Introducing my Substack… Making Places Better.

(I will share free posts here on Medium, but head over there and please do subscribe)

Welcome to Making Places Better, where every week, I will compile and share stories, policies, examples & best practices from all over the world that explore how we can use music and the wider creative economy to make places better. Along with my forthcoming book, I want to share everything I’ve learned. I want music and culture to be a priority economic sector everywhere. I want music and culture to solve problems in communities. I want to act.

Other than LinkedIn (where you can’t hide who you are), this is where you will be able to find me from now on. I will not be posting publicly on other social media for work. I want to ensure that with everything I am doing, to the best of my abilities, I am contributing to a better world. Being on social media is not my way of doing so.

Why? — Because music and culture makes places better.

Last year, Huntsville, Alabama was named the ‘Best City To Live In’, by U.S. News. This is due to a range of factors, including the quality of job opportunities on offer led by local employers, NASA and Redstone Arsenal. Culture played a significant role as well. In 2018, the Mayor of Huntsville commissioned a music audit, which the firm I co-founded, Sound Diplomacy, delivered. The audit produced an inventory of music and wider cultural assets along with a gap analysis, demonstrating a number of opportunities the city could pursue to…