And here is where the relevance to creative location independent professionals kicks in. If you are looking for a city to visit and are interested in finding a city that might:

• provide you with creative inspiration,
• recharge your creativity (see my earlier post on this topic),
• provide you with some business contacts, partners and/or clients,

then you might want to have a look at the following list of cities. See if there is a city listed here that attracts your attention or is working to develop small creative businesses that are either based on your creative talents or are a great compliment to your talents.

At the moment, there are 19 cities that are part of UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network, with at least 20 more cities currently under consideration.

Cities that are already part of UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network, listed by the creative discipline they excel at, are:

UNESCO Cities of Craft and Folk Art
Aswan, Egypt
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Kanazawa, Japan

UNESCO Cities of Design
Berlin, Germany
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Montreal, Canada
Nagoya, Japan
Kobe, Japan
Shenzhen, China

UNESCO City of Film
Bradford, UK

UNESCO City of Gastronomy
Popayan, Colombia

UNESCO Cities of Literature
Edinburgh, UK
Melbourne, Australia
Iowa City, USA

UNESCO Cities of Music
Bologna, Italy
Seville, Spain
Glasgow, UK
Ghent, Belgium

UNESCO City of Media Arts
Lyon, France

The cities above that are in red, are linked to UNESCO pages that have information about the city and the efforts being made to fulfill the city’s obligations in this program.

TTFN

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When you are a nomad, or a traveling location independent professional, where you locate yourself while you are traveling can be, and sometimes needs to be, more than just an interesting place.

Being a creative person is hard work, especially when your business depends on your being creative for extended periods of times and over an unending stream of projects. Add to this the effort required to keep up-to-date with constantly changing technologies, keep an eye on changing trends and client demands, as well as re-establishing yourself in new surroundings every few months…..and the potential for creativity blocks of various lengths and intensities seems almost inevitable.

What do you do when you find that the creative flow isn’t flowing as easily as it should?

One thing that you could do is to look at what creative individuals look for in a community or a city that they plan to settle into, and then plan to spend some time in those locations. Creative individuals, according to Richard Florida, look for communities or cities that offer “…abundant high-quality amenities and experiences, an openness to diversity of all kinds, and above all else the opportunity to validate their identities as creative people.” (The Rise of The Creative Class, page 218). For example, in Toronto there are a couple of ‘creative districts’, Queen Street West, Liberty Village, St. Lawrence Market area, The Beaches, and a few others, where creatives and creative entrepreneurs congregate.

This is great for creatives who want to settle into an area, but what does a creative that just wants to spend a few months in the area actually get out of being in a creative community instead of any other community?

For starters, you get to be surrounded by creative people and that energy that creative people seem to generate. Spending time in creative communities is like a professional attending a professional development conference. These professionals generally come away from professional development conferences feeling recharged and excited after having spent some time learning about what is new and upcoming in their field, discussing tends and opportunities with cohorts, commiserating with people who understand their field and speak their jargon.

Similar kinds of experiences can be gained when creative people spend time in creative communities. For example, if you are a graphic designer, look for an area in a city where a lot of graphic design firms are located. Spending a couple of hours a day in the local coffee shops, or pubs, or other gathering places, listening to conversations can give you the ‘water cooler conversations’ that you miss by working solo – information on new trends; gossip about clients and their demands – that kind of stuff. I always come away from spending time in the creative areas of Toronto feeling really creative – as if I had spent several days at a professional conference.

If you are an outgoing extrovert, then starting conversations with other creatives could result in potential business partners, potential clients, and a potentially expanded tribe. At the very least this contact with other creatives should re-validate your identity as a creative person.

How do you cope with keeping up with changing technologies, changing trends, and changing client needs while traveling – and maintain both your creativity and your sanity??

TTFN

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If you enjoyed reading this post, maybe you’d like to subscribe to our RSS feed, or subscribe via email (enter your email address in the box at the top of the page, on the right) so you don’t miss any future posts. Thank you for visiting!