I’m gonna tell you a little bit about
this concept of magnetic cities as you
heard from my bio I live in a place
called Victoria British Columbia and it
pulled me I used to live here and it
pulled me all the way across the country
a long time ago with its magnet and
we’ve worked on making it more and more
powerful ever since and so I’m going to
tell you a little bit about that but
first a little background on where I
came from so I grew up just on the other
side of Lake Simcoe and Keswick I lived
there and I think it’s fair to say that
there’s not a person in my family that
doesn’t live three hours from where I’m
standing right now except for me and so
I have a lot of roots here I’ve spent
many summer vacations that was Sega
Beach and and I even remember riding
this concrete slide down Blue Mountain
back in the day and so I so I was really
excited about the opportunity to come
here and I thought to myself Collingwood
probably has what it takes to be a
magnetic city and so it seems like a
good place to be and I was I was walking
down the street 8th Street in Victoria
is a sunny day as there are often and
then I get this phone call from Chris
and he’s like we want to have you come
out and do a TED talk about what you
guys have done in Victoria we’ve heard a
lot about it and cut to now you know
I’ve had several beers with that panic
monster that hangs out with my
gratification monkey and now I’m
standing here almost able to say that I
have done a TED talk and so we’re closer
to that goal the last time I was here
was in 1996 and I came here to go skiing
as many people do I remember it vividly
I don’t remember every ski trip I ever
took but I remember that one because I
just had a cast cut off this arm and 24
stitches only eight actually on the
outside taken out of this elbow because
I just come back from Banff it was the
first time I’d gone to Banff and
apparently snowboard jumps have
categories of classes and there’s
something called the class 5 jump and it
gets a big so I didn’t even know that
came in classes and I was on skis and I
lost and so that’s how I ended up all
decimated I finally got everything off
and I was able to come skiing and and I
visited you’re sitting that was the last
time I was here but that bamp trip it
was actually started in motion and quite
a few changes in my life and I remember
flying off to Banff and I pulled out a
magazine look for something to read
something to pass the time and there’s
an article in there there’s a picture of
a castle covered in ivy
and if you’ve seen x-men its dr. Xavier
school for the gifted in the movies but
that was that’s Royal Road University
and they had a new business school that
I just launched that appealed to me it
was new it was different and had a
castle that seemed like that might be
pretty cool and up until that time I’d
only been a couple other places I’ve
been to Disneyland and I’d been to
Hawaii now Hawaii probably planted some
seeds in my mind about islands in the
Pacific and the pole of the West but
besides that there would been ten years
since I’d been anywhere and so after
going through all that I flew home from
BAMF and I was much worse for the wear
but things were going great for me here
I had I had gotten off to a decent start
I was a full-time student at Trent
University I was a city councilor in
georgina where I lived in Keswick I had
a small publishing company that I was
running and I was even doing sort of
regular spots on the CBC’s morning show
Ontario morning and so I had
opportunities here and things were good
the following year a buddy of mine right
before exams which this is a good time
to take off said hey I’m gonna go off to
Western Europe and backpack a little bit
so I bought a train pass and got a
backpack and skipped my accounting exam
and I took off to to Western Europe for
a month and and and it changed my life
while I was there I learned how I
learned a lot about foreign lands and
getting around I learned an appreciation
for architecture for the first time I
was exposed to just massive cities up
until then you know Toronto centre of
the universe’s as we’re often told was
really the biggest place I had been and
there was this realization while I was
there on that trip that I was gonna
change my priorities and my values and
what happened was I was 26 years old and
I was thinking I was going to be a
lawyer I thought I was gonna be a lot of
things all of them sound noble and
laudable and make make moms happy and at
that time I thought I was gonna be a
lawyer and I stood in the middle of
Monte Carlo Monte Carlo is just a
strikingly beautiful place it’s a
principality in France well it’s a
principality surrounded by France it’s
not part of France they’d like to know
that and it’s beautiful and it’s
manicured and pristine
there’s escalators outside though the
cheapest car I saw I think was a BMW
7-series and I just Ferraris as far as
the eye could see there was a harbor
full of yachts billions of dollars in
yachts and I stood there and I thought
so no matter what Jones you’re keeping
up with there’s always another Jones
there’s always another Jones there’s
always another place you’re going to go
and so it changed me for for forever
