Seminar: 5 June

Creatives Get Mutual Seminar: Business Models for the Creative Economy

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• Speakers’ presentations
• Photos from the event

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What: Speakers and Q&A style ‘on the couch’ panel
Who: Janelle Orsi (USA), Tim Horton, James Moody, Melina Morrison and Peter Tregilgas.
Who for: Artists, creatives, sharing economy enthusiasts, policy makers, funders and practitioners.
When: Sunday, 5 June from 12.00pm – 2.00pm
Where: Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia, Level 6 Terrace Entrance (Circular Quay West Side), Sydney

The sharing economy is quickly becoming the junk bonds of the GFC: pretty on the outside but inside the same capitalist plot of bloated profits and a race to the bottom. Janelle Orsi, rebel-lawyer, activist, author, cartoonist and Renaissance woman has a big idea: “As tech platforms rapidly become a new means of production for nearly every industry – from creative work to domestic work and far beyond – we have a window of opportunity to decisively reject “business-as-usual”.

“Instead, we can build tech companies as co-operatives and mutuals that are designed to create a just, equitable, and democratic society. We need musician-owned replacements for iTunes, filmmaker-owned replacements for YouTube, and democratic media outlets that put control in the hands of journalists.

Join Janelle Orsi and panelists to debate and discuss the ‘next’ sharing economy and its impact on the creative industries. Janelle will break with tradition and present her keynote address as an illustrated talk. Read a preamble statement by Janelle here.

The Seminar is a high profile keynote forerunner linked to the one-day Creatives Get Mutual: Practical Tools Summit on Monday 6 June.

More about Creatives Get Mutual:

The Creatives Get Mutual Seminar is designed for the creative industries and for anyone interested in the sharing economy, innovation and tech applications, to stimulate debate and provide practical tools to start up creative co-operative enterprises.

The arts and creative industries are by default: collaborative; and by choice: values and principle driven. Cities, technology and innovation have created new challenges for creative industries. The arts is the vanguard for creativity, but what are the opportunities for shared wealth in the ‘New Sharing Economy’?

Uber, Airbnb, Spotify and Go Get, have all challenged traditional business models and government regulation through redistribution and sharing access to products or services. But ownership remains with a few rather than the many who provide the service.

Keynote speaker Janelle Orsi, a leader at the forefront of the movement to reclaim the internet – “Platform Cooperativism” – will discuss how creative cooperatives can change the economy.

Co-operatives have a long and rich history in the arts where artists and creatives have banded together to share stuff and collaborate. The creative industries face challenges of funding, the cost of services and facilities and technological disruption. But creativity is also the base of innovation. Investor and social entrepreneur James Chin Moody will focus on the importance of core values and innovation in the panel discussion.

Just as the new sharing economy advocates for a more flexible approach, these two consecutive (Creatives Get Mutual Seminar and Summit) Vivid Ideas events challenge the creative industries and policy makers to embrace a shared ownership model for the arts.

Janelle Orsi’s travel has been generously supported by the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals (BCCM) and Employee Ownership Australia. This event is presented by Social Enterprise Services Australia in association with the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals.

Read a statement from Peter Tregilgas, Event Curator.

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Creatives Get Mutual is presented by Social Enterprise Services Australia in association with the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals (BCCM) as a contributor of Vivid Sydney/Ideas.

Janelle Orsi travel has been generously supported by the BCCM and Employee Ownership Australia.