I’m a happy camper.  Last week two of our greatest passions, the environment and the creative economy, were merged.  An all day session of the Chatham Environmental Forum (CEF) produced ten priorities to guide the organization as they draft a plan for the County Commission on how Chatham can become the “Greenest County in Georgia.”  One of those ten priorities was “Building Creative Infrastructure.”  You heard me right.  The CEF thinks a creative community is part of the green community equation.  We couldn’t agree more.   And here’s why.

The two are mutually beneficial.  The workforce of knowledge- and culture-based industry tend to migrate to communities with a good quality of life, meaning clean air and water, expanses of greenspace, recreational opportunities, good transportation, etc.  We want ”creatives” in Savannah because of a) the way they will positively impact our community’s economy and b) the way they will positively impact our community’s environment.  And they will be more likely to relocate to Savannah if we embrace initiatives to maintain the resources that make this a healthy, beautiful place to live.

Going further, brain-based industry is the way of the future.  And that’s alright with Mother Nature.  Brain-based business consume less natural resources than more traditional industries.  A recent Savannah Morning News article quotes Commissioner Pat Shay:

Our friends at All Walks of Life (AWOL) need our help.  One of the major storms to pass through Savannah in the past few weeks produced a tornado that not only caused AWOL to cancel a fundraiser event but, worse, destroyed thousands of dollars worth of food and equipment. Darn tornadoes!

For those of you who don’t know, AWOL works to promote and provide self-awareness to at-risk youth through the use of poetry, hip hop and life.  They are an inspiration to the kids whose lives they touch and – well – to us.

The mid-June fundraiser was supposed to raise an upwards of $5,000 so that the AWOL kids could travel to our nation’s capital for a Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam, highlighted by the filming of an HBO documentary.

“The festival they’re going to is called brave new voices and HBO is doing a documentary on youth and the spoken word movement,” says DaVena Jordan, one of AWOL’s directors.

But the fundraiser was stopped before it even got started by rain, hail and 70+ mile per hour wind.  The over 60 youth and adults, who had outfitted the Lake Mayer Gazebo with sound equipment for the event, huddled together in the Lake Mayer restroom to wait out the storm.  Watch the WSAV news video on the story.

Calling all innovators! Yes, it’s that time again (for the first time).

TCCa is now accepting applications (and nominations) for its first annual Innovation Awards, to take place October 23 at Savannah Station.

Four-hundred of Savannah’s coolest, most innovative business, technology and creative community leaders thrown together in a room full of food, drink, celebration, recognition and shiny lights. How fun is that!?!?

Building off the great tradition of the 5-year running cBETA awards, this year’s Innovation Awards will bring the innovative heat and the quirky, cool flair of TCCa.  The ceremony will honor regional business, education and community organizations that demonstrate innovation and outstanding achievement in education, business, community, government and sustainability.  Applications are being accepted in the following six categories until the July 31st deadline.

• Innovative Achievement in Education
  This category is open to all educational establishments along the Creative Coast – public or private, K-12 or colleges/universities – that boast a creative or innovative development, program or application of technology that has a positive impact on the educational experience.  We’ve said it before: children are the future.  Let’s see what the creative leaders of tomorrow are learning today.

While this is no longer a Savannah company (although it was founded here), I’m letting this one pass since Drew (Odom) is a bud and did a bunch for the whole Savannah blogging community (founded blogsavannah.com and BlogSavannah UnCon).

While we wish it wasn’t so, Drew went off to (mis)adventures in NYC and is working with Diego Orjuela (formerly of Evoca) with a company called MinuteFix.

At any rate, they will be launching new functionality that features a partnership with Skype and are looking for beta testers before final release. If you don’t know what a “beta tester” is, it’s basically somebody who volunteers to try out the service/product before its public to see how/if it works (or doesn’t) in a live, “real life” environment. I always look at it like this: It’s always fun to try and break stuff.

From Drew’s email:

Together with Skype, MinuteFix (www.minutefix.com) is looking for an invite-only team for some basic yet-to-be-released (yet very cool) Skype tools and features. The task is unpaid but only requires twenty minutes of your time and allows you to say “Man, I used that a long time ago…before it was even a Facebook app.” We only have room for 100 testers so if you are interested you need to immediately visit http://minutefix.net/skype/ and sign up. You will be notified within two-three days with details if you are selected.