Speaker Evening

On Thursday, 14 September, members and guests of the Rotary Club of South Queensferry enjoyed an extremely interesting talk by James Taylor on Creative Cities.  James is an international conference speaker and consultant on creativity and innovation. He believes in the power of good ideas and demonstrated this in his talk entitled 'Creative Cities'. Creativity, unlike intelligence, is not genetic but depends on location - the Romans for example, drew great inspiration from nature and place. Creativity, he explained, is also not complicated, but complex.  James also stated that creativity requires freedom and openness and he went on to tell us about cities which in the past had had a 'Golden Age' - Athens, Florence, Vienna and Edinburgh. He said that creative cities also require money, density and intimacy or trust, and a willingness to take risks.  An interesting point was made when he added that Scottish enlightenment did not end, it migrated to America.  James' talk generated a large amount of questions - sparking a lot of discussion which was obviously creativity at work! James was introduced by Drew Graham and the vote of thanks was given by Gerald Smith.