 |
|
Date Posted: 12/19/2003
ASHEVILLE, NC - The Blue Ridge Entrepreneurial Council (BREC), AdvantageWest, the Asheville Chamber of Commerce's Information Technology Council, BB&T and a private donor hosted the world premiere of the documentary film, "The Rise of the Creative Class," at the Orange Peel in Asheville on December 18th. The film's creator and producer, Giuli Dummit, was on-hand for the event, which drew more than 300 people.
The film focuses on Dr. Richard Florida, noted economist at based Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa., Brookings Institute Fellow and author of the bestselling book, The Rise of the Creative Class.
The Rise of the Creative Class promotes the theory that economic regions have to retain, attract, engage and empower the most creative and talented people to create jobs in the knowledge based economy. Florida concentrates on the 4 T's of a region: Technology, Talent, Tolerance and Territorial Assets. (See more information at www.creativeclass.org).
Florida emphasizes the sense of urgency by pointing out that the huge baby boomer generation will begin to retire in the year 2010. Cities need to be proactive today to retain and attract the much smaller 24-35 year old generation, which is less than half of the size of the baby boomers. Florida cites his current hometown of Pittsburgh, Penn. Despite excellent levels of education and technology, Pittsburgh has had a significant population decline for several decades. Lycos, a powerful search engine company, is the example used most. Started by some Carnegie Mellon students in Pittsburgh, it soon moved to Boston where there were more available talented workers. These workers were attracted to Boston's culture and quality of life. According to Florida, there are over 33 million Americans involved in Creative Class jobs.
In May 2003, Professor Florida convened a conference in Memphis, Tenn.. of The 100 Creatives, selected from over 400 nominations from several states and countries. Blue Ridge Entrepreneurial Council's Executive Director, Jim Roberts, was selected to participate after meeting Richard Florida in Austin at the South by Southwest Conference. The participants of the conference in Memphis created a three page report about people who seek creative infrastructure. Richard Florida then discussed the findings at the Annual Conference of Mayors in Denver. (See more about the report at www.memphismanifesto.com)
Richard Florida and his staff at Catalytix have been hired by organizations in North Carolina more than any other state. BREC's Jim Roberts said; "Our state is hungry for job creation and staying ahead of the curve in the nationwide and worldwide competition to help our citizens. The hottest discussion topic in western North Carolina is jobs. The Creative Class jobs have great salaries and challenge the minds of the workers to innovate everyday. In Asheville and western North Carolina, we have the Creative Class and we are working on the business and technology infrastructure to help them be more successful." According to the Richard Florida Innovation Index, Asheville has more patents per capita than Charlotte and Greensboro.
The film's producer, Giuli (Julie) Dummit is a citizen of Winston Salem, N.C. and partner in FilmHouse Productions. The film has been seen in very rough format at a recent film conference in San Diego, but this event will be the premiere of the finished film. Copies of the DVD will be available for sale after the event.
The premier was attended by more than 300 people from across western North Carolina, and as far away as Atlanta, Charleston and Johnson City, Tennessee.
BREC is patterned closely after the Research Triangle Park's Council for Entrepreneurial Development, and serves four essential roles; education of entrepreneurs, mentoring and networking, communications, and capital formation.
Back
| |
