May 3, 2018 Asheville, N.C.

Parsec Financial, an independent fee-only wealth management firm, announced today it has awarded The Center for Creative Economy (CCE) a Parsec Prize for 2018. The CCE will receive $20,000 to connect and promote the creative industries in the Piedmont Triad.

Founded in 2011, the CCE serves as an advocate for creative industries and entrepreneurs; those businesses and organizations that make or market products and services associated with innovation, aesthetics, design or culture. CCE serves as a catalyst for innovation among creative industries promoting connectivity and job growth in North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad; WinstonSalem, Greensboro and High Point.

“Our mission is to Launch, Grow, and Accelerate Creative entrepreneurs and businesses,” said Margaret Collins, founding executive director for The Center for Creative Economy. “This award will fund our 2018 Creative Startups accelerator which focuses emerging Creative Entrepreneurs on the business skill development they vitally need to turn their promising businesses into companies that can grow and scale.”

Locally and nationally, there is a severe lack of resources for creative entrepreneurs. The funds will support marketing outreach to creatives in NC and the Southeast, license fees, books, hotel, food and other course expenses. This accelerator program is uniquely suited to startups scaling not just in their region, but also around the world.

“We are excited to award a Parsec Prize to the Center for Creative Economy in Winston-Salem,” said Daniel Johnson, senior financial advisor with Parsec Financial. “As a small business that has been around since 1980, Parsec and its founders are big supporters of the entrepreneurial spirit. Awarding this prize during Parsec’s first year in Winston-Salem is reminiscent of our humble beginnings in Asheville. We can’t think of a better way to begin our support of the Winston-Salem community, than to support an organization so closely related to our own roots.”

For more information on the Parsec Prize, you can visit www.parsecfinancial.com/parsec-prize.

About Parsec Financial:

For over 35 years, Parsec Financial has provided financial planning and investment management services to Western North Carolina and beyond. With over $2.5 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2017, Parsec provides investment management, retirement planning, and estate and trust advisory services. The mission of Parsec Financial is to help clients set financial goals, create an investment strategy in accordance with those goals, and maintain this focus through long-term investment management. For more information on Parsec Financial please visit: http://www.parsecfinancial.com. MEDIA CONTACT Donnie Funderud Zander Guinn Millan d.funderud@zgmbrand.com 704.333.5500

The Center for Creative Economy is one of five nonprofits to receive a $25,000 grant from The Ovation Foundation, an arm of Ovation TV. The grant is part of Ovation’s 2017 Creative Economic Innovation Grant Awards program, which focuses on nonprofits that work with artists and enterprises in creative industries through partnerships and fiscal support.

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Andrew is a designer, musician, and entrepreneur. In 2014, Andrew was offered a promotion as a District Sales Manager with his previous employer. The promotion would include relocating from New Jersey to Winston-Salem, NC. Even though he enjoyed his new position, he wasn’t truly doing what he felt he was meant to do.

Andrew has always been interested in digital marketing. Once moving to NC, he discovered the Triad’s movement toward entrepreneurship. So he started to focus his time on touching up his marketing skills, along with teaching himself multiple programming languages, and how to use design software. 

 Diving Into Creative Entrepreneurship 

In March of 2017, Andrew was ready to take the plunge into starting his own company. He left his full time job and started Hewbie Marketing Agency, a web design and web development firm. In the beginning, Andrew focused on helping as many small businesses as possible. Within a few months, a list of clients was developed and team members were added to the growing company.

Enter CCE!

Connections, connections, and more connections . . .

As a startup, he met entrepreneurs, designers, and creatives throughout the community. One of those connections happened to be Swerve member, Mike Foley. Andrew and Mike share common interests and started collaborating on projects. Mike invited Andrew to the November Swerve event, Getting Your Business in Shape for 2018 with speaker MaryAnn Hauser.  He learned about CCE and Swerve, and discovered that CCE was hiring a part time Marketing Manager. Andrew applied for this amazing opportunity.  He looks forward to making a positive impact on the creative community and getting to know each you.

Image Source: https://www.bizjournals.com

Founding Executive Director for Center for Creative Economy, Margaret Collins, is named Triad Business Journal’s 2017 Power Player!

“These are the individuals who have taken the baton, if you will, to champion truly catalytic efforts, to put their reputations and dollars at risk and to execute plans that move game-changing projects — and our region — forward.”

Read the full article here.

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Are you interested in prototyping a new leadership development activity being created by the Center for Creative Leadership?

As part of CCL’s product development process, we invite volunteers to help us test out our new creations free of charge and in return we ask for their input on how to make the experience better.  

On Thursday Nov 9 from 1:30 to 3:30 we will be prototyping a new activity that will provide a chance for participants to practice leadership skills such as communication and influence.  When it is complete, this new activity will be the capstone for our Maximizing Your Leadership Potential Program.  The activity will take 90 minutes and then we’ll have a half an hour to hear what you thought.

If you are interested or to get more information, please contact Diane Reinhold at reinholdd@ccl.org.

The Center for Creative Economy announced the three Winston-Salem based companies that have taken the top prized in the Creative Startups’ Southeastern Accelerator Program.

Read the full press release here.

Recent news articles:

www.bizjournals.com – “Three Winston-Salem companies receive funding from Creative Startups accelerator”

Want to learn more about Creative Startups Winston-Salem? Learn more here.

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Demo Night 2017 is just around the corner!

You can learn more about the 2017 Cohort teams here, and register for the Demo Night on our Eventbrite page here.

We’re getting some buzz! Read our latest PR news updates here >

Creative Startup Winston-Salem is in the news, here are our latest updates:

The Business Journals – “Six Triad companies to participate in Creative Startups accelerator”

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When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back.Steve Jobs

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The world-class program helps creative entrepreneurs develop business models and identify funding

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