#RVA and Creativity, one year later.  #RVACreates

One of the most viewed posts in this blog's two-plus year history was one I wrote on Richmond and the concept of creativity.

Posted early last March, I made the case that Richmond's "brand" should not rely on its history but on its future and that future should highlight the strong creative community that exists here.

The reaction and comments I received from that post were stunning to me with most in favor of the idea and making suggestions as to how we could harness and celebrate Richmond's creative spirit.

Little did I know, at the exact same time, some of the most creative people in Richmond (most of them a lot smarter than me) we exploring the same idea and were planting the seeds to do something about it.

People like the great crew at Venture Richmond, Kelly O'Keefe at VCU's BrandCenter and Matt Williams of The Martin Agency were picking the brains of the talented BrandCenter students to forge and idea.  Over the months a larger group that includes folks from West Cary Group, Elevation, JHI and even us at THP, plus local civic groups and others that I will apologize to for forgetting, having been meeting to figure out a way to help celebrate Richmond's creativity.

Not in and obnoxious let's force this thing down everyone's throats way.  But in a way in which everyone can participate and everyone can celebrate.  Most importantly, in a way that everyone can contribute to publicly.

What the BrandCenter students identified early on was the adoption of "RVA" as a common ID for Richmond.  Many companies, online communities, etc. have already incorporated RVA into their language.  Twitter has spurred this by the mutual adoption of the #RVA hashtag as the universal Richmond ID.

Fast forward past all those meetings with all those people smarter than me and what has emerged is RVA Creates.

Is it a brand?  I wouldn't call it that.

Is it a movement?  Could be.

Is it a state of mind? I hope so.

Is it an opportunity? Without question.

How can you participate?  Easy. First, go to RVACreates.com and read up on what you can do.  You can send in your examples of Richmond's creativity to rvacreates@gmail.com and it might be featured on the website, the RVA Creates blog or on the RVA Creates Facebook page in the near future.  We're looking for any or all examples that you can come up with whether your an artist, an architect or an accountant.

Please also read the blog and become a fan of the fan page, more cool stuff coming to both those places.

You can also create your own example of RVA creativity by filling in the RVA generator on the website.  It is a self-explanatory process and we encourage you to use the RVA you generate as an avatar for social media or as a signature on your email, a poster, whatever.

This is the beauty of RVA Creates.  If it becomes a brand or a movement or a way of life, we can all have a part of it.

In a society where others seem to always to define us, this time we can all define what our community truly is and what makes us great.

Let's have some fun as we Create.