PIEDMONT TRIAD - Piedmont Triad Partnership’s Creative Enterprises and the Arts Director, Margaret Collins, will present at the Worlds in the Making Creativity Symposium at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC on Thursday, March 19th (http://www.wfu.edu/creativity/symposium). The three-day conference will bring together a cross section of internationally-respected scholars, artists, scientists and cultural citizens who will be invited to engage in a critical discourse on creativity imperatives, lead panels and unfold creative processes in action.

Collins will present on “Piedmont Triad Creative Economy--A Center of Excellence in Design,” an overview of the Creative Enterprises and the Arts regional strategic plan and the five creative economy initiatives the PTP will implement.  Liz McCormick, Director, Grand Rapids Community College, will join Collins in her presentation.  McCormick, the project leader from the Western Michigan WIRED Region, has partnered with organizations throughout the community to develop an educational product targeting innovation literacy skills. 

“The Piedmont Triad is emerging as a major hub for creative enterprises, and this cluster has the potential to enhance economic development and attract investment to this region by contributing to the quality of life,” says Don Kirkman, President and CEO of the Piedmont Triad Partnership. “We are honored that the Piedmont Triad has been selected to present our Creative Enterprises regional strategy at this National Symposium on Creativity, which reflects our region’s growing reputation as a leader in development of a regional creative economy.”

The subject areas for the Creativity Symposium include Creativity: Ideas and Translations; Interdisciplinary Creative Process and Practice; Creative Economies and a Sense of Place; Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Creative Environments: Tactics and Outcomes; Creative Citizenship and Creative Literacy.  The Symposium is sponsored by Piedmont Triad Research Park along with various Wake Forest University departments.  Interested attendees may register on-site on the day of the event. For more information, contact Lynn Book, Director, Program for Creativity and Innovation at Wake Forest University creativity@wfu.edu.

The Piedmont Triad Partnership (PTP), one of seven regional economic development partnerships in North Carolina, is the economic development organization representing the 12-county Piedmont Triad region. The PTP is the lead organization for the U.S. Department of Labor-funded Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) initiative, which supports the development of an integrated regional economic development and workforce development strategy for the Piedmont Triad. The Piedmont Triad, the nation's 37th-largest metro region with more than 1.5 million residents, includes the counties of Alamance, Caswell, Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Guilford, Montgomery, Randolph, Rockingham, Stokes, Surry, and Yadkin.