Opening Speech - Michael Scott (Vice-Chancellor of Glyndwr University)

We started this years Creative Futures by a quick introduction by Dr Stuart Cunningham. He began by giving us some context of the Creative Industry, with things like stats etc.

One of the stats that Stuart gave us was that over 95% of graduates went into employment within 6 months. This was a good statistic to give us, I believe, as it was very positive, and was a great way to start this week. He also explained the aims of Creative Futures week , and they are to: improve our employability, and professional development.

Stuart ended the introduction with a Pink Floyd quote:
"And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun."
The point to this was, that our starting gun has already begun, and to make sure we don't miss it.

The speaker, Michael Scott, then came on, and talked about William Shakespeare, who he described as "the greatest businessman this country has ever produced." This is because his business is still around today. William Shakespeare used creative thinking to improve his business, and was probably one of the first recorded examples of doing so.

One of the important parts that I took away from this talk was where we were given the example of one of Rembrandt's self portrait which is housed in Edinburgh's National Gallery. He completed this months, even weeks after being made redundant. Another example given was William Shakespeare, when his son Hamnet died, he wrote his greatest play. The point of this is that everyone gets to the point in their career where they can't go on anymore. It's during this time that you produce your greatest work.