‘Creative class’ more than new buzz word? Boulder could be testing ground for theory

Suddenly, Boulder’s a “boom village.” In fact, we’re ranked the No. 1 “boom village” in the country, followed closely by No. 2 Fort Collins just up the road.

This does not bode well, I think, for finding a downtown parking place Friday nights.

The “boom village” buzz was stirred up by the March issue of Business 2.0, a national business magazine. Its cover story ranking “the next boom towns” examines America’s 20 hottest job markets, telling us where the most-skilled, most-educated workers — the “elite” workers if you will — will want to be.

Working with research firm Global Insight, the magazine compares future job growth in 319 metropolitan areas and emphasizes which of those cities are likely to attract “the creative class,” a term popularized by Richard Johnson, a Carnegie Mellon University professor and author of the book “The Rise of the Creative Class.” These are employees, he says, that work with ideas — they are the inventors, the marketers, the brains behind new technologies — and the American economy’s global future could well depend on their success.

These “hot professions,” Business 2.0 reports, are attracted to places where employers can count on a high-quality labor force. And companies creating these well-paying jobs — everything from computer scientists, software engineers, multimedia artists, health practitioners and biomedical engineers — love to be surrounded by other innovative companies.

In the magazine’s Top 20 boom towns ranking, Denver finished a strong 14th, with a 9 percent job growth predicted by 2008. Topping the list was No. 1 Raleigh-Durham, N.C. with San Jose, Calif. No. 2.

The article also charts “boom villages” — 10 smaller cities with “economic engines revving”; Boulder topped the pack with a surprising forecast of 13 percent job growth by 2008.

To be honest, the ranking took business leaders I know (and probably political leaders as well) a little by surprise. Most prognosticators agree it’s a task just to bring back some of the jobs Colorado lost in the last few years. The last I heard, it’s still a “jobless” recovery.

Yet this isn’t the first time Boulder and the Front Range have picked up a nice bonus of free publicity. Ad execs will admit you can’t buy business branding like this.

The Business Report, for our 2004 media kit, dug out some of Boulder’s previous rankings.

Here’s what we found.

” No. 1 Healthiest City in the United States, USA Today.

” No. 1 Best Place to Live on Earth, Newsweek Magazine.

” No. 1 Best Place to Live in the United States, Men’s Journal.

” No. 1 Best Sports Town in America, Outside Magazine.

” No. 1 Best Running Cities, Runner’s World Magazine.

” No. 1 Green & Clean City, Modern Maturity Magazine.

” No. 1 Best Place for New Research & Development Firms, Industrial Development Magazine.

Oh, and we slipped a bit here, but what the heck:

” No. 4 Best Smaller Metro Area in the United States to Do Business and Advance a Career, Forbes/Milkin Institute.

Signs are emerging that the “boom village” story, although a longer-term forecast, is not just hot air.

Manpower just reported that 33 percent of Boulder area companies interviewed have plans to hire more employees in the second quarter. That was tempered by 7 percent of companies predicting reductions, but still a much better picture than a year ago when only 20 percent expected to hire and 13 percent forecast cutbacks.

The obvious question to me is when we are heralded by nationally read publications, what do we do with it? It’s “the million-dollar question” as the expression goes.

Boulder Chamber President Susan Graf told Boulder Economic Council members she’s already fielded an inquiry from one out-of-state firm that saw the “boom village” story and wants to hold an employee meeting here to motivate its staff in the business environment we have here.

National magazine writers visit Colorado regularly, and they love to stop in Boulder. They almost always leave with something good to convey to their readers.

How many times have you had someone tell you “I came to Boulder for a vacation, and decided I wanted to live here”? It’s happened to me many times.

Companies aren’t that much different. If a chief executive visits to go skiing and has a great time, they could decide it’s a good place to expand their business.

If the “creative class” theory is correct, real wealth will be created by idea workers. Their actual production may well be produced offshore, but these “thinkers” will pick and choose where they want to live.

It’s a message not lost on leading companies seeking to attract innovators. And it’s a message Boulder can’t afford to keep a secret.

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