When you get a group of economic development professionals together with a leading scholar on the subject, you're bound to get insider jargon. Lots of talk about "externalities," "value-added jobs" and such. But round the discussion out with some city officials, arts and cultural representatives, builders and corporate bigwigs, and the term "economic development" becomes a little more accessible. Cool, even.
 
    Especially with Richard Florida at the table. The international economic guru and author of "The Rise of the Creative Class" was the star of a round-table discussion at the Metro restaurant on June 22, with an attendee list that included Roanoke City Manager Darlene Burcham, Art Museum of Western Virginia Executive Director Georganne Bingham and Roanoke Gas Co. chief executive John Williamson.

    Florida, who argues that creativity is the ultimate source of economic growth, was here as the keynote speaker at Downtown Roanoke Inc.'s annual dinner at the Hotel Roanoke. But the Roanoke city-sponsored round-table discussion is where Florida could really get into the nitty-gritty of the region's future.
 
    Here are some straight-from-the-source highlights of the two-hour brainstorming session. (All quotes are from Florida unless otherwise noted.) 

   On higher education

   "Clearly to have an institution of the quality of Virginia Tech in your very back yard is absolutely critical to your future."

   "We're going to grow jobs in cosmetology, hair cutting, personal services. If you're concerned about outsourcing, you cannot outsource the person who waxes your eyebrows ... That means that there's an enormous opportunity to use community colleges to begin to transform and professionalize that work to provide business assistance and entrepreneurial assistance to people who want to open hair salons, massage and spa services ... There's an enormous entrepreneurial side to the service sector and one thing you may want to think about is how you use the intersection of your higher education and community colleges to improve those jobs."

    "What do students want? They don't want classroom learning. They want experiential learning. They want to be working alongside [entrepreneurs]. They want to be working in communities, they want to be working in technology startups . Remember when Blacksburg became the wired city and the buzz you got for that? Imagine if you took that idea of a wired [city] and you extended that out to wiring people into this experience ... Young people today think more like you do now than we did when we were their age. They are much more serious about designing that package of experiences and much more mature about what they want. If you could provide that, you would just go gangbusters."

    On tolerance 

    "People are willing to spend a lot of money to be themselves. ... The worst feeling in the world is when you can't be yourself. And when you feel scared to be yourself. And really that's what my book is saying is that's what it's all about. All these other things are signals - whether it's a nice downtown or great art and culture, great ultimate Frisbee - they're all signals of a place that allows you to be you." 

The Roanoke Times 
Publisher
Wendy Zomparelli: 
    "One of Roanoke's great strengths is sort of the cohesiveness of the community and the traditions and the roots that people have here. But the defect of that virtue is tremendous discomfort with otherness in terms of other kinds of people, tremendous discomfort with change. And we see this play out every day in the letters to the editor in the newspaper, people expressing opinions that are sometimes xenophobic. ... I think one of the things that's going to be an immediate task for us is to try to make people more comfortable with the notion that otherness actually enhances the quality of life. ... I'm oversimplifying hugely, but I really think working on some of the attitudes about difference, diversity, tolerance, whatever you want to call it - to me that's kind of job one right now." 

    On entrepreneurship

    "Advocate entrepreneurial training for working artists and musicians ... Imagine if we took a little bit of that entrepreneurial training - I know it sounds almost far-fetched - and started training some of these local bands. Consider it a venture investment. If you're going to make this investment in their careers, take a small royalty ... If you're going to make investments in artists and musicians, who knows, if one of them becomes big, you have a 1 or 2 percent royalty stake that could help regenerate the fund."

    "Entrepreneurs don't go to business school. The people who go to business school are the people who are looking for a job. [Entrepreneurs are] the people in community college, people who were dropping out, people in technical schools, people in arts programs - people that have a drive."

    Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce President Beth Doughty: 
    "It's much more complicated than teaching entrepreneurship. It's instilling a culture that encourages it, nurtures it, promotes it, and that's the challenge."

    On the arts

       "The cultural institutions have to begin to think differently. There's no reason that the symphony has to play in the symphony hall all the time. I'll pay money to go see them here [the Metro] and drink some good wine with my friends. Why are we locked into this traditional view?"

    "If you could promote this place as a place young visual artists could come - like Austin did with its music scene - and show their stuff and have a market, you will get people with vans and pickup trucks with their art and sculpture because they just want to show it."  

    "[In Pittsburgh] we partnered artists, musicians and architects with our wonderful community development corporations. We took a block of the most devastated neighborhood in town and we partnered architects and artists. We said, you're going to get stores and buildings. And the only obligation is you pay your zero-interest loan or whatever you get, is that you make your venue - your gallery - community accessible and you run some kind of education program. ... It's been a fabulous success."  

    Roanoke Arts Commission Chairman Mark McConnel: 
    "Maybe the city creates a slush fund so when someone comes up with a really cool idea, we give them a grant and let them do their thing. This goes back to the issue of teaching entrepreneurial skills. A lot of these people, it's almost an anathema to them. You know, the Man and the money and the institutions, it stifles their creativity. We need to promote individual entrepreneurship and support these little things like the 'Stick to Your Guns' [art show] and aerial ballet."  

    On strategy

      "There are huge advantages to size in the creative economy. ... That said, there are things smaller metros can do. I think it's emphasizing this quality of life, emphasizing cost advantages. ... If you look at the differentiating factor in smaller metros, the really key factor is how open they have been to foreign-born people. It's the number one factor."

      "What they are doing in Providence [Rhode Island] now is taking the campus-based colleges and universities and attracting units into the urban corridor. Instead of having to build new dorms, use old motels. Instead of having to build new classroom facilities, use old department stores. Why is that useful? One, it gets adaptive reuse and downtown revitalization. But two, it brings young students and continuing students who aren't on a strict 9-to-5 schedule, so it creates an energy in an urban corridor and helps to create that buzz and excitement."

      "There is this clamoring on the part of people to really come and connect to your town. Actually, there's a great strategy. If you could actually find ways to not only attract people but let them become part of the change process. That is a marketing coup. Because there are so many of these people around the country that are looking not only to find a great job and a great place to live, but a place where they can make a difference."

      What makes him  go 'Wow':

     • The Fifth Planning District Regional Alliance's regional economic strategy. Chairman Victor Iannello presented a summary of the action plan that was unveiled two years ago, which addresses the region's branding process, quality of life and transportation and entrepreneurial initiatives.

    Florida: "You certainly have two years down the right road. It's not like you've done what some other cities who will remain nameless have done, which is go off on the complete wrong track and then have to steer the ship back on course ... The question is how do you move forward, what do you prioritize?"

    • The Metro restaurant and the Hotel Roanoke. At the round-table discussion, Florida said he judges cities by his experiences at their hotels and restaurants. After exchanging his suit for a wristband, jeans and a black shirt, Florida headed back to the Metro to hang out. He said he was favorably impressed by both the restaurant and hotel.

    • The C2C home design and construction competition ( c2c-home.org). Nationally prominent jurors will judge designs using the new standards of sustainability set up in "Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things." The winning designs will then be built in Roanoke in May 2005.

    Florida: "This is huge. I used to go around, town to town, saying, 'You know how everybody wants to do cows? Imagine if you did houses instead.' And you've done it."