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MINDING OUR OWN BUSINESS September 27, 2003 by Linda Hirvonen Delta County Economic Development Alliance Creativity and the Information Age Last week I had the opportunity to attend a different kind of economic development workshop in Green Bay. It was called “Creative Transformations” and featured Dr. Richard Florida, author of the best-selling book The Rise of the Creative Class and How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life. Dr. Florida’s premise is that the information age will have the same impact on economic and community in this century as the industrial age had on the agriculturally based economy and community at the turn of the last century. His research has indicated that the valuable community assets for growth in the information age will be what he calls the three T’s: technology, talent, and tolerance. The fourth T for successful communities of the future is territory- or capitalizing on the communities’ geographic uniqueness instead of trying to be “another anyplace.” Memphis, Tennessee, took his theory that creativity is the critical resource to individual, community and economic life as a call to action. They assembled 100 people from the 48 cities in the US and Puerto Rico and created “The Memphis Manifesto: Building a Community of Ideas.” Following is a paraphrase of their 10 principles. . 1. Cultivate and reward creativity. Make everyone part of the “value chain of creativity.” 2. Invest in the creative ecosystem. This may include arts and culture, nightlife, music, restaurants, artists and designers, innovators, entrepreneurs, affordable spaces, lively neighborhoods, spirituality, education, density, and public spaces. 3. Embrace diversity. People with different backgrounds and experiences contribute to a diversity of ideas, talents, innovation, and positive economic impact. 4. Nurture the creatives. Support the connectors. Collaborate to compete in new ways and involve everyone. 5. Value risk-taking. Invest in opportunity-making, not problem-solving. Challenge conventional wisdom. 6. Be authentic. Identify the values added and focus on assets where the community can be unique. Resist monoculture and homogeneity; every community can be the right community. 7. Invest and build on quality of place. Build and strengthen features like arts and culture, open and green spaces, vibrant downtowns and centers of learning. These will make communities more competitive and will create more opportunities for ideas to have an impact. 8. Remove barriers to creativity like mediocrity, intolerance, disconnectedness, sprawl, poverty, bad schools, exclusivity, and social environmental degradation. 9. Take individual responsibility for change in your community. Make things happen. I love this line: “Development is a ‘do it yourself’ enterprise.” 10. Ensure that every person, especially children, has the right to creativity. Maintaining high quality lifelong education is critical to developing and retaining creative individuals as a resource for communities. These concepts may strike some as a bit left of center, and they probably are. Certainly they must be placed in the hierarchy of community health just like our basic needs of food and shelter must be met before we can wax philosophical in Maslow’s hierarchy of individual growth. But culture and acceptability standards change, and we must be able to embrace the positive changes within them to remain competitive. We must realize that technology has given many of us the opportunity to work and live anywhere we choose. We want to attract and keep extremely talented individuals who value our life style. To do so, we must be an environment that makes them feel welcomed and comfortable enough to set roots. It is certainly something worth thinking about. A community accepting and even encouraging of diversity, and one that fosters creativity builds the quality of life factors necessary to compete in the “new economy.” Come Grow with Us in Delta County! Linda A Hirvonen, Executive Director Delta County Economic Development Alliance 230 Ludington Street Escanaba MI 49829 (906) 786-2192 or fax (906) 786-8830 |
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