Vision to Reality: The Reut Blog

Richard Florida has an interesting article about what he terms the ‘Creative Class’ or ‘Why cities without gays and rock bands are losing the economic development race.’ Just like in the corporate world, places that succeed in attracting and retaining creative class people prosper; those that fail don’t.

Could the creative class be the key to Israel leapfrogging?

The Creative Class is a fast-growing, highly educated and well-paid segment of the workforce who do a wide variety of work in a wide variety of industries. Their members engage in work whose function is to “create meaningful new forms” and share a common ethos that values creativity, individuality, difference, and merit.

According to Florida, the key to future Economic Growth is to (1) Attract the Creative Class by forming ‘Plug and Play’ communities which facilitate openness and diversity and accept newcomers quickly and (2) Translate advantages it into creative economic outcomes in the form of new ideas, new high-tech businesses and regional growth.

Similar to Tom Friedman’s speech at the Conference, the future is a right brained world (the creative side) based around countries that nurture and enable individual imagination.

Could the Creative Class is the key to Israel leapfrogging (and creating new ‘product space’).

What can Israel do to attract this class (or get them to stay here rather than move to California)?