A best-selling author and renowned outside-the-box economist will be speaking in Barrie next month.

Richard Florida, who penned The Rise of the Creative Class will present Who’s Your City? at the Georgian College theatre on Monday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. He’s appearing as part of the Speaker Series hosted by the University Partnership Centre – Georgian College, in conjunction with the Greater Barrie Chamber of Commerce, the City of Barrie and the Downtown Barrie Business Association.

“We’re very excited about having Richard Florida coming to speak,” said Sybil Goruk, executive director of the Greater Barrie Chamber of Commerce. “We’re in the middle of revitalization in Barrie and it’s fabulous to bring someone of his calibre to Barrie.”

Florida’s books, including The Flight of the Creative Class, Cities and the Creative Class, The Breakthrough Illusion and Beyond Mass Production are provocative examinations of how creativity is revolutionizing the global economy.

His ideas on the creative class, commercial innovation and regional development have been featured in major advertising campaigns from BMW and Apple Computers, and are being utilized around the world to change the way regions and nations do business and transform their economies.

Florida is currently a professor of business and creativity at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. He has held professorships at George Mason University and Carnegie Mellon University. Florida has also been a visiting professor at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

His research provides unique, data-driven insight into the social, economic and demographic factors that are driving the 21st-Century global economy.

General admission tickets are available for $25 each to the public, or $10 for students with ID.

Group tickets for 20 people or more are available for $10 apiece, too. They can be ordered online, or by calling the chamber office at 721-5000.