Futurist To Speak To North County Leaders

Futurist and best-selling author Joel Kotkin will speak the morning of April 15, 2008 at the first “Momentum Breakfast” hosted by the Leadership North County Alumni Association at the Sheraton Carlsbad Resort and Spa.

Kotkin will explain the powerful trends shaping urban and suburban development today and in the future not just locally but around the country and around the world. Kotkin’s most recent book, ‘The City: A Global History’ studied what cities since the beginning of recorded history through to the present needed in order to become great. Kotkin found that healthy, reliable infrastructure such as roads, schools, medicine, food and water supply were the best indicators of future success.

We’re hoping all the members of the City Council will attend this breakfast. Tickets are $30 each (including food) and can be purchased on the Lncalumni.org website. More details after the jump.

Futurist Joel Kotkin to Tell North County Community Leaders What Makes Cities Great at April 15 Event

Kotkin’s Research Debunks ‘Creative Class’ Theory of Economic Development Finding that Infrastructure is a Better Indicator of Success than Creativity

NORTH COUNTY; March 20, 2008 – Futurist and best-selling author Joel Kotkin will speak at the first Leadership North County Alumni Group ‘Momentum Breakfast’ on April 15, 2008 from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. at the Sheraton Carlsbad Resort and Spa at 5480 Grand Pacific Drive off Cannon Road in Carlsbad.

Tickets are $30 each, include breakfast and can be obtained through www.lncalumni.org.

Kotkin will explain the powerful trends shaping urban and suburban development today and in the future not just locally but around the country and around the world. Kotkin’s most recent book, ‘The City: A Global History,’ studied what cities since the beginning of recorded history through to the present needed in order to become great. Kotkin found that healthy, reliable infrastructure such as roads, schools, medicine, food and water supply were the best indicators of future success. His back to basics message is at odds with the influential creative class theory popularized by author Richard Florida that touts talent, technology and tolerance as the primary elements for achieving success in today’s knowledge-based economy.

Kotkin’s research shows that California’s economic growth over the past 10 years has created some staggering short-term increases in wealth based on rising dot-com stocks and real estate prices, but these economic bubbles have done little to grow the state’s overall asset base; bolster its preeminence in industry; or produce balanced and robust job growth. Kotkin sees rebuilding and enhancing energy, transportation, communications and other infrastructure as necessary for ensuring competitiveness and long-term, sustainable economic prosperity in regions such as North County.

“North County is facing uncertainty about its future water and energy supply, access to great schools, and sufficient health care resources to care for its growing population. If we don’t have solid answers to these questions, the issue of growing our local economy simply becomes moot,” says Julie Wright, co-chair of the organizing committee for the Leadership North County Alumni Group.

Underwriting for this first ‘momentum breakfast’ is provided by Pacific Marine Credit Union, Tri-City Medical Center, San Diego Gas and Electric, and Urban Village of San Marcos, a development of the McDonald Group and Seabreeze Properties. Media sponsorship is provided by SignonSanDiego.com, North County Times and KOCT. More on Joel Kotkin and his writings and research are available online at www.joelkotkin.com.

About Leadership North County Alumni Group
Leadership North County began as Leadership 2000 in North San Diego County in 1986. It has since graduated hundreds of community leaders, many who continue to serve as elected officials, leaders of North County’s largest public institutions and business leaders. The Leadership North County Alumni Group was formed in 2007 to serve the alumni of these two prestigious community leadership programs. For more, see www.lncalumni.org.