We will send email updates to our subscriber list as any potential new plan is developed.

This was not an easy decision because this year was special: the 30th anniversary of the first Portland Creative Conference held in 1990.

Key to our decision was that a big part of what makes Cre8con special is the energy in the room: the interaction of audience, speakers, and sponsors.  Also, ever since that first year in 1990 this event has been held in September, which is a special time of year in Portland.  It just didn’t feel right to postpone the event into the Winter.

The post AUGUST Status Update for 2020 appeared first on Cre8con - Portland Creative Conference.

We are continuing to plan for the conference on September 25th and look forward to seeing you there in the Fall.

To receive updates, subscribe to our email list from the home page.

The world needs creative thinkers more than ever and we are proud of our community!

The post Status Update for Cre8con 2020 appeared first on Cre8con - Portland Creative Conference.

We are excited to announce 4 such Workshops, all happening on Saturday, September 28th.

NOTE: Registering for the main event, Cre8con on Friday, Sept. 27th, DOES NOT INCLUDE access to any of the Cre8con-affiliated Workshops on Saturday, Sept. 28th, which must be registered for separately.

There are 2 different timeslots, each with 2 simultaneous Workshops, so you will be able to attend 2 workshops at most.

Jeff Gomez – Starlight Runner Entertainment

Jeff Gomez: Blockbuster Story World Development for your Fiction, Company, or Brand

Portland, this is a rare opportunity to learn from the best in the world at what he does! Jeff Gomez, the world’s leading producer of blockbuster story worlds, will introduce you to his process for creating powerful narratives that emotionally engage your audience, inviting them to become fans and advocates across multiple media platforms.

9:00am – 1:00pm, $199

Learn More about the Jeff Gomez Workshop

Lindsey Charlet – HUB Collective

Agents of Change: On Women-led Creative Culture

In this workshop, Agents of Change: On Women-led Creative Culture, our panel of 5 bold and passionate female creative agency owners and leaders discuss their approach to fostering a more meaningful, and genuine internal culture and environment where creatives can thrive and do good, fulfilling work.

1:30pm – 3:30pm, $35

Learn More about the Agents of Change Workshop

Tim May – XPLANE

XPLANE: Change Behavior Through Drawing

In this workshop, Change Behavior Through Drawing, you will first learn tools and techniques that can be applied for visual recording and visual facilitation.  You will then learn how to solve organizational challenges using visual facilitation. XPLANE creative director Tim May will outline some key activities and frameworks that can be used to better understand the audience, how they make decisions, and how they achieve their goals.

9:30am – 11:30am, $40

Learn More about the XPLANE Workshop

Beth Inglish – Nashville Creative Group

Creative Connections: Building a Creative Professionals Network in Portland

Join us for an interactive discussion to continue making creative connections started at Cre8con, using this opportunity in time to brainstorm and discuss ideas for how to keep the cross-industry networking going, both in-person and online.  Our goal is to come away with specific action items and volunteer leaders to help make it happen.

Co-Facilitated by Beth Inglish, founder of the Nashville Creative Group, and Steve Gehlen, Chairman of Cre8con and founder of the Internet Strategy Forum, which grew from a Portland network to a national network with chapters in 7 U.S. cities.

1:30pm – 3:30pm, $10

Learn More about the Creative Connections Workshop

The post NEW: 4 Workshops available day after Cre8con appeared first on Cre8con - Portland Creative Conference.

Teams in the workplace can benefit from this experience as well. You never know when a creative process story or learning from a Speaker in an unrelated creative industry will spark a fresh idea or innovative way of working together.

Here’s a team testimonial from a previous Cre8con:

It didn’t take much for six of us at Speak! to ditch the office and take part in this year’s Portland Creative Conference. What a treat. And what a payoff. Like last year, we were quickly humbled by listening to one brilliant mind after the next.
— Attendee from the Speak! marketing agency

That helps explain why over 650 companies have sent employees to Cre8con over the past 4 years, many as teams. See some example companies listed by business category below.  You can also view a complete list of companies who sent people to Cre8con between 2015 and 2018.

NOTE: For this year’s event, as of 06/19/19, the total number of Team registrations (3 or more people) outnumber Individual registrations by more than 2-to-1.

This event can get teams out of their day-to-day for a breath of creative fresh air in a cost-effective way. Teams get out of the office together and are exposed to different creative insights from other industries and new ways of thinking.

Here is another team testimonial:

The conference is always a good experience for us and we end up working more collaboratively as a result.

— Attendee from the City of Vancouver

Read the full blog post from the Speak! marketing agency employees.

The Cre8con team discounts help. You can save 10% when you register 3-5 people at once and 15% for 6 to 15 people. See the registration page for details.