my priorities changed in my
changed and I was no longer gonna be
worried about the material things would
be a nomad that just changes the
opportunity I wanted to chase
experiences like the one that I was
having it started to pull me into a
different direction fortunately for me a
year later another friend was going on a
trip and they were off to Victoria
because they’d been accepted to the
University of Victoria’s Law Program and
I thought that sounds like a good way to
spend spring break so I got on a plane
and I stepped off that plane and at that
time I knew from what I’d learned in
grade 10 geography class or maybe it was
younger that it was on an island that
was a capital of British Columbia that’s
all I knew
I didn’t I didn’t know much but my
grandmother just come back in 96 and she
told me that they had a huge snowstorm
and that that was unusual that they
don’t get snow that’s not interesting
and that they’re not prepared to move
any snow let alone three feet of snow
and I can tell you now as a resident of
Victoria people still talk about the
storm of 96 today like it is like the
Great Depression to Victoria so I
stepped off this plane it’s February
I’ve just flown from from Peterborough
on the and the the peak of winter and I
think of myself so this is this is
actually a place and this is in Canada
like I love I want to be a Canadian and
I but I can’t believe it’s February it’s
15 degrees it’s sunny mountains
everywhere I’m going golfing that
afternoon like I think I think I might
like it here I could go on and on about
what I love about Victoria and I will a
little bit more later but suffice it to
say there was another pole another pole
that changed the direction of my life
this magnet was starting to pull me in
and I’d found the place resonated with
me and that very week I filled in an
application for that school with the ivy
and the castle at Royal Roads and then
the following year I transferred to
their Bachelor of Commerce program at
that time what you think of Victoria
probably still today was largely true a
lot of people still think of what it was
40 years ago
a government town retirees lots of
tourism and there’s this great saying
that we propagate more than anybody else
so the newly weds and the nearly dead
that’s what people love to describe I
mean that wasn’t that was largely the
case but things have changed a lot in
Victoria now tech is our number one
industry it’s four billion dollars a
year and we have 904 tech companies with
15,000 direct employees tourism is still
thriving and growing we have more
restaurants per capita than anywhere
else in Canada which is really fun
San Francisco has more than us per
capita in North America but though the
only ones I’d like to say you can’t
throw a taco and Victoria without
hitting a coffee shop and you can’t
throw a latte without hitting a taco
shop there it is it’s prolific it’s the
cradle of the craft beer revolution a
lot of people don’t know that the first
brew pub in Canada was in Victoria and
there’s 13 craft breweries going strong
in there today and I can also tell you
that if you ever come to Victoria if you
come to visit me and you show up at a
party and you bring any kind of major
brand that isn’t made in Victoria they
will ask you to leave
there’s over 1200 live music shows a
year there’s 29 art galleries there’s 10
live theatre venues and still we have
one acre of parkland for every 20 people
33% of the people walk or cycle to work
and 365 days of the year’s barbecue
season so that’s the end of the
commercial I get carried away but I have
to line that because really what I’m
doing is I’m saying to you that there’s
a thing called a magnetic city and a lot
of places can be a magnetic city it
takes a little bit of work to build the
things it’s about combining quality of
opportunity with quality of life and
purpose a place that pulls people based
on shared values by offering superior
quality of life and combining it with
opportunity I’m not talking about the
big megalopolises those places are so
big they have their own critical mass
they create gravity so New York San
Francisco Vancouver Toronto Hong Kong
London the the quality of life isn’t
nearly as important because there’s just
such a prolific amount of weight and
opportunity that it naturally draws
people to it and what’s important to
know about those people that move there
is they’re looking at opportunity first
opportunity is the primary consideration
if you have to overlook a long commute
if you have to overlook your sense of
community or your outdoor recreation or
safety all for opportunity you’re
willing to do that and and you know what
that makes a lot of sense but as they
say times are changing and what’s
happening is we have a new generation
that’s coming up that value a lot of
different things more than just
opportunity also there’s this concept of
the creative index in the creative class
that I Richard Florida is a professor
and a researcher at the University of
Toronto at the Rotman School of Business
in the Martin Institute for Prosperity I
think I think I got all the titles right
but he became famous for the creative
class concept in the creative index and
what the creative index does is has
