Creative Class Speakers
Need a dynamic speaker for your event?
The Creative Class Group has convened the world's best experts on creativity, business innovation, economic development and global trends. Developing pioneering strategies for business, government, and community competitiveness, our speakers are comprised of next-generation thinkers and strategists who offer organizations and regions access to leading-edge knowledge, trends and research worldwide.
They have successfully presented to audiences around the world, from Australia to Vancouver to Kansas City and Spain. If you're interested in learning more about their expertise, please contact Reham Alexander.
Global TrendsJohn ZogbyJohn Zogby is a speaker and facilitator for the Creative Class Group. He is a well known author and much-sought-after lecturer and panelist. A combination of dynamic intellect and engaging style has made him the speaker of choice for universities, organizations and corporations throughout the world. He is listed with Leading Authorities and the Capital Speakers Bureau in Washington, D.C. Zogby holds degrees in history from Le Moyne College and Syracuse University. He has taught history for 25 years. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Le Moyne College. He received the distinguished Alumni Award in June 2000, and in 2005, he was awarded Honorary Doctorate Degrees from State University of New York and the Graduate School of Union University. Zogby is also a Senior Advisor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and serves as the first-ever Senior Fellow of the Catholic University Life Cycle Institute in Washington, D.C. His analytical expertise has been published on the opinion pages of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Newsday and the Boston Globe. He is also a founding contributor to the prestigious website, The Huffington Post. Zogby lectures all over the world. He has been spoofed on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and the Late Show with David Letterman. He has been profiled in the New Yorker, Fortune Magazine, Inc., and Investors’ Business Daily. Zogby regularly appears on all three nightly network news programs plus NBC's "Today Show," ABC's "Good Morning America" and is a frequent guest for Fox News and MSNBC special programs, along with CNBC's “Hardball with Chris Matthews.” He also is a regular political commentator for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the British Broadcasting Corporation.
The Art of City MakingCharles LandryCharles Landry is a speaker and facilitator for the Creative Class Group. He helps cities reach their potential by triggering their imagination and thinking. Working closely with decision makers and local leaders and acting as a critical friend, he inspires, facilitates and stimulates, so cities can transform for the better. Charles helps find original solutions to seemingly intractable urban dilemmas such as marrying innovation and tradition, balancing wealth creation and social cohesiveness, or local distinctiveness and a global orientation. Seen as an international authority on creativity and city futures, Landry focuses on how the culture of a place can invigorate and revitalize the economy, enhancing the sense of self and confidence. In 1978, he founded Comedia, a highly respected European consultancy working in creativity, culture and urban change. Charles has lectured in over 50 countries across the globe and has completed projects in many of these, from the wealthy to those less fortunate, including Australia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Dubai, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Ukraine, USA and Yemen. Charles works collaboratively with clients by participating in and helping to orchestrate events, through shorter and longer term residences, deeper involvement over extended time periods, and by undertaking specific tasks. The work ranges from projects to revitalize public, social and economic life through cultural activity, to visionary city and regional strategies or rethinking assets and potential. Charles Landry has published extensively and his two books on city-making, The Art of City Making (2006) and The Creative City: A toolkit for Urban Innovators (2000), both received widespread acclaim. His most recent book (2008) Intercultural City: Planning for Diversity Advantage was co-written with Phil Wood.
Economic DevelopmentZoltan AcsZoltan J. Acs is a speaker for the Creative Class Group as well as a contributing blogger to the Creative Class Exchange. He is a professor at George Mason School of Public Policy and Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Public Policy. He is also a Research Scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Economics in Jena, Germany and a visiting professor at Imperial College Business School in London. He is coeditor and founder of Small Business Economics, the leading entrepreneurship and small business publication in the world. Previously, he held the position of Doris and Robert McCurdy Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, in the Robert G. Merrick School of Business, University of Baltimore. He has also served as: Research Fellow at the U. S. Bureau of the Census, Chief Economic Advisor at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), Associate Director of Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at the University of Maryland, Research Fellow at the Science Center Berlin, Research Associate at the Institute on Western Europe at Columbia University and Scholar-in-Residence at the Kauffman Foundation. Dr. Acs has held faculty positions at Middlebury College and The University of Illinois-Springfield. Dr. Acs is a leading advocate of the importance of entrepreneurship for economic development. He received the 2001 International Award for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research, on behalf of The Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development. He has published more than 100 articles and 20 books, including articles in the American Economic Review, Review of Economics and Statistics, Kyklos, Journal of Urban Economics, Economica, Research Policy and Science Policy. His most recent book is Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy, Cambridge University Press.