Sample Company registrants by business category:

• CHIEF
• Edelman
• Wieden+Kennedy

• adidas
• Nike
• Under Armour

• 20th Century Fox
• Laika
• Rex Production & Post

• 52 Limited
• Aquent
• Vitamin T

Software

• New Relic
• Puppet, Inc.
• Urban Airship

Financial Services

• Quicken Loans
• Standard Insurance
• US Bank

• Cambia Health Solutions
• Legacy Health
• Providence Health & Services

• Audigy Group
• Intel
• LaCie

• Apple
• Consumer Cellular
• Nutcase Helmets

• Coastal Farm & Ranch
• REI
• Walmart Labs

• A-dec
• Columbia Steel
• S.R. Smith

• KinderCare Education
• University of Oregon
• University of Washington

• City of Hillsboro
• City of Portland
• City of Vancouver

The post Over 650 companies have sent employees to Cre8con appeared first on Cre8con - Portland Creative Conference.

Based on the results detailed below, clearly we are doing something right…

For this post we focused on the two most important questions in the survey:

1. How would you rate the event?
2. How likely is it that you would recommend next year’s Portland Creative Conference to a friend or colleague?

Results for Question 1: How would you rate the event?

The possible responses were:

* Excellent

* Very Good

* Good

* Mildly Good

* Not Good

Across all 3 years, a vast majority of 86% rated the event as either Excellent (48%) or Very Good (38%).  The majority of the rest, 12%, rated it as Good.

98% of survey respondents across 2015, 2016 and 2017 rated the event as either Excellent, Very Good or Good.

Results for Question 2: How likely is it that you would recommend next year’s Portland Creative Conference to a friend or colleague?

The possible responses were:

* Extremely Likely

* Very Likely

* Likely

* Slightly Likely

* Not at all likely

Across all 3 years, 91% of survey respondents said they were either Extremely Likely (49%), Very Likely (28%) or Likely (14%) to recommend the event.

Over 90% of attendees said they would recommend the event to a friend or colleague.

If you are interested in more social proof for the Portland Creative Conference, take a look at the testimonials from 2017 attendees.

We hope this information helps you to decide to attend the 2018 Portland Creative Conference.

The post Portland Creative Conference Reviews appeared first on Cre8con - Portland Creative Conference.

Programs selected to receive financial support from 2017 Portland Creative Conference proceeds (so far) are:

• $1,500 to the Beaverton Education Association to support their Art Day On-the-Go program
• $2,500 to the Oregon Old Time Fiddlers Association to support their West Cascades Fiddle Camp and Workshops
• $2,500 to the Corban Theater Arts Camp to provide scholarships for students in grades 6-12 to attend their summer theater camp
• $1,759 to Regis High School to support their Fine Arts Program
• $831 to Molalla High School to support their Student-directed One Act Plays

The Keeping the Arts Board will continue to evaluate grant opportunities that will draw on the funds raised from the Portland Creative Conference. Any qualified K-12 arts education program in Oregon can apply for a grant from KTA.

For details on all past recipients, see the Keeping the Arts grants listing.

The post 2017 Cre8con proceeds support Arts Education appeared first on Cre8con - Portland Creative Conference.

However, out attendees do a great job of it, so we posted over 17 example testimonials from 2017 here on our website.

Here are just a few examples:

What an inspiring event! Thank you, Portland Creative Conference. You have made a safe space for all creatives, big and small, to come and be our artsy, complicated selves. Bravo! I will make this a yearly tradition from here on out!  — Robin Carter, Senior Brand & Creative Services Manager @ First Tech Federal Credit Union

 

I brought a big group this year from the agency where I work, and we all had a terrific time. More importantly, we all were inspired in different ways according to our own creative processes. The speakers are wonderful and varied, the music is original and fantastic, and, as always, the after-party is a blast.  — Donald Carson, Content Director @ Citizen, Inc. (agency)

 

Creativity is the at the heart of what drives us at people, what moves our culture, what makes brands excel. And yet we often only pay the most superficial attention to what a key ingredient creativity is. The creative conference talks to the very heart of it. At the conference, I heard people speak to their own processes in ways I could identify with, in ways I’ve never thought of. The conference created a picture of creativity that was much more robust and colorful than I previously imagined.  — Zach Snyder, Product Graphic Design Manager @ Icebreaker Clothing

>> Read more testimonials

The post Attendee Testimonials from 2017 appeared first on Cre8con - Portland Creative Conference.

They know about the unique experience and true value of the event itself, including inspirational speakers talking about their creative process and valuable creative industries networking.

