My business partner and I would like to start a creative consortium in our area. We currently work closely with an advertising agency referring projects back and forth, but we'd like to start building a network of businesses to grow our referrals.

(Note: We participated in an "international business networking" group but we were not pleased with the structure, not to mention the lower tier of members who would not refer our services since they thought we were too expensive.)

Does anyone have any experience with a creative consortium or a network of marketing/media people that meet regularly? We'd like some ideas or feedback on this concept and how we might go about starting one in our area.

Thanks!