Talking and not talking…

It’s been a hectic few days so I haven’t had chance to write about the rather useful T-Shirts and Suits coffee club which took place last week. It was attended by a small group of people and was very informal, but nevertheless there was a great deal of discussion which pivoted on the subject of creative business. Thanks to David Parrish who organised the event and invited people along. A key conversation revolved around whether or not “business” is a swear word in the so-called creative industries. Are creativity and entrepreneurship mutually exclusive? My take is that culture-based works are commodities just like other retail products, and people should be able to make money from their work, although there does seem to be almost an acceptance that creative businesses aren’t capable of generating profit, and that if they do it demeans the artistic nature of their wares. Discuss…

After the event had finished, Rooty’s was also the location for a group discussion among fellow students on the Media Enterprise MA, focusing on the progress of our respective projects which are being undertaken as part of the course. This Action Learning Set has raised a number of issues around the idea of how to make money from a consumer-facing, journalism-led website – I’ll address these in a later post.