Yes, it is official – the funds have been raised and Dr. Richard Florida’s Creative Class Group will be coming to Dayton to work with thirty community catalysts who will be selected over the next few weeks.
Leaders sought to be catalysts in region’s creative class initiative
Dayton Daily News
January 20, 2007
The money is raised, the consultant is hired and Richard Florida
himself will be here in March to train Daytonians on how to build and
sustain "creative class" growth here in the Miami Valley.The Creative Region Initiative, the moniker given to the local
effort begun a year ago by the Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher
Education and a task force of 20 community groups, kicks off today with
a call for 30 volunteers to be trained by Florida’s consulting company,
the Creative Class Group.
It is obvious that this effort will continue to have skeptics, especially in a town that seems to have never met a consultant it wouldn’t throw a bunch of money to for a study that says what everybody already knows or whose advice ultimately isn’t followed (the recent $100k study by KMK Consulting comes to mind). But unlike those past consulting efforts, I believe this one is different. Instead of outsiders that come into town, poll a few people, write some fancy report , collect their paycheck and then leave town – this effort is managed and implemented by us. Us as in we who live in this community and are likely already working towards making our community better. Florida’s Creative Class Group simply lays out the road map; it is up to those of us who become community catalysts to do the real work. And by doing that real work ourselves, we stand a much better chance at developing a successful and sustainable plan for growing our city and region – and especially our urban core… because after all, it is the urban core that the creative class typically gravitates to.
This of course is how I understand it; since I have not yet been a part of this whole process I really can’t speak with authority on how it works. I invite those of you who have been involved since the beginning to comment here and give any additional details that you may have. And look for MostMetro.com to play a role in this Creative Region Initiative in the near future…
Additional Links:
Creative Class on MostMetro.com (with NPR/Richard Florida interview)
More Creative Class on MostMetro.com
SOCHE Website
Creative Class Group
Richard Florida’s Blog on Dayton
Daytonology’s Creative Class in Dayton Analysis
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