When Charles Landry founded COMEDIA in 1978 our initial interests were reflected in our name. COMEDIA stands for a combination of 'communication' and 'media' and we were concerned with how people and organizations got their message across with imagination and verve. This broadened out increasingly to how cities communicate their ambition to their citizens and the wider world and how in turn citizens can more actively shape their urban future.

We have worked with many organizations large and small, from small creative businesses to cities such as Helsinki, Adelaide, Johannesburg and Glasgow.

We see ourselves as critical friends rather than as consultants.

A turning point for COMEDIA came in 2000 when 'The Creative City: A toolkit for urban innovators' was published, which was itself based on an earlier short publication of the same title which was written with Franco Bianchini in 1995. It seemed to hit a nerve and the book was reprinted twice in the first 6 months and has since been translated into Japanese.

The need for businesses to be more creative began to be the accepted canon and people became increasingly interested in how the imagination associated with artists, scientists or explorers could also be useful for cities looking to rethink their purposes and ambition in the light of intense competition. The Creative City notion is now the umbrella concept for our work and crystallizes the range of what we do with cities: Vision documents; sector strategies; cultural policies and market research.

Over the years many colleagues have contributed to COMEDIA’s development including Ken Worpole, Dave Morley, Franco Bianchini, Geoff Mulgan, Francois Matarasso, and the current core team consists of Charles Landry, Phil Wood, Fred Brookes, Claire Chidley and Sue Andrew with associates including Richard Brecknock in Australia and Carol Coletta in the States.