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Peter Kageyama at Global Village on the Move, Perth, Australia
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Report from Australia
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Charles Landry Tour
SMG coordinated Charles Landry's recent tour of the U.S.              Full Story

Peter Kageyama, elected 2005 President of Creative Tampa Bay
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Richard Florida in Melbourne, Australia
March 16, 2004

From left, Paul Houghton, Director KT Studio, Prof. Mike Berry, RMIT University, Larry Quick, Michelle Bauer, Richard Florida, Helen Clancy , Dept. of Education & Training, Peter Kageyama, Rod Frantz, President, CreativeClass.org.

During SMG's 2004 tour of Australia, we were fortunate that our week in Melbourne coincided with Richard Florida being in town to speak at Melbourne's Fashion Week and to several other organizations.

Sponsored by the Hornery Institute, Richard brought his message of technology, talent and tolerance to an eager audience of over 400 business and community leaders at Melbourne's Telstra Stadium (home of the Australia Football League).

His message remains centered on the "Three T's", but he also focused on some other key points. He noted that the creative economy is highly biased toward urban environments because density matters. When asked what Australia might do about its small, rural towns that are dying, he admitted it was a difficult question. One possible solution, borrowed from other countries, was to allow immigrants to replace native farm workers who are migrating away from their traditional homes.

The other key subject he addressed was the very same topic of immigration. He noted that immigration policy is a talent recruitment policy. How open a country is to immigrants and students seeking education visas is going to be reflected in their available talent pool. Security is of course a concern, but he noted that the US attitude towards foreigners has declined significantly since 9/11. We saw a 50% decrease in foreign student visa applications in the past two years. These students used to stay in the US and join the knowledge based workforce. Today, those that are coming, are often leaving after their education to take their talents back to their homelands.