Business Retention & Recruitment

Greensboro's Creative Character:
How to Attract and Keep a Talented Workforce
When Action Greensboro invited Dr. Richard Florida to Greensboro in October 2003, he advanced the theory that cities will prosper in these challenging times to the extent that they develop a strong creative character. By doing so, cities can more easily attract entrepreneurs and professionals--what Florida calls the creative class--who provide a talented work force, innovate and create new businesses, and become assets for relocating corporations.
Who are these people in the creative class? They include those in science and engineering, architecture and design, education, arts, music, and entertainment, whose economic function is to create new ideas, new technology, and content. Around this core is a broader group of creative professionals in business and finance, law, health care, and related fields.
Community leaders and advocates want to attract more of these creative people to Greensboro and keep the ones who are already here. To prepare for Florida's visit, four community volunteer task forces inventoried Greensboro's strengths and weaknesses, toting up the city's assets in the areas of Talent, Technology, Territorial Assets, and Tolerance--the elements Florida says make for a creative community. The task forces found many attributes to be proud of as well as a number of areas with potential to be improved or expanded.
Learn more about how you can help strengthen Greensboro's Creative Character!
For a complete report of the four Creative Class task forces, click here.
Visit Richard Florida's Creative Class website.

Economic Development
Action Greensboro supported the work of the Greensboro Economic Development Parntership with a pledge of $3 million in 2004. Another $250,000 was pledge to the Piedmont Triad Partnership.
In 2003, Action Greensboro funded a study by Dr. Keith Debbage of the UNCG Geography department, "Benchmark Analysis for Greensboro and Select Cities", measuring the community performance criteria utilized in the Market Street Services plan: net population change, economic diversity, per capita income, median earnings, high school dropout rates, percentage enrolled in post-secondary education, home ownership, poverty rate, infant mortality rate, and teenage pregnancy rate. The report, which was presented to the community in September 2003, provides a baseline comparison of Greensboro and 17 competing cities, allowing future measurement of economic development progress. Click here to download copies of Dr. Debbage’s 2007 updated benchmark report.