CREATIVE CAPITAL FEST

Central LA

East LA

South LA

San Gabriel Valley

San Fernando Valley

South Bay

Westside

Creative Capital Fest will be a world class music, technology, and arts festival that showcases Los Angeles' innovative & creative industries, artists, and organizations (branding LA as a global "Creative Capital"); facilitates cross-sector connection of ideas between LA's inspired minds; attracts investors and entrepreneurs from around the world; and delivers "creative capital" in the form of grants to innovative organizations that work to make our city a better place to live and create.

We plan to host the first major festival over two days in fall 2015, with the core event in Grand Park in DTLA. The event will feature three stages of live entertainment & speakers, with interactive technology integrated into the lifeblood of the event.

We're going to be working with a variety of partners to coordinate the capstone event of LA Innovation Week 2014 on October 11th of this year. That event will bring together partners from around LA to connect and celebrate a successful week of events highlighting and celebrating innovation and creativity in our city, and will kick off the planning stages for Innovation Week and the capstone Creative Capital Fest in fall 2015.

With the LA2050 grant, we will host a series of convenings with LA creative and civic leaders to refine our shared vision and develop a common agenda for the citywide event we'll host together, as well as create content for a citywide crowdfunding campaign alongside core partners to raise grassroots funds and build serious buzz behind our movement. We'll also use some of these initial funds to formalize a relationship with a major festival production company that will work with us throughout the planning process and help to bring in large sponsors that will make this event even more viable.

We've had conversations with multiple major festival production companies that have bought into our vision and will be invaluable partners as we aim to quickly scale up this event. We've quickly realized that this is an idea that sells itself, and with a major event production company as a partner and a large-scale, inclusive, and collaborative strategic planning process we know that this vision will scale quickly.

It's no secret that LA is home to more innovators, entrepreneurs, entertainers, creators, visionaries, and dreamers than just about any place on earth. But while we have had great success exporting our dreams to the world, we aren't yet home to a single world class event (think SXSW, Disrupt) that brings people together to celebrate innovation and creativity happening right here in LA - to attract investors and entrepreneurs from around the world, to inspire and retain young and talented Angelenos, to facilitate cross-sector connection and collaboration, to give back to orgs making our city better - and to have way too much fun.

It's time to shine the spotlight on LA.

Creative Capital Fest will be a world class, citywide event that shows off LA as a global creative capital, facilitates greater collaboration between LA's creative industries, and attracts the best and brightest investors and entrepreneurs to our city. Angelenos are yearning for a world class showcase event - let's create it together.

This event will connect LA startups and social entrepreneurs to capital. Founders to talent. Creative leaders in LA's diverse creative industries to one another. It will play a major role in branding LA as a "creative capital" - as a place for dreamers and doers to accomplish big things. Today, we are forced to look outside our home, to Austin, to the Bay, to Chicago, or New York to showcase our projects. This limits the opportunity to only those who can make the journey, while providing outsized benefit to the people in those towns. SXSW alone contributed over $200M to the Austin economy in 2014. Think of what that revenue would do for business owners in Los Angeles.

Beneficiaries of this event will include:

Existing LA companies - a chance to show off LA companies and products to the world.

Young entrepreneurs and college students in Los Angeles - an opportunity to connect with, be inspired by, and identify employment opportunities with innovative companies, organizations, and thought leaders that are based right here in LA.

LA's startup community - Silicon Beach LA, Bixel Exchange, and other organizations are already doing amazing work to build up and connect LA's startup community, and this event will represent a complementary opportunity.

Up-and-coming LA musicians and entertainers - major showcase opportunity

Creative Los Angeles nonprofits and social enterprises - a large percentage of revenue from the event will be allocated in the form of Creative Capital Grants to organizations making our city a better place to live and create, and the festival will be a fantastic showcase opportunity for LA's creative do-gooders.

Investors in LA and elsewhere - an event that attracts investors and consumers to LA, and an opportunity for investors to connect with startups and companies in Los Angeles

Los Angeles entertainment lovers - a world class music and entertainment event

LA's creative industries - an opportunity for LA's creative industries to connect with one another and facilitate cross-sector collaboration.

Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator/Cleantech LA (CONFIRMED)

The LA Cleantech Incubator (LACI) is LA's cleantech business incubator. An official California iHub, Cleantech LA brings together business, government, and academia to grow the cleantech sector in Los Angeles.

City of Hope (CONFIRMED)

City of Hope is a new model of cancer center, focused on rapidly transforming scientific discoveries into better treatments and better prevention strategies for life-threatening diseases. Its Industry Group consists of over 100 music and entertainment executives who dedicate their time to raise money in creative ways for City of Hope.

Tastemade (CONFIRMED)- LA-based food media company with a goal of connecting the world through food.

Summit Series (CONFIRMED)

The mission of Summit Series is to unite the leaders of today and tomorrow through environments and events designed to catalyze positive personal and collective growth.