Economics and CreativityAjay AgrawalAjay Agrawal is a speaker and facilitator for the Creative Class Group. He is the Peter Munk Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management where he teaches courses on strategy, creativity, and innovation. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, MA and Director of the Program on Innovation and Creative Industries at the Martin Prosperity Institute. Professor Agrawal has presented his research on the economics of innovation and creativity at a variety of institutions including Harvard University, MIT, Stanford University, and the Federal Reserve Bank. He has testified as an expert witness before the Canadian Copyright Board, authored policy papers for provincial and federal government agencies, and advised organizations in various fields including robotics, digital media, television broadcasting, intellectual property valuation, music performance, software development, wireless, automotive, bio-therapeutics, and pharmaceuticals. Professor Agrawal has been recognized as “Professor of the Year” by the past four consecutive graduating classes of the MBA program at the Rotman School of Management. He holds a Ph.D. in Strategy and Business Economics as well as a Masters in Engineering from the University of British Columbia. Professor Agrawal is currently a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University.
Creative CommunitiesSean Creighton, Ph.DSean Creighton is a speaker and facilitator for the Creative Class Group as well as a regularly contributing blogger to the Creative Class Exchange. He is the Executive Director of the Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education (SOCHE), a regional consortium of colleges and universities dedicated to advancing higher education through cooperation and advancing the region through higher education. Sean has published and presented extensively on such topics as campus-community engagement, building coalitions, collaborative strategies for talent retention, and community-based regional development. More recently, his speaking engagements focus on the creative class, in which he showcases a community-empowerment project (DaytonCREATE) that resulted from working with the Creative Class Group. Sean was the 2008 commencement speaker for Edison Community College and 2009 commencement speaker for Southern State Community College. He is an elected member of the Board of Education for the Yellow Springs School District in Ohio, and currently serves on advisory committees for the Dayton Development Coalition, Midwest Higher Education Compact, and Yellow Springs Community Foundation.
Creative TechnologiesMike DoverMike Dover is a speaker, facilitator and project manager for the Creative Class Group as well as a regularly contributing blogger to the Creative Class Exchange. Technology and business thought leader Mike Dover is responsible for operations, content quality, and client management for $9 million, multi-year research studies on the intersections among technology, business strategy and society at nGenera Insight, where he is Vice President, Research Operations. He is a contributor to many bestselling business books including Wikinomics and Digital Capital. His areas of expertise include mass collaboration, the Net Generation (Gen Y), technology and business models, popular culture, social networking, the blogosphere, Web 2.0, and human capital.
Best CitiesBert SperlingBert Sperling is a speaker and contributing blogger to the Creative Class Exchange. For over 20 years, Bert Sperling has been choosing and identifying the “Best Places to Live.” His work appears regularly in national media, and he is the co-author of the best-selling books, “Cities Ranked and Rated” and “Best Places to Raise Your Family” (Wiley). His web site, www.bestplaces.net, is a resource to millions, and his company provides content and data to national real estate firms and the major Internet search portals. Not surprisingly, a recent New York Times feature on Sperling was titled simply, “The Guy Who Picks the Best Places to Live.” In 1985, Bert Sperling developed a software program named “Places, U.S.A.” which allowed people to enter their personal preferences to find their own best place. BestPlaces.net is a natural extension of our work over the last fifteen years regarding demographics, preferences, and the selection of “Best Places” to live, work, or retire. Sperling's concepts and methodology have been the basis of numerous studies since 1985. Today, Fast Forward, Inc. (the producer of BestPlaces.net) is responsible for more “Best Places” studies and projects than any other single organization.
