Are you a writer, musician, film maker or visual artist? Or maybe you work as a manager, promoter, or executive in the music, publishing, film/TV or visual arts industries? Whether you are creative, a creative entrepreneur, or working at any level in the creative industries, you’ll undoubtedly have seen, or experienced, how the internet is ‘changing everything’. You’ll probably have heard that the web is killing culture and your industry along with it. But the internet creates exciting new ways to distribute and promote creative works and should be seen by the creative industries as an opportunity rather than a threat.

Free culture - giving versions of creative works away, and even allowing others to copy, distribute, sample or create derivative works from them - is at the heart of these new opportunities. This approach seems alien to many in the creative world who assume that free culture cannot generate income, but a freer attitude to cultural distribution will help you connect with a new audience, to develop a more engaged audience and even to make new business connections.

The Creative Business in the Digital Era seminar will help you understand the opportunities presented by open IP (intellectual property) and how being open should be a central part of your creative business model.

The project is being prepared openly, under a Creative Commons licence, on the Creative Business wiki.

Special guests
Monday 17 March
Tom Reynolds, blogger, ambulance technician and author, will talk about his book, Blood, Sweat and Tea, published under Creative Commons licence and in paper by The Friday Project.

Entrepreneur, musician and bibliophile John Buckman of Magnatune will talk about his business, and how to run a CC music label.

Tuesday 18 March (evening)
Tom Reynolds graces our presence again.

Wednesday 19 March (evening)
David Bausola, the creative mind behind interactive online comedy, Where are the Jonses?, will talk about his project.

Who should come?
This seminar is aimed at people interested in doing business in the open environment presented by rapidly developing networked communications. You could be a C-level executive or an independent creator, or anyone in between, from any size of company:

• C-level executives, independents, freelances, entrepreneurs, corporates, SMEs
• Musicians, record labels, music publishing companies
• Writers, journalists, publishers
• Film makers, production companies, broadcasters
• Visual artists, photographers, artists, illustrators and designers

When and where is it?
The Creative Business in the Digital Era seminar will be delivered as a single full-day course, and as an evening course repeated on two days:

Day Course: 17 March 08, 9.00am to 5.30pm
Evening Course: 18 March 08, 6.00pm to 9.00pm
Evening Course: 19 March 08, 6.00pm to 9.00pm

All courses will be held at 01zero-one* in central London (main entrance is on Hopkins Street: map):

Westminster Kingsway College
Soho Centre
Peter Street
London W1F 0HS

Cost
This is a subsidised course and is free to attendees. Refreshments and lunch will be provided at the day course; and drinks and nibbles will be available at both evening courses.

How to apply
There are a maximum of 40 places available for the day course, and 50 places for each of the two evening courses. We are anticipating heavy demand for these courses, so we are asking all applicants to tell us a bit about themselves so that we can select a balanced group of attendees. We will in the first instance be looking at which sector you work in and your level of experience, in order to assemble varied group of attendees. We will also be looking for commitment to and interest in open content, as illustrated by the 100 word passage that we ask each applicant to write. Remaining applicants will be selected randomly.

Please download this form, fill in both pages on separate sheets of paper and return to: Creative Business in the Digital Era, Open Rights Group, 7th Floor, 100 Grays Inn Road, London, WC1X 8AL, UK. Any application form which has not been completed fully will be discarded.

Closing date
The closing date is 15 February 2008, and we will respond to all applicants by 29 February 2008.

Please note that your Monitoring Form will not be referred to at any point during the application process, but will instead be analysed after selection has been completed.

Any questions?
Please email us.

* 01Zero-One offers a wide range of training in TV, Film, Post Production, Editing, Interactive Content, Production and Multiplatform Media in Soho, London: http://www.01zero-one.co.uk/courses.htm