In the Heart of Creativity?

It was great news when I discovered the City Deal was won on the strengths of Nottingham's most creative area of the city, The Lace Market. It's a beautiful area briming with industrial georgian architure the Lace and Rag trade left its mark on this modern day creativity fueled area. It's testiment to the established businesses and creative practitioners resident in the buildings that this recognition has been gained. But what happens now the business suits come to town?

I'm worried.

This is the start of something to colour our city for a decade. It's immediate milestone seems to be Nottingham's digital web TV station launching in 2014. Not just a channel but an independent media powerhouse. The layering of the Ultraband project to bring high speed, low latency fibre broadband to the area, a connectivity triangle of Confetti Media School, Broadway Media Centre and BioCity is a tantalising project. Rumour has it that this will extend down Stoney Street and up High Pavement to embrace the city's most prestigious Arts venue Nottingham Contemporary. Rumour and conjecture are however not points of fact.

As an independent social technologies practitioner and event produce primarily working with Arts, Culture, Hertitage and Tourism audience developers the success of this 'City Deal' program will be the audience it generates be they participants, consumers or creators. Business needs to identify which of these it is going to entertain. This is where the revenue comes from to feed the cycle of creative production needed for artists to survive.

Audience should not be secondary and as a project of this scale evolves the audience will demand new objectives until it reaches sustainability a conclusion which succeeds on the winning the hearts and minds of the general public.

More on this I have no doubt. There is an undercurrent of engagement between the resident creatives including the appointment of Rikki Marr as Creative Quarter ambassador. Please make be be able to write positively about the Creative Quarter's progress. I also fear for the potential to exploit independent creatives luring them with promises of content exposure.

Resources... what is the City Deal? This will evolve and grow as I follow the poject across social web platforms. Valuable social media conversation on Twitter will be included to develop a picture for those os us below the radar of the traditional promotional roots.