Sunday, September 22, 2002
EDPros are going to start to hear more about "talent magnet strategies". This idea has been developed and promoted by Richard Florida at Carnegie Mellon University. He summarizes his thinking in his book, The Rise of the Creative Class.
Memphis is one of the first communities to sieze on this approach as an economic development strategy. You can download their "talent magnet" report. Go Memphis business leaders surveyed by the Chamber overwhelmingly support this approach.
Florida is pushing this notion as well through his own web site. There, you can see how metro areas rank. Go
Effective EDPros need both to think comprehensively and to act incrementally. Florida is a good comprehensive thinker, but he does not provide enough practical hooks yet to guide us in acting incrementally. (Hopefully, these will follow in his subsequent work.) Instead, he relies on simplistic formulas. He tells communities that they need three "T's": technology, talent and tolerance. OK. What's next?
Some Background on EDPro Weblog
The purpose of this weblog is to help economic development professionals -- EDPros -- keep up with the changes sweeping our profession. Strap on your goggles. It's a whole new game. There are no experts any more. The only place to learn about economic development is from other EDPros who are doing it.
One other point: the prevaling approach (paradigm, if you like) in economic development is shifting from competition to collaboration. There are a lot of reaasons underlying this shift, but here's the important insight: You, your community, and your region will do better by collaborating and sharing information.
If you are using a news reader, here is the link to syndicate this site:
Here's the link if you are a bloglines subscriber:
Speaking and workshops on Open Source Economic Development
As the idea of Open Source Economic Development starts spreading, more people are asking about it. Visit the I-Open web site to learn more. My colleagues and I are happy to explain the basic concepts in a talk or a workshop. E-mail Susan Alshuler if you'd like to learn more about workshops and speaking.
Background on Ed Morrison
Download some background information on me here.
Talent magnet strategies