three T’s of and I hold up four fingers
reason three tees of economic
development technology talent and
tolerance and the fourth tee that
they’ve added is quality of place so I
guess the tea and that one is the
quality of place so there’s the the four
in the index values now they value
technology for obvious reasons tech
innovation improves competition it
brings new ideas it creates new products
it creates opportunity it creates
abundance talent is obvious because not
only do they do the production of all
those ideas and create things but
they’re also the ones that have the
ideas so importing new people is the
most important thing that you can do in
your community tolerance is focused on
and this one is more on the other side
of magnet so those first two tech
and-and-and talent that’s everywhere
that’s every city now tolerance and
quality of place are where the magnet
gets its second Pole right so tolerance
is openness inclusion and diversity the
creative class and arguably Millennials
also can be defined along two lines they
prize our individuality and ability for
self-expression and they value diversity
and openness and so it’s really
important that your community is a
welcoming open friendly place and not an
angry one the fourth key quality of
place is where it really land is for me
because it’s the places that I love they
talk about social and cultural things
like museums libraries theaters and
restaurants and bars all the things that
I just listed they also look at the
civic engagement how proud are people of
their community and how involved are
they because I I mean they’re an
important engine to building any Kent
community and empowering up your magnet
and one of the key indicators for this
if you’re ever wondering how you’re
doing in a civic engagement side is look
at your federal voter turnout that gives
you an idea of how much people really
really are paying attention and of
course housing a transportation right
population density housing affordability
which has become very interesting in
Canada in the last couple of years and
public transit so those are the ones
that the you know the big brains and the
researchers have come up with to create
an index and and not surprisingly
Victoria does pretty well on that index
now you can’t change the location of
your place and so I have a really
important point and this doesn’t have to
apply to this doesn’t apply to call
anyone because it’s beautiful here but
some places they don’t have a beautiful
surrounding they don’t have lots of
natural elements but any city that’s
looking to grow and expand and become a
magnets that he has to play to its
strengths so that’s one thing be
whatever you have amplify that and don’t
spend your time trying to be
next whatever the number of times people
said we want to be the next Silicon
Valley to me is is just agonizing
because it’s such a such a foolish idea
also engage the willing so when you’re
trying to do this some people won’t like
the idea
they’ll though I don’t want to swear
though poopoo on your idea because they
have their own agendas whatever that is
engaged the willing to find the people
that think like you and work hard with
them and if you do those two things
you’re already ahead of the game
compared to most cities so how do i
define a magnetic city well one they
have to be easy to get around and so
smaller population is better right so
you have to have enough that there’s
there’s opportunity but less than a
million people between that you know
hundred thousand and a million people is
a real magic zone for magnetic cities
natural beauty is really helpful if you
have that it’s one of the only unique
things about a place is what it looks
like everything else can be replicated
nearby education centers is really
helpful because it brings you talent and
if you don’t have a nearby Education
Center then find ways to attract more
young talent because they bring ideas
they bring energy they bring enthusiasm
and they end up creating jobs for
themselves and so that’s vital strong
connectivity and infrastructure you’re
gonna you’re probably going to build a
tech industry if you build a magnetic
city and you’re gonna have to have them
not worried about connectivity and
infrastructure while they’re trying to
get that done it because if that’s an
impairment they’re immediately gonna
have to find somewhere else of course
again culture beer and food there’s a
theme I actually have beers with my
panic monster on a regular basis and so
and of course if they’re independent
diverse and local that’s even better and
I tried calling wood whiskey last night
and that is delicious so you know more
of that of course safety is important
room to grow is nice economic stability
is vital if you want to have
entrepreneurs in your magnetic city so
in Victoria we have the government and
we have tourism as two of the pillars of
the economy what’s great about that is
they’re reliable they’re repetitive and
somebody in the household can work in
government or at the university or in
tourism then the other one can go and
take risks and try and slay dragons and
create and create companies and so that
stabilizing force per household is
