Philly hosts meeting for creative businesses
Monday, October 5th, 2009
By: Shai Ben-Yaacov
sben-yaacov@whyy.org
Philadelphia is hosting the innovators and creative types at a convention beginning Monday. The nearly 1,000 attendees of the the Global Creative Economic Convergence Summit will see presenters in fields ranging from digital media to interior design.
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There are more than 760,000 people employed in various creative technology industries in the Philadelphia region. The industry generates more than $60 billion dollars each year in economic activity.
But many companies have been hit hard by the economic recession, and have laid off workers. Some of those workers will make presentations at the summit, hoping to start their own businesses.
Innovation Philadelphia is hosting the event. Kelly Lee is the president.
Lee: There's more entrepreneurism happening within the creative industries because of the economy. Creative professionals who are working for larger companies have been downsized. They are now freelancing and starting their own businesses.
The summit runs through tomorrow afternoon.