Author Richard Florida will be the speaker at the Presidential Lecture and Performance Series on Friday.
Florida is the bestselling author of “Who’s Your City?” and “The Rise of the Creative Class.” Florida, the director of Martin Prosperity Institute at the Roman School of Management at the University of Toronto, founded the Creative Class Group, which is expected to create more than 100 million jobs in the next decade.
Steven Pedigo, a Creative Class Group speaker and facilitator, described the impact of the Creative Class as the core of economic growth in our future economy.
“The Creative Class is on 30 percent of the workforce,” he said, “yet, it is crucial to the economic growth.”
Jo Moore, administrator of the Presidential Lecture and Performance Series, said she is thrilled to have Florida visit the Tech campus and the community of Lubbock because his theories will impact them.
“He has worked with communities all around the world to help lead them to economic prosperity,” Moore said. “He really talks about what to do to increase business in the community.”
Many city leaders, including the mayor, and the Lubbock Economic Development Alliance will be in attendance to hear Florida’s ideas on how to make Lubbock a more appealing place for students to reside after college.
“Richard’s really going to stress to the students the importance of place, where you live,” Pedigo said. “Where a person lives really affects every other aspect in their life.”
Florida’s theories of the Creative Class are taught all across campus, including in the Department of Theatre and Dance and the College of Architecture.
“He is very visionary,” Moore said, “He talks about the future and what he sees happening globally.”
The Presidential Lecture and Performance Series strives to inform, engage and entertain, not only students, but also the Lubbock community, she said.
“He is an academic, whose ideas are very progressive,” Moore said. “It’s a chance for students to hear a world-class speaker, that they may not have had the chance, otherwise.”
Florida will have a book signing immediately following the lecture, and copies of his books will be available for purchase.
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