The Creative Communities Blog is pleased to present a guest blog by Dan Taylor, Economic Development Officer, Prince Edward County.

Betsy Donald, an Associate Professor of Geography at Queen’s University, is well known for her work on the Creative/Food Economy. One of the challenges or problems with the Creative Economy label is it is often misunderstood or worse seen as either controversial or negative.

While I personally like and embrace the label and believe that I have a fairly good understanding of the Creative Economy, I am not keen on controversial labels that require stakeholder and public support.

In the past two meetings I have been in with Betsy, she has introduced the idea of the Opportunity Economy. If I understand correctly, she is suggesting that the Opportunity Economy is another label for the way the Creative Economy is being defined. What’s not to like about that? It is certainly a fantastic way to open economic development dialogue and introduce the notion of the Creative Economy.

In another meeting I had with Kevin Stolarick, the official statistician of the Creative Class, he indicated that he and Richard Florida, both of the Martin Prosperity Institute, distill the notion of the Creative Economy to one word: prosperity.

I am working with Kevin and a group of provincial economic development stakeholders to define the Creative Economy for economic development purposes.  The main objectives are to build buy-in from local community stakeholders, politicians, and senior administration and to develop support for economic developers and provincial ministry decision makers who promote Creative Economy activity.

We have started with a sound bite: “The Creative Economy is about opportunity, innovation and prosperity.” There is more to come, but I think this one-line conversation starter gets us off to a good start.

No matter what you call this shift, opportunity is knocking with a new, innovative, creative-thinking and collaborative movement in economic development.

Let’s keep the conversation going… any thoughts or comments you care to share on this topic?  Feel free to leave a comment here, or contact me:

My Blog: http://dantaylorcre.tumblr.com
Twitter: @dantaylorinc
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