really good and of course if you have a
strong tourism industry then that’s a
really good sign that you’re gonna have
an easier time attracting people because
if people are willing to pay to visit it
they’re probably willing to live there
right and so all of that leads to low
unemployment technology provides some
good fun jobs
start having startup meetups or other
groups user groups start encouraging
ladies learning code get that started in
your community because the next
workforce are the ones that are gonna
create the companies and create your
burgeoning thriving tech sector and
finally if you can all arrange it not
being caught in the shadows of a nearby
monster city one of those ones with all
that gravity is really helpful because
like for example santa cruz once came to
visit me and we spent days together than
i was saying this is what we’ve done
over the last twenty years and they’re
like we’re gonna go do all that i said
one thing you have to figure out is how
you get out of that shadow you’re two
hours away from San Francisco and so
that magnet or that gravity is just
pulling them against your magnet and
it’s a real struggle but they’re doing
some great things they’re examples of
great magnetic cities that I’ve seen our
Boulder Austin Portland Granada Spain
Reykjavik Iceland Helsinki Lisbon
Bratislava Santa Cruz I just mentioned
Wellington and I think one day soon
Collingwood so the world is having an
easier and easier time of doing research
to learn about places they’re more and
more choosing quality of life in
combination with quality of opportunity
and there’s a whole generation and
creative class that are moving where the
best place for them to be is and the
most desirable communities are the ones
that are gonna amplify and juice up
their magnet to have those magnetic pull
factors to pull them in so if you love
where you live I heard you to put your
shoulder to the wheel and start juicing
up your magnet there’s rules that you
can play 20 years ago by accident but
Victoria pulled me in and ever since
I’ve been dedicated to growing that tech
sector we were 500 million when I got
there were 4 billion now we have 900 for
companies we have 15,000 great jobs and
that’s all because of the magnetism of
that city and the ability that that it
offered us to build and grow our economy
and somewhere out there your future
community contributors are bouncing
around from airplanes reading magazine
articles to ‘bad ski jumps just waiting
for your magnet to pull them in so
thanks very much for having me I really
enjoyed it and enjoy Ted today
[Applause]
[Music]
this concept of magnetic cities as you
heard from my bio I live in a place
called Victoria British Columbia and it
pulled me I used to live here and it
pulled me all the way across the country
a long time ago with its magnet and
we’ve worked on making it more and more
powerful ever since and so I’m going to
tell you a little bit about that but
first a little background on where I
came from so I grew up just on the other
side of Lake Simcoe and Keswick I lived
there and I think it’s fair to say that
there’s not a person in my family that
doesn’t live three hours from where I’m
standing right now except for me and so
I have a lot of roots here I’ve spent
many summer vacations that was Sega
Beach and and I even remember riding
this concrete slide down Blue Mountain
back in the day and so I so I was really
excited about the opportunity to come
here and I thought to myself Collingwood
probably has what it takes to be a
magnetic city and so it seems like a
good place to be and I was I was walking
down the street 8th Street in Victoria
is a sunny day as there are often and
then I get this phone call from Chris
and he’s like we want to have you come
out and do a TED talk about what you
guys have done in Victoria we’ve heard a
lot about it and cut to now you know
I’ve had several beers with that panic
monster that hangs out with my
gratification monkey and now I’m
standing here almost able to say that I
have done a TED talk and so we’re closer
to that goal the last time I was here
was in 1996 and I came here to go skiing
as many people do I remember it vividly
I don’t remember every ski trip I ever
took but I remember that one because I
just had a cast cut off this arm and 24
stitches only eight actually on the
outside taken out of this elbow because
I just come back from Banff it was the
first time I’d gone to Banff and
apparently snowboard jumps have
categories of classes and there’s
something called the class 5 jump and it
gets a big so I didn’t even know that
came in classes and I was on skis and I
lost and so that’s how I ended up all
decimated I finally got everything off
and I was able to come skiing and and I
visited you’re sitting that was the last
time I was here but that bamp trip it
was actually started in motion and quite
a few changes in my life and I remember
flying off to Banff and I pulled out a
magazine look for something to read
something to pass the time and there’s
an article in there there’s a picture of
a castle covered in ivy
and if you’ve seen x-men its dr. Xavier
school for the gifted in the movies but
that was that’s Royal Road University
