Creatives Meet Business Experience
Connecting Creatives Through Community
Words by Sam Lauron Photo by Manny Pandya Photography
When Ashland Viscosi started Creatives Meet Business in 2016, she was looking to fill a need she saw in Austin’s creative community. Three years later, she has produced countless events, hosted a number of podcast episodes, and developed a three-day conference that’s going into its third year.
With a background that she likens to a “mystery grab bag,” Ashland’s varied career eventually brought her to Austin in 2010. Having experience in political science, statistics and even the Peace Corps, it was the city’s filmmaking community that pulled her in. “Film had always been an interest to me, but I never contextualized it as an industry or career,” she recalls.
After working on films as an assistant director and a producer, Ashland began a career at Austin Film Society in sales, marketing, and development. While there, she realized that, even though Austin is a city that appreciates film, those who attended screenings mostly come from within the filmmaking community. She sought to change that. “With Austin being as broadly creative as it was, I didn’t understand how we weren’t tapping into other [creative] communities better.”
It was this epiphany that sparked the idea for Creatives Meet Business (CMB). Her motivations behind launching the community organization were twofold. One part was to bring together creatives from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds, and the other was to provide professional development to artists who don’t typically prioritize the business aspect.
Officially launched in 2016, Creatives Meet Business hosts roundtables, events, and a podcast, all geared toward equipping artists and creative entrepreneurs with the business resources they need in order to grow and maintain sustainable careers.
While building CMB, Ashland remained active in the community, helping with local events like Austin Television Festival and Social Media Week. She has always been the type to help others tell their story, but working with so many local businesses pushed her to tell her own.
“I was so excited to help other people grow and develop their concepts, but I hadn’t been introspective and done the same thing with my own company,” she says. She remembers thinking, “Creatives Meet Business is already helping [the community], so why am I not amplifying what I can do in a bigger and broader way?”
With the desire to take CMB one step further, Ashland began planning and developing a large-scale conference. The planning began in March 2017, and by September, the first Creatives Meet Business Experience (CMBXP) was taking place.
An expansion of CMB, the three-day conference features more than 50 hands-on workshops across four tracks: Business, Marketing, Storytelling, and Skills Development. The interactive programming, which also includes mentorship sessions and evening happy hours, is designed to get the community of artists to meet and support one another.
Going into its third year, CMBXP is taking place September 19-21 at Springdale General. Having outgrown its previous location, the conference is proving its impact on the creative community in numerous ways.
“More people care about the cause and want to be part of it in various ways,” Ashland says. “It’s something that we collectivity are building together, and that’s really cool to me.”
