As stated, Curacao should develop the creative economy. And your organization should fit right in.
We life in the era of the creative economy. Creativity is the main economic drivers. Creativity has become more highly valued in today's global society. The Creative Economy is driven by the creative class (Florida, 2002, 2007, 2008). The creative class consists of workers whose job it is to create meaningful new forms, such as artists, designers, media people, scientists, innovators, entrepreneurs, professors and athletes, to name but a few. Their designs are transferable and useful on a broad scale. Another part of the creative class is knowledge intensive. Examples are health professionals and business management personnel (Florida, 2002, 2007; Hospers and van Dalm, 2006).
Creativity resides with the creative class. Dean and Kretschmer (2007, p. 577) highlight the pairing of production factors and economic actors: landowners, labourers and capitalists. They point out that there are three hybrid concepts of capital: human capital, social capital and intellectual capital. They argue that they cannot be paired with one social class but stand at the interstices between economic actors. However, according to Florida and Howkins (2001) intellectual property or creativity is paired with the creative class. They further argue that this is not an elitist approach because everybody is creative (Florida, 2007, p. 34).
The creative class lives in the creative city. Creative cities attract the creative class because of three T's. Talent, Technology and Tolerance (Florida, 2002, 2007, 2008; Landry, 2000).
Up to now the three T’s were in good shape in Curacao. The Talent is still good but there are not enough (government) funds directed towards the development of the talent. The internet Technology is to slow and expensive, if we compare it to what the global creative class is accustomed to. The biggest concerns is becoming Tolerance. Nationalistic sentiments and populism are eroding the once trademark tolerance of Curacao.
A last remark is the following. Creativity alone is not enough. Every creation must be supported by a business model for it to be part of the economy. This does not come naturally to people on the island. Many creative locals become successful abroad or by entering a partnership.
The K-zone is a project to create space for the creative class/ knowledge worker. It is an effort to retain the locals and attract the global.
We will discuss the creative class in the event mentioned in the following invitation.
