Creative Class

Launched today – the new Richard Florida fan page on Facebook!

Come join our growing community and get all the updates about Richard, his books, events, blog posts, and more in one of your favorite social networking locations.

The one and only Yoko Ono (@yokoono) is now following Richard on Twitter.

Become privy to Richard’s thought-provoking Tweets today: @Richard_Florida.

Who are your favorite folks to follow on Twitter?

Check out today’s Tweets focusing on SAS, one of the largest software companies in the world:

• SAS Institute tops list of best places to work

• Managing for Creativity, me and SAS CEO Jim Goodnight on SAS model in HBR

• Video of Goodnight and me on SAS model

Not following Richard on Twitter? Join the club: @Richard_Florida

Richard Florida is in Boston today at the Massachusetts Municipal Association, serving as the keynote speaker for their annual meeting. From their website:

The MMA Annual Meeting and Trade Show is the largest regular gathering of Massachusetts local government officials. The two-day event features educational workshops, nationally recognized speakers, awards programs, a large trade show, and an opportunity to network with municipal officials from across the state.

The MMA’s Annual Meeting is your best single opportunity to:

• Learn about solutions to problems facing your community
• Meet people who can assist you with resources and ideas
• Learn about valuable products and services for cities and towns
• Attend programs that will strengthen your ability to lead and serve your community

What opportunities does your community offer to engage with other residents and incite change?

Last week the Global Entrepreneurship Research Association (GERA) had its annual meeting in Santiago, Chile and launched the 2010 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) executive report. The annual meeting was held in a developing country for the first time. The meeting is a mixture of media events, planning meetings, and strategic decision-making. In addition, social events make this a welcome activity.

The 2010 GEM executive report, in addition to reporting on the state of entrepreneurship in the world, had sections on the economic crisis and social entrepreneurship. The main finding was that entrepreneurial activity had declined in the developed countries but not in the developing countries. In other words, do not look to Europe to lead the world in the future. As a founder of the Hungarian team, the so-called transition countries are not going to lead either. The labor force of Europe is in decline and, therefore, Europe and Japan are in no position to provide entrepreneurial leadership in the future as they age.

By the year 2050, most of the labor force in Europe will be aging and the under 40 labor force will be in the developing world according to my colleague Jack Goldstone at George Mason University. In other words, the creative, innovative and entrepreneurial talent will be in Brazil, Chile, India, China, and Indonesia. The developing world will have to provide the economic leadership for the market. While the world will be flat, hot, and crowded, the creative talent will also be in these places. GERA is uniquely positioned to measure and track the progress that the world is making in shifting the creative epicenter from Europe to Asia and South America.

This seminal meeting of the GERA represents the first step of the association in this transition. After spending the first 10 years of this decade trying to figure out if Denmark is more entrepreneurial than the United States, we are now shifting to measuring the entrepreneurial progress of the developing countries. As Richard Florida said to me a few years ago, the young are the same all over the world. If that is the case they will surely be the leaders in the future.

I thought in my first blog post for CCE I should give props to Richard for helping me get to this point. I first met Richard in 2003 when he came to speak in Tampa, Florida for the first time. I had read TROCC at the suggestion of my wife (at the time), Michelle Bauer, who was the executive director of the Tampa Bay Technology Forum. They were part of a unique coalition of groups that brought Richard to Tampa.  Also key in the process were the Tampa Chamber of Commerce, the Arts Council, and Workforce Tampa.  Getting these four entities to agree on one speaker truly was historic!

TROCC and Richard’s talk got me excited about ideas in a way that I had not been excited by ideas since college. It spoke to how I worked, how I thought about my life and my community. I suspect I am not alone in this capacity. I got to know Richard and his former associate Rod Frantz and we became friends, conspirators, and colleagues.  Creative Tampa Bay was founded in 2004 and took up the mission of developing the creative economy in the region. I became its second president and within two years I had the honor of sharing a stage with Richard in Perth, Australia, where we talked about the impact of his work on communities like mine.

Richard’s work shifted the direction of my own work and has led me to other incredible thinkers and practitioners in this arena such as Charles Landry, John Howkins, and Carol Coletta. In true creative class fashion, I have been able to create my own career and am doing work I love.  Richard had a direct influence on that, and for that, I will always be grateful.

Thanks to Lena and SOMA Magazine. Click here to read the whole story, then scroll to pages 42 and 43.

Here’s the abstract for a new paper on said with Charlotta Mellander and Kevin Stolarick.

Economists have argued that individuals choose locations that maximize their economic position and broad utility. Sociologists have found that social networks and social interactions shape our satisfaction with our communities. Research, across various social science fields, finds that beauty has a significant effect on various economic and social outcomes. Our research uses a large survey sample of individuals across US locations to examine the effects of beauty and aesthetics on community satisfaction. We test for these effects in light of other community-level factors such as economic security and employment opportunities; the supply of public goods; the ability for social exchange, that is to meet people and make friends; artistic and cultural opportunities, and outdoor recreation; as well as individual demographic characteristics such as gender, age, presence of children, length of residence, income and education levels, and housing values. The findings confirm that perceived beauty or aesthetic character of a location has a positive and significant effect on perceived community satisfaction. It is one of the most significant factors alongside economic security, good schools, and the perceived capacity for social interaction. We also find community-level factors to be significantly more important than individual demographic characteristics in explaining community satisfaction.

The full paper is over at the MPI site, here.

Richard Florida photographed with the Mayor of Ottawa, Larry O’Brian, October 2009.

The Center for Economic Growth and The Stakeholders present Future Forward, an event featuring Richard Florida, at the Palace Theatre in Albany, New York, on September 24, 2009. Richard will speak about Who’s Your City? and why the creative economy is making where you live one of the most important decisions of your life. A book signing and after party are also part of the evening’s festivities.

Do you feel that you live in the right city? Or is there a move in your future?

From left to right: Richard Florida; Mayor of Albany, New York, Gerald D. Jennings; Jeff Stone, president of Key Bank, NA, Capital Region New York District; City Champion Catherine M. Hedgeman; President, Center for Economic Growth, Michael Tucker