Splash (CONFIRMED)

Splash allows users to manage the entire life cycle of an event. Splash is used by Spotify for all of their events and will be helping with ours.

Los Angeles tech accelerators and incubators

LA is home to top-tier incubators and accelerators. We will reach out to each one to ensure they have the opportunity to present their best companies and technologies to investors, consumers & media.

KCRW/KPCC - LA's NPR stations will be natural partners

Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation (have worked together in the past, collaborating on Innovation Week)

LA Area Chamber of Commerce (have worked together in the past)

City and County of LA

Key factors for collaboration:

1. Shared vision- We know that key influencers in LA's creative industries will rally around the vision for a mutually beneficial, citywide showcase event and will want to play a role.

2. Collaborative planning- It's critical that we undergo a truly collaborative and inclusive strategic planning process, establishing clear communication channels agreed upon roles and responsibilities

3. Building a movement - it's crucial that this event does not exist in isolation, but is an integrated into the larger movement to showcase LA as a global hub of creativity

Employment in creative industries

Arts establishments per capita

Concentration of manufacturing activity in LA

Federal research grant funding

Patents per capita

Jobs per capita

Minority- and women-owned firms

Number of high-growth startups

Venture capital investment

Measures of cultural and global economic influence (“soft power”) (Dream Metric)

Recruiting and retention rates at local higher education institutions (Dream Metric)

Percentage of graduates from local higher education institutions that remain in LA County 5 years after graduating (Dream Metric)

Unemployment rates (and opportunities) for the formerly incarcerated (Dream Metric)

Creative Capital Fest will help to achieve almost all of the LA2050 "Create" Metrics by attracting creative leaders to Los Angeles, showcasing LA's creative industries, connecting entrepreneurs and startups with investors and resources, and inspiring and connecting LA-based students with opportunities in LA's creative industries.

Social impact will be at the core of this festival, and we will work hand in hand with organizations and social innovators working to create opportunities for the formerly incarcerated and other underprivileged constituencies in Los Angeles. As the most diverse city on the planet, it's crucial that this is also an event that showcases and supports minorities and women that are looking to achieve their dreams in LA. We will look to partner with creative impact-oriented organizations that are looking to create engaging experiences for festival attendees, and deliver funds to innovative organizations and social entrepreneurs via Creative Capital Grants.

Metrics will include:

Number of LA-based startups that receive investment as a result of the event

Number of quality Jobs and volunteer opportunities created for young Angelenos,

Funds and resources directly allocated to LA-based impact-oriented organizations as a direct result of the festival

Number of foreign nationals (especially investors) attending the festival

National and international media hits highlighting Los Angeles as a mecca for innovation and creativity.

Combining music, business, and technology is a proven breeding ground for innovation and a proven stimulator of economic activity. SXSW boasts 72,000 participants and is a showcase destination for countless Los Angeles-based innovators, creators, and dreamers. Our goal as a city should be to give those Los Angeles' creators a major showcase event right here at home.

Living and working in LA has awarded us the privilege to be surrounded by inspired, brilliant, and capable leaders working in diverse creative sectors, but our experience is that those sectors are largely siloed off from one another and don't collaborate on a deep enough level. We plan to create an event that facilitates the building of connections between LA's creative industries.

We'll be collaborating with a variety of partners, including LA2050, to pull together the capstone event of Innovation Week 2014 on October 11th. This event will be a hugely scaled-down version of the eventual Creative Capital Fest, but will provide an opportunity to deliver an entertaining networking event for our Innovation Week partners that will lay the groundwork for a scaled up Innovation Week and Creative Capital Fest in 2015.

We have had conversations with multiple major festival production companies that have bought into our vision and will be invaluable partners as we aim to quickly scale up this event. We've quickly realized that this is an idea that sells itself, and with a major event production company as a partner we know that we can handle the on the ground logistics to scale this vision quickly.

Barrier 1:

Funding and sponsorship dollars - an event of the scale we plan to build requires major capital on the front end. We're supremely confident that we'll be able to sell major sponsors on this vision, especially with the initial boost that an LA2050 grant would provide. We have already had a number of very promising conversations with potential large sponsors, and we would leverage the LA2050 grant to bring in additional sponsorship dollars that will help make this event a reality

Barrier 2:

Getting full buy-in from LA's creative industries - It's crucial that this event becomes an integral part of the larger movement to showcase and brand Los Angeles, and that we integrate leaders from LA's creative industries as partners right from the start. We're confident that our vision for Los Angeles is right in line with the various businesses, organizations, and individuals on the front lines of selling LA as a "creative capital."

Network/relationship support

Money (financial capital)

Volunteers/staff (human capital)

Publicity/awareness (social capital)

Infrastructure (building/space/vehicles, etc.)

Technical infrastructure (computers, etc.)

Community outreach

Quality improvement research