Writer and award-winning graduate architect Andrée Iffrig is an architecture feature writer and blogger at Suite101.com. Take a moment to check out her trio of writings about Who’s Your City?, including a book review, an article about urban planning for mega-regions, and a blog post about life in a spiky world.
What do you think the sweetest thing is about Who’s Your City?
The Authors@Google program welcomed Richard Florida in March 2008 at their Google New York City office where he discussed the methodology behind, and evolution of, his latest book Who’s Your City?: How the Creative Economy is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life.
Take a look at Richard Florida’s recent appearance on Allan Gregg in Conversation where the pair discuss the power of the bohemian and gay and lesbian factors on a city, tolerance, prosperity, Who’s Your City?, and more.
Entrepreneur Russell Simmons understands the spiky nature of the creative economy and has launched a new creative industries “bplan like” contest called the The Race to Be: The Creative Entrepreneurship Contest. The event is the centerpiece of this year’s Global Entrepreneurship Week (Nov. 17- Nov. 23).
The contest has three categories: film, fashion, and music. Applications can be submitted online and the finals of each category will take place on-site in spikes of industry/artistic excellence: film in LA, music in Austin, and fashion in NY. From the contest website:
The competition targets 18 to 29 year olds interested in film, music and fashion who want to become young entrepreneurs. From Oct. 2 through Oct. 31, applicants may apply online at www.racetobeusa.com and submit a sample of an existing creative work to compete.
• Five finalists from each category will be selected from the online submissions and will bring their portfolio of completed creative work to the event where they will compete in an onsite challenge. Each genre’s competition will be held in its respective artistic center:
oFilm – BE. The Story on November 17, Sony Pictures Studios, Los Angeles
oMusic – BE. The Sound on November 19, Austin, Venue TBD
oFashion – BE. The Style on November 21, New York Stock Exchange, New YorkAt each event, a panel of industry experts will serve as mentors and conduct a workshop focused on the importance of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship in today’s business world. Each finalist will be paired with a mentor who will work with the individual to create an entrepreneurial concept and develop a marketing pitch for their work.
• At the end of the day, each finalist will present his or her work and make a “pitch” to the panel of judges. The judges will score each presentation in four categories: creative content, business viability, marketability, and the “it” factor.
• The winner of each competition will receive $5,000, a mentoring opportunity, possible internship and post-event PR exposure for their winning concept.
I have been researching business plan competitions for four years now and it’s amazing how the model has evolved and moved way beyond the campus.
This competition speaks directly to the creative economy and the creative class and while its cash prize doesn’t distinguish it, Russell Simmons, the categories and format, and the opportunities to network make it a special case. It also, obviously, underscores the great concentrations of talent that exist.
Check out the application (deadline is Oct. 31) and share your great ideas or works in progress with Russell Simmons and the world during Global Entrepreneurship Week. Good luck!
I need your help for the new Canadian edition of Who’s Your City? I’m
working on for publication in early 2009. My team and I at the Prosperity Institute are working through the data and rankings, building all sorts of tables and maps for Canada and North America.
But what we really need are your stories.
Back in September of 2006,
I asked for personal stories about your city, and recieved more than 200
responses many of which made it into the book. Most of which were about US cities.
Now, I’d like to ask for your stories about Canadian cities Tell me about the
place you live. Why did you pick your city or region? How did you go about
picking it – what was your strategy? What other kinds of places did you look
at? How has that choice affected the rest of your life? Your job or
career? Friends, family, or romantic interests? Fulfillment and fun? Real
estate jackpots or money pits? Would you do it differently next time? What
cities and regions are on your radar for the future and why? That’s it. 100
or 200 words, on any or all of those subjects. 300-500 words could be even
better.
Send your stories to Patrick Adler at patrick.adler@rotman.utoronto.ca
, or post them on the comment section of this entry, or do both. Together,
we’ll build a reservoir of community knowledge that I hope can make the book as
relevant as possible for Canadian readers.
Thanks all.
