Dr. Richard Florida, Keynote Speaker

Richard Florida is one of the world’s leading public intellectuals. Esquire Magazine recently named him one of the “Best and Brightest”. He is author of the national and international best-selling book, The Rise of the Creative Class, which received the Washington Monthly’s Political Book Award and was cited as a major breakthrough idea by the Harvard Business Review. His ideas have been featured in major ad campaigns, such as BMW, and are being used globally to change the way regions, nations and companies compete.

He is founder of the Creative Class Group, an advisory services firm, charting new trends in business and community.

Richard is a regular correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly and a regular columnist with The Globe and Mail newspaper. He has written numerous articles for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, The Boston Globe and the Financial Times. His new book, Who’s Your City? has been hailed a National Best-Seller, an International Best-Seller and Amazon Book of the Month.

Richard has also been recently named European Ambassador for Creativity and Innovation.

He is Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute and Professor of Business and Creativity at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Previously, Florida held professorships at Carnegie Mellon University, a visiting professor at Harvard and MIT, and a visiting fellow of the Brookings Institution. Florida earned his bachelor of arts degree from Rutgers College and his PhD from Columbia University.