and they had a new business school that
I just launched that appealed to me it
was new it was different and had a
castle that seemed like that might be
pretty cool and up until that time I’d
only been a couple other places I’ve
been to Disneyland and I’d been to
Hawaii now Hawaii probably planted some
seeds in my mind about islands in the
Pacific and the pole of the West but
besides that there would been ten years
since I’d been anywhere and so after
going through all that I flew home from
BAMF and I was much worse for the wear
but things were going great for me here
I had I had gotten off to a decent start
I was a full-time student at Trent
University I was a city councilor in
georgina where I lived in Keswick I had
a small publishing company that I was
running and I was even doing sort of
regular spots on the CBC’s morning show
Ontario morning and so I had
opportunities here and things were good
the following year a buddy of mine right
before exams which this is a good time
to take off said hey I’m gonna go off to
Western Europe and backpack a little bit
so I bought a train pass and got a
backpack and skipped my accounting exam
and I took off to to Western Europe for
a month and and and it changed my life
while I was there I learned how I
learned a lot about foreign lands and
getting around I learned an appreciation
for architecture for the first time I
was exposed to just massive cities up
until then you know Toronto centre of
the universe’s as we’re often told was
really the biggest place I had been and
there was this realization while I was
there on that trip that I was gonna
change my priorities and my values and
what happened was I was 26 years old and
I was thinking I was going to be a
lawyer I thought I was gonna be a lot of
things all of them sound noble and
laudable and make make moms happy and at
that time I thought I was gonna be a
lawyer and I stood in the middle of
Monte Carlo Monte Carlo is just a
strikingly beautiful place it’s a
principality in France well it’s a
principality surrounded by France it’s
not part of France they’d like to know
that and it’s beautiful and it’s
manicured and pristine
there’s escalators outside though the
cheapest car I saw I think was a BMW
7-series and I just Ferraris as far as
the eye could see there was a harbor
full of yachts billions of dollars in
yachts and I stood there and I thought
so no matter what Jones you’re keeping
up with there’s always another Jones
there’s always another Jones there’s
always another place you’re going to go
and so it changed me for for forever
my priorities changed in my
changed and I was no longer gonna be
worried about the material things would
be a nomad that just changes the
opportunity I wanted to chase
experiences like the one that I was
having it started to pull me into a
different direction fortunately for me a
year later another friend was going on a
trip and they were off to Victoria
because they’d been accepted to the
University of Victoria’s Law Program and
I thought that sounds like a good way to
spend spring break so I got on a plane
and I stepped off that plane and at that
time I knew from what I’d learned in
grade 10 geography class or maybe it was
younger that it was on an island that
was a capital of British Columbia that’s
all I knew
I didn’t I didn’t know much but my
grandmother just come back in 96 and she
told me that they had a huge snowstorm
and that that was unusual that they
don’t get snow that’s not interesting
and that they’re not prepared to move
any snow let alone three feet of snow
and I can tell you now as a resident of
Victoria people still talk about the
storm of 96 today like it is like the
Great Depression to Victoria so I
stepped off this plane it’s February
I’ve just flown from from Peterborough
on the and the the peak of winter and I
think of myself so this is this is
actually a place and this is in Canada
like I love I want to be a Canadian and
I but I can’t believe it’s February it’s
15 degrees it’s sunny mountains
everywhere I’m going golfing that
afternoon like I think I think I might
like it here I could go on and on about
what I love about Victoria and I will a
little bit more later but suffice it to
say there was another pole another pole
that changed the direction of my life
this magnet was starting to pull me in
and I’d found the place resonated with
me and that very week I filled in an
application for that school with the ivy
and the castle at Royal Roads and then
the following year I transferred to
their Bachelor of Commerce program at
that time what you think of Victoria
probably still today was largely true a
lot of people still think of what it was
40 years ago
a government town retirees lots of
tourism and there’s this great saying
that we propagate more than anybody else
so the newly weds and the nearly dead
that’s what people love to describe I
mean that wasn’t that was largely the
case but things have changed a lot in
Victoria now tech is our number one
industry it’s four billion dollars a
year and we have 904 tech companies with
15,000 direct employees tourism is still
thriving and growing we have more
restaurants per capita than anywhere
else in Canada which is really fun
