By Lynn Welch
November 21, 2002
Chris Kelly can see why young professionals leave
Madison to live and work in other cities like Chicago.
There's little, at times, to keep someone like himself from migrating
to a place that has more to offer in terms of appealing entertainment and
other amenities, and more affordable urban housing.
Kelly
lives downtown in the Bassett neighborhood and works as vice
president for premium services at My Weather, a Madison weather technology
service firm. And he's among the people here labeled the "Creative Class"
by Richard Florida, a Carnegie Mellon University professor and author of
the acclaimed "The Rise of the Creative Class."
In Madison to
speak at Downtown Madison Inc.'s annual dinner, Florida
shared his observations Wednesday before Kelly and a smaller group representing
sectors of Madison's creative class.
The discussion, "Live
First, Work Second: How to attract and keep
tomorrow's workers in the Madison area," explored the challenges Madison
faces in tough economic times maintaining its status as a good place to live
and work.
The discussion comes at a time of state budget
deficits and a continued
technology sector downturn that has cut exhibits in half this week at the
annual ITEC business-to-business technology trade show here.
In his book, Florida ranked Madison No. 1 among small cities
in his
creativity index, which ranks the top places where the most creative people
live.
Chicago also ranks high in the index, 16th among all
cities compared to Madison's 20th overall ranking.
But Florida said Madison does pretty well in the brain-drain battle.
The city ranks second best in the country at retaining its young professionals
in a national index of college towns. Only Boulder, Colo., outranks Madison
at retaining young people among cities with large universities.
Florida said Madison could be among the top 10 cities in his
creativity
index by working to retain creative talent, encouraging dissent, promoting
diversity and better melding the university and city.
"As an
outsider, I see Madison as the third largest creative corridor
in the country," he explained, encouraging positioning of the
triangle encompassing
Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison.
What does Madison need to do
to sustain and improve its status among these desirable creatives?
Attendees targeted measures such as improving the city's transportation
infrastructure with the East Rail Corridor project and creating a branding
strategy.
But for Sonic Foundry Chairman and CEO Rimas
Buinevicius it means keeping workers in tough economic times.
Attracting talented workers to the Madison digital media software
solutions firm during the boom times in the late 1990s was not that difficult
with a too-cool reputation and perks like free soda and
massages, Buinevicius said. But what keeps workers
here now?
"It's not the money. It's not the options, which are worth near nothing.
We're about 50 percent off our employment peak," Buinevicius said. "One common
thread we find in recruiting people, they're a classic Big Ten
engineer recruited
by Microsoft or Intel, but they just want to be back in the Midwest."
Buinevicius said the resilient, stick-to-it nature of
Midwesterners
is what keeps workers here and gives Madison a "good fighting chance" against
places like Boston and Silicon Valley during tight times.
Venture Investors CEO and President Roger Ganser noted that
new groups
like Accelerate Madison have sprung up to help energize the
technology community
here. Ganser serves as board president of the two-year-old
information technology
professional group.
He also said it's an obligation to invest
in the arts, not only on a corporate level but on an
individual level.
It builds the kind of community that made it possible for Wendy Cooper
to open a contemporary art gallery on East Johnston Street in 1999 and show
emerging art in the upper Midwest.
It also builds a university
that's growing in diversity.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John Wiley said the most
difficult part of attracting faculty to the Madison campus is not the bad
weather of the upper Midwest, but spousal or partner job placement.
Still, Wiley noted improvement in the long process of creating
a
campus with a diverse faculty. More women and racial minorities are being
hired at UW-Madison than ever before.
"We welcome Professor
Florida's book. We've felt for a long time
on campus that having a creative environment is key to attracting faculty,"
Wiley said, saying that he hopes the university can revitalize the lower
campus and build up an arts and humanities district on campus in the next
10 years.
Published: 10:00 AM 11/21/02 by the Capital Times
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