Went to an interesting Bath Club meeting entitled "What makes a successful city in the knowledge economy?" by Alexandra Jones, Associate Director, The Work Foundation which presented findings from their Ideopolis: Knowledge-City Regions research.
The key findings from the research were: Knowledge is more than science and technology; City-regions matter –real economic geography; Large cities matter; Knowledge drives economic success…but not necessarily quality of life; Not every city can or should become a knowledge city.
What may be a little surprising about this is that cities still lead economic activity, and larger cities more so, even though new technologies enable knowledge workers to work almost anywhere, including in rural areas and while on the move. The reason for this is the traditional strengths of cities, e.g. access to housing, leisure and other people.
As usual, what makes the Bath Club such a good event is not the presentation (though Alex Jones really knew her stuff) but the open discussion that follows it and then the conversations over cheese and wine that comes after that.
Ended the evening having a long and detailed discussion on business transformation in town planning with a well known consultant in that area who also happens to live and work in Lambeth.
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