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Speakers Keynote speaker: Richard Florida
Ballroom B, 3rd floor, Hynes Convention Center
Richard Florida, a best-selling author known for his concept of the “creative class,” was recently named by Esquire magazine as one of the “Best and Brightest in America.”
Florida is the author of “The Rise of the Creative Class,” which received the Washington Monthly’s Political Book Award and was cited as a major breakthrough idea by the Harvard Business Review.
He theorizes that a concentration of the “creative class” – high-tech workers, artists, musicians, and lesbians and gay men – fosters an open and dynamic environment, which, in turn, encourages economic development. Attracting and retaining high-quality talent, he says, is a better path to long-term prosperity than focusing on infrastructure projects.
His most recent book, “Who’s Your City?: How the Creative Economy is Making the Place Where You Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life,” released in 2008, focuses on issues surrounding urban renewal and talent migration.
His other books are “The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent” and “Cities and the Creative Class,” both released in 2005.
Florida is founder of the Creative Class Group, a global advisory services firm that he runs with his wife and business partner, Rana Florida, charting new trends in business, communities and lifestyle.
He is director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Florida has held professorships at George Mason University and Carnegie Mellon University and has taught as a visiting professor at Harvard and MIT.
His earlier work focused on innovations by manufacturers, including the continuous improvement systems implemented by automakers like Toyota.
He was also a senior scientist with the Gallup Organization.
Florida is a co-author of “Industrializing Knowledge: University-Industry Linkages in Japan and the United States” (1999) and “Beyond Mass Production: The Japanese System and Its Transfer to the US” (1993).
He earned his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers College and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He lives in Toronto.
Speakers Keynote speaker: Richard Florida
Keynote speaker: Richard Florida
Ballroom B, 3rd floor, Hynes Convention Center
Richard Florida, a best-selling author known for his concept of the “creative class,” was recently named by Esquire magazine as one of the “Best and Brightest in America.”Florida is the author of “The Rise of the Creative Class,” which received the Washington Monthly’s Political Book Award and was cited as a major breakthrough idea by the Harvard Business Review.
He theorizes that a concentration of the “creative class” – high-tech workers, artists, musicians, and lesbians and gay men – fosters an open and dynamic environment, which, in turn, encourages economic development. Attracting and retaining high-quality talent, he says, is a better path to long-term prosperity than focusing on infrastructure projects.
His most recent book, “Who’s Your City?: How the Creative Economy is Making the Place Where You Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life,” released in 2008, focuses on issues surrounding urban renewal and talent migration.
His other books are “The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent” and “Cities and the Creative Class,” both released in 2005.
Florida is founder of the Creative Class Group, a global advisory services firm that he runs with his wife and business partner, Rana Florida, charting new trends in business, communities and lifestyle.
He is director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Florida has held professorships at George Mason University and Carnegie Mellon University and has taught as a visiting professor at Harvard and MIT.
His earlier work focused on innovations by manufacturers, including the continuous improvement systems implemented by automakers like Toyota.
He was also a senior scientist with the Gallup Organization.
Florida is a co-author of “Industrializing Knowledge: University-Industry Linkages in Japan and the United States” (1999) and “Beyond Mass Production: The Japanese System and Its Transfer to the US” (1993).
He earned his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers College and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He lives in Toronto.
