Business Facilities - February 2008 - (Page 11)

creativity are nurtured by and interact with artistic and cultural creativity. This kind of interplay is evident in the rise of whole new industries, from computer graphics to digital music and animation.” But creativity requires a social and economic environment that nurtures its many forms, and providing that is the great challenge for the places and organizations that want to land, and hold on to, the best workers, Florida says. Without the right environment, these workers—more transient and less committed to the company than prior generations— will move elsewhere. Florida, who is currently a professor of “business and creativity” at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, as well as principal of the Creative Class Group, a consulting firm, says creative class workers are drawn to communities like Seattle, Austin, Toronto and Dublin. These cities have more than technological innovation and hightech industry; they also offer vibrant cultural scenes and opportunities for different lifestyles. “ Today’s professionals see themselves as members of a broad creative force, not as corporate officers or organization men. —Richard Florida Professor of Business and Creativity, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto ” “Today’s professionals see themselves as members of a broad creative force, not as corporate officers or organization men,” Florida writes. “Thus they gravitate to stimulating creative environments—to places that offer not only opportunities and amenities, but openness to diversity, where they feel they can express themselves and validate their identities.” CLASS ORIGINS Florida’s creative class theory came about in 1998, when he met Gary Gates, then a doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University in Pitts- burgh. Florida had been studying the location decisions of high-tech industries and talented people; Gates was studying location patterns for gay people. They realized that the parallels of their lists were striking. A look at bohemian population trends showed that places with high densities of artists, writers, and performers were the same places where economic growth was occurring. Ultimately, Florida came up with what he dubs the Creativity Index. The index factors in the number of creative class workers in a city; along with innovation, as measured by patents per capita; high-tech industry; and diversity, measured by the number of gay people, which Florida believes to be a reasonable indicator of an area’s openness to different kinds of people. These rankings show Austin leading the nation among cities with populations over one million, followed by San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, Raleigh-Durham, Portland, Minneapolis, Washington-Baltimore, Sacramento, and Denver. These are the winners in what Florida calls the Creative Age. BUSINESS FACILITIES 11

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Business Facilites - February 2008 Contents First Word Snapshots Corporate Moves: Texas Capturing the Creative Class Green with Energy Automotive Opportunities in a Green Economy Corporate Moves: Wyoming Metro Spotlight: Overland Park, KS Metro Spotlight: Long Island, NY Get Ahead in Alabama Indiana: Sending Tech Messages How to Successfully Negotiate a Lease in Today's Real Estate Environment Legislation Spurring Innovation in Kentucky New Center will Propel Ontario's Automotive Future Virginia's Vital Signs Eating Well in the North of France Advertiser Index Ask the Expert

Business Facilities - February 2008

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