The Rise of the Creative Class

You probably heard his name before.

He wrote The Rise of the Creative Class.

I took one class from Richard and then from there, just my passion for cities really grew.

He and I built a relationship, ended up joining his research team.

And so, you know, and, and his work has been criticized, um, obviously from, you know, some of the externalities it creates.

And I think Austin's kind of the poster child for that, which is what, you know, Florida, let's just step back and let me frame this up as a professor for a second, right? Please.

So Florida basically in early kind of 2000, basically in the rise of the creative class says, look, You know, to be a really innovative, to be a really innovative, creative city, you got to have kind of three things that matter, right? He makes an argument that one, you've got to create, you've got to kind of create an innovation culture and you've got to have an anchor institution to do that.

Anchor institution, meaning kind of these universities or large scale research institutions to do that.

Richard Florida is a leading urbanist and founder of the global advisory firm Creative Class Group.

Since his 2002 book, The Rise of the Creative Class, Richard has been waxing lyrical about the idea that economic growth comes down to attracting the right type of talent.

Monocle's editorial director, Tyler Brulé, joined me in our pop-up studio to quiz Richard on how the concepts he outlined in his book about the creative class have evolved over the decades.

So we're here at the LiveX Forum, and we're listening to the opening remarks, all of us.