In Japan, there are many academics that point to the lack of further economic frontiers, and how advanced economies are no longer able to grow the real economy. Japan’s Liberty Magazine interviews Richard Florida on his views of the econonomic impact of creativity, the “creative class”, and what kind of education is needed to harness the power of creativity.
The Globe and Mail has asked prominent urbanists, architects and scholars to tell us what things Canada’s mayors should be considering: the tools, policies and ideals that will build the city of the 21st century.
To explore what paths cities should forge in their 21st-century endeavors, The Brooklyn Quarterly‘s staffers and editors polled prominent experts on urban renewal, whose backgrounds range from public office to journalism to academia. We asked them: what one thing can change cities for the better in one generation? Their responses may foretell the future for many American cities.
Rana Florida believes that world peace can be achieved through two simple things; education and opportunity.
So much energy and space goes to waste after quitting time. 10 unconventional ideas for putting your office’s off hours to use.
FIU and the Creative Class Group (CCG) founded by Richard Florida have joined forces to launch the FIU-Miami Creative City Initiative a project to harness creative and entrepreneurial forces that can help accelerate greater Miami’s transformation into a creative economy. The FIU-Miami Creative City Initiative will engage political business and cultural leaders faculty students alumni and the greater community in a dialogue on how creativity culture and design can drive a regional economy.
Florida International University will work with bestselling author Richard Florida to research and start a discussion to help boost Miami jobs in art, design and other creative fields.
In this op-ed Richard Florida examines the significant economic division between conservative “red states” and liberal “blue states.”
Skip the gift cards. What your employees really want from you is to stress less.
Richard Florida Interview with Spanish digital magazine about technology and innovation, FUNDETEC.
America’s great divide is not between poor cities and affluent suburbs; its great metropolitan areas are patchworks of concentrated advantage and concentrated disadvantage that stretch across both. Some of its suburbs are thriving; others are in a steep decline. In this new, fractured and divvied metropolitan geography, the traditional juxtaposition between “urban” and suburban” has lost much of its meaning.
An ever-growing group of
Americans is proving vital to
our society. Its members are
educated, employed in a variety
of industries, and engaged in a
lifestyle that values individuality,
originality, and participation.
They’re steadfast in their
goals, resolute in their attitudes
and ideals, and just plain happy
with the paths they’ve decided
to follow-so much so that
they are reshaping commerce
and communities.They are the “Creative Class”.
As the election night map reminds us, Toronto remains a deeply divided city.
Acknowledging these problems is a step in the right direction, but it will take more than words to remedy these deep divides. Richard Florida weighs in.
America’s future can be even better than its past. But the key to getting there — to reigniting innovation, spurring long run prosperity and rebuilding our sagging middle class — lies in strengthening and empowering our system of cities, our greatest asset of all.
The world’s most innovative and creative organizations should be dreaming up new ways to establish a better work-life balance for all their employees. Instead of holding out a carrot on a stick for would-be mothers, they should be establishing best practices to keep them engaged, productive, and excited about work while they raise their families.
About 500,000 new U.S. companies are launched every month with over 11 million entrepreneurs. But how many are successful under the age of 10? Well, you’ve heard the saying “It’s never too late.” but for this trio of kidpreneurs, “It’s never too early!”
During your Caribbean Cruise, you may dream of living in paradise, of packing it all up and escaping to the islands. While that’s a great fantasy, the reality of trying to make a living makes it less attractive. But there’s always Miami. No, really, Miami. It’s a great place to live. Just ask Richard and Rana Florida, the power couple behind the Creative Class Group.
Most people think a Great Idea — a breakthrough discovery, a killer app — will make them wealthy beyond their dreams. But successful entrepreneurs know that Great Ideas are a dime a dozen. True success lies in the execution. Given the choice between a great idea and a limited execution team or a mediocre idea and a brilliant execution team, most great business leaders would choose the latter.
In the interview with the Audi Urban Future Initiative Richard Florida talks about the future of cities and cars and outlines his ideal mobility scenario.
Just as our cities and urban centers are reviving, their growing class divisions threaten their further development in new and even more vexing ways.
Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung NZZ, Real Estate Days interview with Richard Florida on how can cities position themselves successfully?
HGTV.ca hostess extraordinaire Rana Florida shows you how to pull off a Halloween party practically overnight.
Cities are not declining — many are even coming back. The past decade has witnessed an unforeseen rebirth in urban America, according to the newly released figures from the 2000 Census.
The end of October is a beautiful time of year, when the air is crisp and the foliage is at its spectacular peak. I can’t think of a better time to gather with friends around a roaring fire.
The notion of failing forward is key to success. From every failure lessons are learned, things are tweaked and fine-tuned.
Renowned urbanist Richard Florida sat down with The Tyee’s Geoff Dembicki for a conversation about whether ‘creatives’ are driving the new economy or falling behind.
Vancouver is growing more divided as blue collar workers are priced out of the urban core, says author
Richard Florida chats about Karl
Kautsky, Karl Marx, and other urban
creative types.
