Our nearby friends in Roanoke, VA, have discovered the "creative class" and are working aggressively to build their community to attract and retain talent in their region:
In November, the board of directors for the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership announced new attraction strategies aligned in meaningful ways with Florida's work.
Industrial and commercial recruitment of new businesses and support for existing businesses -- its historic backbone -- became just one of four strategies designed to boost the region's sluggish population growth.
...."The world is changing at breakneck speed," she said. "We have to reach people who choose where to live before they look for a job." The alternative, she said, is continuing to do the same thing while expecting different results.
Today in Roanoke they are holding their own "Create WV" style conference.
Columbus, Pittsburgh, Kentucky....All are very conscious of the absolute critical need to be able to build their new economy and to attract the highly educated and creative talent required for it to thrive. What does that mean for West Virginia? Can we compete?
We think so. Partially because West Virginia has our own unique assets that we can nurture and develop. All "creative communities" don't need to be the same; in fact, it's better if they aren't. Do we really need a Starbucks on every corner, or would it be more interesting to create our own unique "third place" tradition?
We also think we can thrive in this world because creativity isn't finite. If we embrace innovation, entrepreneurship and creative thinking, we can create new value vs. trying to compete for table scraps from existing industry. It's a different mindset. Our future depends on developing that creative mindset as quickly as we can.
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