San Francisco has more than us per
capita in North America but though the
only ones I’d like to say you can’t
throw a taco and Victoria without
hitting a coffee shop and you can’t
throw a latte without hitting a taco
shop there it is it’s prolific it’s the
cradle of the craft beer revolution a
lot of people don’t know that the first
brew pub in Canada was in Victoria and
there’s 13 craft breweries going strong
in there today and I can also tell you
that if you ever come to Victoria if you
come to visit me and you show up at a
party and you bring any kind of major
brand that isn’t made in Victoria they
will ask you to leave
there’s over 1200 live music shows a
year there’s 29 art galleries there’s 10
live theatre venues and still we have
one acre of parkland for every 20 people
33% of the people walk or cycle to work
and 365 days of the year’s barbecue
season so that’s the end of the
commercial I get carried away but I have
to line that because really what I’m
doing is I’m saying to you that there’s
a thing called a magnetic city and a lot
of places can be a magnetic city it
takes a little bit of work to build the
things it’s about combining quality of
opportunity with quality of life and
purpose a place that pulls people based
on shared values by offering superior
quality of life and combining it with
opportunity I’m not talking about the
big megalopolises those places are so
big they have their own critical mass
they create gravity so New York San
Francisco Vancouver Toronto Hong Kong
London the the quality of life isn’t
nearly as important because there’s just
such a prolific amount of weight and
opportunity that it naturally draws
people to it and what’s important to
know about those people that move there
is they’re looking at opportunity first
opportunity is the primary consideration
if you have to overlook a long commute
if you have to overlook your sense of
community or your outdoor recreation or
safety all for opportunity you’re
willing to do that and and you know what
that makes a lot of sense but as they
say times are changing and what’s
happening is we have a new generation
that’s coming up that value a lot of
different things more than just
opportunity also there’s this concept of
the creative index in the creative class
that I Richard Florida is a professor
and a researcher at the University of
Toronto at the Rotman School of Business
in the Martin Institute for Prosperity I
think I think I got all the titles right
but he became famous for the creative
class concept in the creative index and
what the creative index does is has
three T’s of and I hold up four fingers
reason three tees of economic
development technology talent and
tolerance and the fourth tee that
they’ve added is quality of place so I
guess the tea and that one is the
quality of place so there’s the the four
in the index values now they value
technology for obvious reasons tech
innovation improves competition it
brings new ideas it creates new products
it creates opportunity it creates
abundance talent is obvious because not
only do they do the production of all
those ideas and create things but
they’re also the ones that have the
ideas so importing new people is the
most important thing that you can do in
your community tolerance is focused on
and this one is more on the other side
of magnet so those first two tech
and-and-and talent that’s everywhere
that’s every city now tolerance and
quality of place are where the magnet
gets its second Pole right so tolerance
is openness inclusion and diversity the
creative class and arguably Millennials
also can be defined along two lines they
prize our individuality and ability for
self-expression and they value diversity
and openness and so it’s really
important that your community is a
welcoming open friendly place and not an
angry one the fourth key quality of
place is where it really land is for me
because it’s the places that I love they
talk about social and cultural things
like museums libraries theaters and
restaurants and bars all the things that
I just listed they also look at the
civic engagement how proud are people of
their community and how involved are
they because I I mean they’re an
important engine to building any Kent
community and empowering up your magnet
and one of the key indicators for this
if you’re ever wondering how you’re
doing in a civic engagement side is look
at your federal voter turnout that gives
you an idea of how much people really
really are paying attention and of
course housing a transportation right
population density housing affordability
which has become very interesting in
Canada in the last couple of years and
public transit so those are the ones
that the you know the big brains and the
researchers have come up with to create
an index and and not surprisingly
Victoria does pretty well on that index
now you can’t change the location of
your place and so I have a really
important point and this doesn’t have to
apply to this doesn’t apply to call
anyone because it’s beautiful here but
some places they don’t have a beautiful
surrounding they don’t have lots of
natural elements but any city that’s
looking to grow and expand and become a
magnets that he has to play to its
