NOTE: IT’S BEEN DELAYED TO 8PM
About 4 or 5 years ago, Mike Robinette, formerly of MVRPC, brought Richard Florida into town to speak. It was at the Ponitz center (bldg. 12 of Sinclair). The room was packed with every mover and shaker in town (not that they accomplish much moving or shaking). And next thing you know, everyone is talking about the “Creative class”- and “Tool town” soon became “Tech Town” etc. etc.
So, if you missed the first shot of Richard Florida’s cool-aid, you can get it again tomorrow night at Wright State:
WSU: Presidential Lecture Series – Richard Florida [1]
Richard FloridaThursday, March 1, 2007
7:00 p.m. DELAYED TO 8PM!Apollo Multipurpose Room
WSU Student Union
Free & Open to the Public
No Tickets RequiredSocial theorist and public intellectual Richard Florida will join the WSU community in celebrating its 40th Anniversary as a Presidential Lecture Series speaker, in collaboration with the Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education SOCHE.
Author of The Rise of the Creative Class, named a leading breakthrough idea by the Harvard Business Review, Florida believes that human creativity is the engine of economic growth and that for the first time in history, economic growth depends on the further development of a wide spectrum of human capabilities.
As to my opinion of “the creative class” (of which by profession I am a part)- creatives without strong, visionary leadership are as clueless as the next group.
If you want progress and change, there is nothing like a benevolent dictator.
Isn’t the term creative class short for yuppy graphic designers and ad slingers?
Great art doesn’t need a class based clique to survive. In fact, it gets better once the peer pressure disappears and the soul begins to dictate.
Bill Hicks had it right.
Go read the book.
“If you want progress and change, there is nothing like a benevolent dictator.”
Got anyone in mind? ;)
I feel that creative people, not just the Creative Class (who are more than just graphic designers), have vision just by nature. They also tend to frequent independent locally owned businesses more than most do.
Cities need more than just these people, what about average middle class families.
The Dayton metro area actually ranks on some indicators of “creative class” as this area has a relatively high % of scientists and engineers (in this case “creative” means creative in terms of technology), perhaps also people working in infotech.
Most of these are affiliated with Wright-Patterson in some way (though there is also Lexis-Nexis, NCR, Reynolds and Reynolds, as some non-Defense-related examples).
Most of these people don’t really fit into the urban hipster stereotype/image one has when one thinks of “creative class”.
When Dayton was more compact these Creatives would have hung out at the Engineer’s Club spinning out more ideas; instead they flee to the burbs to breed so their children can flee Dayton as fast as possible.
From the WSU Student Union – See You!