Conference History

Creative Places + Spaces Conferences debuted in October 2003. Jane Jacobs, Richard Florida and 50 other speakers led a captivated delegation of 450 arts and culture leaders from across Canada, U.S. and U.K in an exchange about the growing importance of creativity to cities and the new economy. The inaugural conference was a watershed moment in the advancement of the creative cities movement in Canada.

Creative Places + Spaces - Risk Revolution in October 2005 expanded the creative city dialogue into social, educational, environmental and private sectors. The second incarnation featured 60 speakers from 20+ cities around the world and attracted a delegation of more than 600 practitioners and policymakers working in the arts, planning, economic development, education, environment and business.

Creative Places + Spaces conferences are now acknowledged among the world's most important forums on creativity and innovation by leading thinkers about cities. True to its purpose in exploring creativity and innovation, the conference content and format is reinvented for each new incarnation. In November 2008, Artscape held its first ever Creative Places + Spaces Regional Forum welcoming over 200 Ontario-based delegates.

The conference organizers gratefully acknowledge Susan Serran as Programmer of the 2003 and 2005 installments of Creative Places + Spaces.