The Salem Creative Network is celebrating six months of providing creative solutions for social innovation this month! When we started this back in June, we had no idea that it would become so popular. We now have more than 400 people on the email list and more joining after each event. We will assess our programming at the end of the month and plan the next six months of invigorating downtown Salem.
The venue owners are ecstatic about the turnout and level of professionalism associated with the Network. Retailers will be included in programming beginning with the January Willamette Valley Wine Walk happening on Friday, January 15. And we have plans for including restaurants and non-alcoholic venues in events also. If you want to get in on the planning, attend one of our monthly meetings.
Willamette Valley Wine Walk 6:00 p.m. Friday, December 11 at Travel Salem 181 High St NE. We had a great turnout last month and lots of enthusiasm for a relaxed, sociable wine-related event in the heart of wine country. 30 people participated and thoroughly enjoyed the evening despite the obvious lack of men. It turned into girls night out and we decide to do more promotion to even out the ratio. We’ll see if that works on Friday. Please signup online or visit our Facebook event page.
While the turnout was slightly less than the previous month (probably due to Snuggie stigma) the Creative Pub Crawl seems to be connecting hundreds of new relationships as anticipated. Based on the Facebook signups already, it looks like everyone is ready to get in the Christmas spirit on Friday, December 18,. The photo scavenger hunt was very popular and pushed a few boundaries with humorous results. We’ll do that again this month for more prizes.
For those interested, the Network is meeting 4:00 p.m. Sunday, December 13 for a Misfit Toy Sweatshop event at f-stop visual arts center, 335 Grove St NE. We’ll be disassembling unwanted toys and creating more exciting toys for prizes along the Creative Pub Crawl route.
We’re meeting 5:30 tonight above Tea Party Bookshop with mayoral candidate Jordan Blake. He is an active member of the Network’s Salem City Repair project and is in on the planning of the Village Converge event planned for late spring. Jordan’s campaign is resonating with the progressive community in Salem and we’ll see how his views align with Salem Creative Network goals. Also at tonight’s meeting, we’ll be re-tooling the mission statemnet for the non-profit organization and discussing the mission statements for the proposed political action committee and business advocacy group. Please stop by if you have the time.
Thanks again for making the Salem Creative Network a reality and we look forward to more growth in 2010.
Ross Swartzendruber
Don’t forget Ross,
Last month’s Pub Crawl was on the opening day of the ‘New Moon’ film release. I’m sure that took a bite out of some of the regular crowd. (:P)