However, the rest of the story is that a high percentage of their registration fees are put to good use after the event to provide financial support to K-12 arts education programs that inspire and encourage students throughout the state of Oregon, enabling life-altering experiences and fostering the next generation of creative industries professionals.

So far five such programs have received funds from Keeping the Arts (KTA) using proceeds from last year’s Conference.

If you attended last year, here are just a few examples of the impact your participation had on kids:

• A student at the Children’s Repertory of Oregon Workshops (C.R.OW.) in Florence who, in her words, “was bullied a lot for being different” had fallen into depression. When she heard about C.R.O.W. she decided to audition despite her lack of confidence. When she was accepted into the program she was conflicted by self-doubt, wondering why the Director would put her in the play (which KTA helped to fund). However, in her words “Over time it was going great! I was smiling, making new friends, looking forward to every day. Since then, my depression has mostly gone away.”

• The Madras High School Band is making a comeback after losing funding several years ago. As part of re-building the program, the new Band Director set an ambitious goal of raising money so the band students could participate in a major music festival in San Diego. The Band Director sold the vision of this trip to students as a way to increase the number of kids in the band program. A grant from KTA helped to push the fundraising effort over the finish line. As a result, the band not only went to the Festival, but also performed way beyond expectations. They received:
  • A Gold Rating (highest possible)
  • First Place in their division
  • The Adjudicator Award (chosen at the discretion of judges)
  • Outstanding Band Award (highest scoring instrumental group at the festival)
  • Maestro Award for outstanding individual performance

• A student in the Open School North artist-in-residence program in Portland comes from a home with very limited resources and her access to enrichment activities are little to none. The program that Keeping the Arts helped to fund provided a window into a new world for this student and she was clearly impacted by the experience of being exposed to a powerful female role model during the program.

For a complete list of the programs that received funding from 2016 proceeds, including testimonials from grant recipients, visit the 2016 grants post on the Keeping the Arts website.

Here are photos from some of the grant recipients:

The post How Your Attendance Impacts Kids in Oregon appeared first on Cre8con - Portland Creative Conference.

Here are some examples:

Blog Posts

From Veracity…

Lines Between Art and Entrepreneurialism Blur at the Portland Creative Conference

From Speak!…

Nothing Feeds Creativity Like Creativity at #Cre8con2016

Testimonials

There’s no other conference like it. Learning about the struggles and successes of creative people gives me ideas for my own process which I start implementing right away. And to top it off, the after-party is always amazing!

Donald Carson, +Citizen

A few of my key take-aways: Find the process that works for you and stick to it. Have perseverance and resilience — it’s not usually an easy or smooth process.

Jeanne Turner, Walmart Labs

The Portland Creative Conference was great! An inspirational day filled with diverse speakers who shared their personal stories, creative process, and vision.  I came away feeling re-invigorated and ready to jump into my next creative project with enthusiasm.

Amanda Cilek, Gambit PDX

It didn’t take much for six of us at Speak! to ditch the office and take part in this year’s Portland Creative Conference. What a treat. And what a payoff. Like last year, we were quickly humbled by listening to one brilliant mind after the next.

Speak! Agency

The post Agencies rave about the 2016 Portland Creative Conference appeared first on Cre8con - Portland Creative Conference.

The Portland Creative Conference is excited to announce our new partnership with Creativity NEXT, an afternoon of short inspirational talks about creative careers for middle and high school students. It takes place the day after our event (from 1:00pm – 3:00pm), offered at a 30% discounted rate to the extended family of our registered attendees.

Since 2008 the Portland Creative Conference has financially supported arts education programs for middle and high school students in Oregon through the non-profit Keeping the Arts.  Now we are supporting an event for the same age range.  Creativity NEXT shows kids what creativity can look like in a future career.

If you have a son or daughter in this age range, imagine the conversations you can have with them about creativity and the arts after a day of you attending the Portland Creative Conference on Friday and then sending them to Creativity NEXT the next day.

Details

WHAT: Creativity NEXT, an afternoon of short inspirational talks by creative professionals for middle and high school students

WHY: Every year several Portland Creative Conference attendees tell us that they wish there was an event kind of like ours, but designed to inspire their high school-aged kids.  Now we’re delighted to become strategic advisors for this event and introduce it to our audience.

WHEN: The day after the Portland Creative Conference on Saturday, Sept. 30^th from 1:00pm – 3:00pm.

WHERE: Wilson High School Auditorium, Portland, OR

HOW: Attendees of the Portland Creative Conference can purchase Creativity NEXT tickets for their extended family members at a 30% discount (we’ll send the discount code directly to all registrants).  Or, for those who are not able to attend our event this year, you can use use our 20% discount code (CRE8CON) to send someone to Creativity NEXT.

Visit the Creativity NEXT website

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