Survey shows Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit a success

By Leonardo Vazquez

Everyone enjoyed the Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit, held in June in Newark, NJ.  Most learned a lot at the summit, learned more than they expected, and found the information useful.

This is according to a survey conducted of summit attendees. Of the 79 respondents:

• 100% of respondents said they enjoyed the summit

  

  Morning panel with creative placemakers

• 99% said they were satisfied with the quality of the speakers
• 95% said they learned a lot at this summit
• 94% said what they learned was useful to them
• 87% were satisfied with the diversity of speakers
• 75% said that listening to their peers was useful to them
• 71% said they learned more than they expected to

Many attendees also enhanced their networks at the summit.  

• 76% said they expanded their networks at the summit
• 75% said there was enough time for networking

About 97% said the summit seemed well-organized.

The best parts of the conference, respondents said, were Jane Golden's presentation (83% said that was their favorite part), the morning panel with creative placemakers, and the afternoon panel with funders.

There was a good amount of networking 

More than 92% said they would definitely recommend this program to their colleagues or members, and 8% said they might.

The survey asked respondents: What would, or did, you tell their friends and colleagues about the summit? 

• "Great ideas, innovative thinking"
• "Important to keep things moving forward in the direction of cross sector partnerships where creative placemaking and the arts are concerned -- this summit recognized that and provided opportunities for making connections, learning and having your voice heard."
• "It was very well organized and professional; it encompassed a true diversity of stakeholders from creatives to policymakers, conceptualizers to number crunchers."
• "There were a tremendous number of great ideas shared during the conference that would be of great benefit to learn more about and try to implement in your neighborhood development plans."
• "Great way to collaborate with colleagues and learn from what other towns did successfully.  Also opened up new ideas and I learned about other places in the state that I never knew existed."

The 25 respondents who stayed for the peer-to-peer exchanges also enjoyed themselves and found the sessions

Susan Schear (standing)  facilitates a peer-to-peer session 

valuable:

• 96% said their facilitator listened to all participants
• 96% said their facilitator provided fair opportunities for everyone to participate
• 96% said they felt comfortable being part of their session.
• 96% said they were able to participate as much as they wanted to
• 84% said it was good to let participants choose the questions to be asked
• 77% said the comments from their peers were interesting
• 73% said the comments from their peers were useful

Asked what they liked best about the peer-to-peer sessions, respondents said:  "Hearing where artists were struggling with moving projects along... learning models of best practice... listening to peers about their success stories and approaches... there were ideas presented by other participants that I hadn't thought of... problem solving strategies to common roadblocks."

The estimated margin of error is about 9 points.

The Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit was a joint production of The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking, ArtPride NJ, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, PlanSmart NJ, and Together North Jersey.  It was made possible with support from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.

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