Noosa Hub arts education lecturer Sue Davis is proud to be among 30 local people hand-picked to help trigger her home town's push to enhance its 'creative community' credentials..

The Noosa 30 have been chosen as catalysts to implement the vision of international creative community steward and author Richard Florida , from the USA, who launched a fresh vision for the prominent centre last November. Noosa is the first town outside America where he has applied his principles.

Sue Davis - looking forward to being a community catalyst

"We've been asked to start convening focus groups and to engage people in the community in conversations about possibilities for the region's economic growth," Ms Davis said.

"I'm really looking forward to meeting other people and exploring possibilities for creative developments in our community.

"I know there are a lot of people with incredible skills and backgrounds in Noosa but often you don't know who they are or have a reason to work together.

"I'm also interested in CQU's role in the future development of this region. It was interesting to read in the first report from the 'Creative Class' group about Noosa to find that the proportion of the population with a university degree is lower than the national average.  I hope we might be able to help improve that statistic."

Ms Davis' selection has been welcomed by CQU Professor Richard Smith who has been a long-time advocate of Richard Florida's ideas and their potential application in Noosa and other similar communities.

According to the Noosa Civic Business Park website ( http://www.noosacivic.biz/ ), the remaining project phases include: 

• The catalysts start preparing by meeting each other, hosting focus groups, reading up on creative class theory, looking at current community practices and putting already-established community projects into an inventory.
• The Creative Class Group team compiles the most current economic and demographic data for regional indicators and benchmarks and analysis of the region's occupations.
• The Creative Class Group will facilitate a 2-day workshop with the 30 selected community leaders or ‘catalysts' designed for catalysts to further understand their region's 4Ts (Talent, Technology, Tolerance and Territorial Assets), identify strategic economic goals and develop a framework of projects to engage their community.
• The catalysts then work with their community and Creative Class Group facilitators (via quarterly video-conferences) over the next 12 months.