Creative CommunitiesPeter KageyamaPeter Kageyama is a speaker and facilitator for the Creative Class Group as well as a regularly contributing blogger to the Creative Class Exchange. Peter is a partner with Creative Cities Productions. He provides consulting and development services for the creative economy by focusing on entrepreneurs, arts & culture, cities and technologies that change places. His diverse expertise includes law, technology, music, marketing, video and major event production. He is a regular speaker on the subjects of the creative economy and creative industries. His emphasis is on how to change regions with the tools they have on hand and how to build a sustainable community. Peter was part of the group that first brought Richard Florida to Tampa Bay in 2003 and has worked with Richard Florida and the Creative Class Group since then on a number of projects. Peter is the Founder and Producer of the Creative Cities Summit ; most recently hosted in Detroit, MI. He was formerly the President of Creative Tampa Bay, 2005-07; a not for profit organization dedicated to developing the regional creative economy of Tampa Bay.
Government Renewal and StrategiesDavid EavesDavid Eaves is a speaker and facilitator for the Creative Class Group as well as a regularly contributing blogger to the Creative Class Exchange. A fellow at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, David writes, speaks, and consults on negotiating, collaborative and open source systems, government renewal, and public policy. He has helped develop negotiation and collaborative strategies with leading organizations in North America, Europe, and Africa in a range of industries such as financial services, health care, information technology, energy, and telecommunications, as well as with community groups, environmental NGOs, and government agencies. David is interested in how networks and open systems are transforming the way people, institutions, and cities organize themselves as well as how we will manage this transition. A resident of Vancouver, British Columbia, David completed a bachelor of arts in history at Queen’s University and a master’s of international relations at Oxford.
Creative CommunicationStuart MeaseStuart Mease is a speaker and facilitator for the Creative Class Group. Mease’s (MBA, Virginia Tech) primary focus is “connecting people” to create mutually beneficial relationships. His “Connecting People” blog provides a bridge of communication between the isolated Generation X and Y in the Roanoke and New River Valleys to Baby Boomers and Traditionalists about issues related to economic development. It has generated a loyal following and led to a weekly video blog called “Connecting People in the RNR” on Handshake20.com. He has presented keynote speeches on areas related to his core expertise (e.g., career development, personal networking, and workforce development) to over 150 diverse audiences in the private, educational and government sectors. He has also served as an adjunct professor in the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech. Mease previously worked for the City of Roanoke, Virginia to create programs and events aimed at attracting and retaining the creative class workforce for the RNR (Roanoke and New River Valleys) region. These activities have been uniquely recognized by over 125 local, state and national media exposures. Additionally, Mease has been asked to speak over 75 times to audiences about these programs, including the International Economic Development Council annual conference in 2008.
The Creative ClassSteven PedigoSteven Pedigo serves as the Director of Research and Communities for the Creative Class Group, a global think tank comprised of leading researchers, academics and strategists. In this role, he provides cutting-edge analysis of global economic and demographic trends to Fortune 100 companies and major media outlets. Steven collaborates with expert researchers to develop consumer and innovation measurements for clients such as BMW, FedEX, IBM, Dewar’s, Fast Companyand Kiplinger’s Magazine. Steven is also responsible for managing the Creative Class Leadership Program, a worldwide community engagement program. He has successfully launched these programs in numerous U.S. and international communities from El Paso, TX; to Vancouver, BC, and Noosa, Australia. In addition to his work with the Creative Class Group, Steven oversees communications and content strategy for the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), a national think tank and advocacy organization that encourages private sector investment into U.S. urban centers. Prior to joining the Creative Class Group and ICIC, Steven was Vice-President for Business Attraction and Research for Greenlight Greater Portland, a regional economic development organization for the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan region. Steven started his career in economic development as the Director of Research for the Greater Washington Initiative (GWI), a regional marketing organization for the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. As researcher and writer, Steven’s work has been featured in such publications as The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Dallas Morning News. Steven holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at Austin and graduate degrees from the H. John Heinz III School for Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.