While other celebrities have been content to shill for products, offering themselves as endorsers, Lady Gaga is taking the reins and stamping her indelible mark on said products.
Working mothers (and fathers) are making significant contributions to the U.S. economy and the companies that employ them, but they are doing so without the support that they need. Flex-time and other pro-family policies are not simply a “nice” thing that businesses can do for their employees. They make business sense too, as they reduce employee turnover.
The Martin Prosperity Institute, urban guru Richard Florida’s think tank, released a report full of maps offering a new lens to look at cities through. “The Divided City and the Shape of the New Metropolis” uses census data to highlight residential neighborhoods in U.S. by class.
San Francisco is one of the most innovative and creative places on the planet. But the very forces that are making San Francisco boom are also dividing it.
A new analysis from Richard Florida on how the creative class is dividing cities.
A new report released today by Richard Florida and the Martin Prosperity Institute (MPI) at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, finds America’s cities and metro areas to be strikingly divided by class. The report, released to the City Lab Conference of Mayors and City Leaders in Los Angeles, maps the stark class divisions within 12 of America’s largest cities and metro areas. Americans, it finds, are not only separated by income and race, but by socio-economic class.
Fashion and politics may be strange bedfellows, but they definitely go together. Rana Florida interviews Shauna Levy, the President of the Design Exchange and Frank Toskan, co-founder of MAC Cosmetics and talks about the Design Exchange annual party.
Two of its leading prophets, Richard Florida and Ray Kurzweil, to give their definition at the Simon Frser University, Vancouver Oct. 22 event.
The reality is that incentives play little if any role in companies’ location decisions, which are based on more fundamental factors like labor costs, the quality of the workforce, proximity to markets and access to suppliers.
As summer slipped away this week, the air is crisp and the leaves are falling, it’s the perfect time of year to entertain at home with friends over some hearty and delicious comfort foods.
Entertaining doesn’t have to be timely, expensive or fancy. Here are 10 tips to keep it simple yet sophisticated this season. And watch Creative Entertaining: Dinner at the Farm for more suggestions.
Knight Cities Challenge offers applicants a chance to share in $5 million by focusing on the question: “What’s your best idea to make cities more successful?” The contest will test the most innovative ideas in talent, opportunity and engagement in one or more of 26 Knight Foundation communities. Richard Florida writes about talent as a driver of city success.
‘Job creators’ wring tax breaks from states at the expense of everyone else.
Bands and startups have a lot in common. Sleepless nights, fueled on caffeine and adrenaline, they both have a lot at stake and chances are they’ve sacrificed a lot to get to where they are. Success in a hyper competitive marketplace relies on a number of strategic factors. Here are 15 simple tips to ensure your startup is a number one hit.
Rana wants to upgrade you. As CEO of The Creative Class Group and author of the best-seller “Upgrade, Taking Your Work and Life from Ordinary to Extraordinary“, Rana Florida knows how to pump originality into the every day. She’s upgraded business development, marketing and global operations for the likes of BMW, Converse and Johnson & Johnson. Today she shares 8 things that make her smarter, from jet-setting iPhone apps to her favorite wireless gadgets.
Virtually all of the published research on the subject shows that most economic development incentives are a senseless waste of taxpayer money. My own analysis found no connection between incentive dollars spent per capita and such measures of economic success as wages, incomes, human capital levels or unemployment.It’s time to put an end to incentive madness once and for all.
As CEO of the consulting firm Creative Class Group and author, Rana Florida thinks outside the business attire box.
Starting with just $150,000 in venture capital and a $50,000 line of credit, Warby Parker has emerged as a fashion giant, selling over a million pairs of designer eyeglasses. More than that, it’s made the world a better place, donating an equal number of eyeglasses to needy people in the developing world while maintaining a net zero carbon footprint — and earning a substantial profit for its investors. I sat down with co-founders Neil Blumenthal and David Gilboa in their New York headquarters and talked to them about start-ups, risk-taking, collaboration, creativity, and entrepreneurialism.
If you are afraid to ask for a raise, you are not alone. Most people, no matter how self-confident they are, feel quite anxious about this issue. But good work should be rewarded and most companies know that great talent is hard to come by and turn over costs are expensive. If you’re doing an outstanding job, your bosses will do what it takes to keep you. All that you need is a plan. Here’s one you can carry out in ten easy steps.
Richard Florida’s The Creative Class and Economic Development most read article during July 2014.
The Creative Class video series celebrates innovative creators across disciplines. This week features Bob Ezrin, one of the most commercially successful producers of all time. He’s worked with many of the world’s most important contemporary artists including: Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper, U2, Peter Gabriel, Deep Purple, KISS, Jay-Z, Julian Lennon, Nine Inch Nails, Taylor Swift, K’naan, will.i.am, Elton John, Lou Reed, Rod Stewart and many others.
”The Creativity index appeared to be one of the best metrics to understand sales performance at Cirque. And correlation are strong, therefor we will be now using this metric to anticipate sales performance and better forecast.
Alexandre AlleMarket Insight Advisor, Cirque du Soleil