strengths so that’s one thing be
whatever you have amplify that and don’t
spend your time trying to be
next whatever the number of times people
said we want to be the next Silicon
Valley to me is is just agonizing
because it’s such a such a foolish idea
also engage the willing so when you’re
trying to do this some people won’t like
the idea
they’ll though I don’t want to swear
though poopoo on your idea because they
have their own agendas whatever that is
engaged the willing to find the people
that think like you and work hard with
them and if you do those two things
you’re already ahead of the game
compared to most cities so how do i
define a magnetic city well one they
have to be easy to get around and so
smaller population is better right so
you have to have enough that there’s
there’s opportunity but less than a
million people between that you know
hundred thousand and a million people is
a real magic zone for magnetic cities
natural beauty is really helpful if you
have that it’s one of the only unique
things about a place is what it looks
like everything else can be replicated
nearby education centers is really
helpful because it brings you talent and
if you don’t have a nearby Education
Center then find ways to attract more
young talent because they bring ideas
they bring energy they bring enthusiasm
and they end up creating jobs for
themselves and so that’s vital strong
connectivity and infrastructure you’re
gonna you’re probably going to build a
tech industry if you build a magnetic
city and you’re gonna have to have them
not worried about connectivity and
infrastructure while they’re trying to
get that done it because if that’s an
impairment they’re immediately gonna
have to find somewhere else of course
again culture beer and food there’s a
theme I actually have beers with my
panic monster on a regular basis and so
and of course if they’re independent
diverse and local that’s even better and
I tried calling wood whiskey last night
and that is delicious so you know more
of that of course safety is important
room to grow is nice economic stability
is vital if you want to have
entrepreneurs in your magnetic city so
in Victoria we have the government and
we have tourism as two of the pillars of
the economy what’s great about that is
they’re reliable they’re repetitive and
somebody in the household can work in
government or at the university or in
tourism then the other one can go and
take risks and try and slay dragons and
create and create companies and so that
stabilizing force per household is
really good and of course if you have a
strong tourism industry then that’s a
really good sign that you’re gonna have
an easier time attracting people because
if people are willing to pay to visit it
they’re probably willing to live there
right and so all of that leads to low
unemployment technology provides some
good fun jobs
start having startup meetups or other
groups user groups start encouraging
ladies learning code get that started in
your community because the next
workforce are the ones that are gonna
create the companies and create your
burgeoning thriving tech sector and
finally if you can all arrange it not
being caught in the shadows of a nearby
monster city one of those ones with all
that gravity is really helpful because
like for example santa cruz once came to
visit me and we spent days together than
i was saying this is what we’ve done
over the last twenty years and they’re
like we’re gonna go do all that i said
one thing you have to figure out is how
you get out of that shadow you’re two
hours away from San Francisco and so
that magnet or that gravity is just
pulling them against your magnet and
it’s a real struggle but they’re doing
some great things they’re examples of
great magnetic cities that I’ve seen our
Boulder Austin Portland Granada Spain
Reykjavik Iceland Helsinki Lisbon
Bratislava Santa Cruz I just mentioned
Wellington and I think one day soon
Collingwood so the world is having an
easier and easier time of doing research
to learn about places they’re more and
more choosing quality of life in
combination with quality of opportunity
and there’s a whole generation and
creative class that are moving where the
best place for them to be is and the
most desirable communities are the ones
that are gonna amplify and juice up
their magnet to have those magnetic pull
factors to pull them in so if you love
where you live I heard you to put your
shoulder to the wheel and start juicing
up your magnet there’s rules that you
can play 20 years ago by accident but
Victoria pulled me in and ever since
I’ve been dedicated to growing that tech
sector we were 500 million when I got
there were 4 billion now we have 900 for
companies we have 15,000 great jobs and
that’s all because of the magnetism of
that city and the ability that that it
offered us to build and grow our economy
and somewhere out there your future
community contributors are bouncing
around from airplanes reading magazine
articles to ‘bad ski jumps just waiting
for your magnet to pull them in so
thanks very much for having me I really
enjoyed it and enjoy Ted today
[Applause]
[Music]
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