Social scientists have long recognized the connection between creativity and innovation.  Yet in the business world, creative people are often associated with the arts and artists.  In other words, creative people don't make good business men and women.

Creativity is often used to describe "the generation of new and useful ideas," and innovation is often defined as "the adoption of those new and useful ideas by people in organizations."

In fact, there are creative scientists, students and entrepreneurs - not artists at all in the common definition of the word - working on new products and processes and building young startup companies that could impact our lives.  Developing a new filter for Hemodialysis patients, finding new environmentally safe methods of cleaning contaminated sites, producing a new way to diagnose concussions, or designing a new innovative pump for aquariums are but a few of the creative entrepreneurial activities being assisted through the Southside Bethlehem Keystone Innovation Zone (SSBKIZ).

Through the efforts of the SSBKIZ and its fourteen funding partners, close to 20 new start-up businesses have established a presence in South Bethlehem.  Some reside in the Ben Franklin TechVentures business incubator on the Lehigh University Mountaintop campus, and some reside in other facilities throughout Southside Bethlehem.  These new businesses are defining what the future of the Lehigh Valley will look like.

Why is this significant?  In 2002, Dr. Richard Florida visited the Lehigh Valley as a guest speaker at the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation annual meeting.  His talk was called "The Rise of the Creative Class."  His hypothesis was and still is simple:  He posits that the key to economic growth lies not just in the ability to attract people who are creative in nature, but to translate that underlying creativity into economic outcomes in the form of new ideas, new high-tech businesses and regional growth.  The Southside Bethlehem Keystone Innovation Zone is doing precisely what Dr. Florida was speaking about.

These new startup companies all found a reason to stay in Bethlehem and it was in large part due to the readily available resources of Lehigh University and Northampton Community College.  Both schools offer opportunities for scientific discovery, use of sophisticated labs and equipment as well as an atmosphere of cooperation and entrepreneurial spirit.  Both support the operations of the KIZ. 

Of equal importance is the urban atmosphere that is critical to the attraction and retention of these new types of businesses.  The investment the City of Bethlehem has made in the Southside has set the tone for the type of economic development taking place.  This type of cultural entrepreneurship creates a mind-set - an attitude of possibility.  It is more than business incentives, it's also the food, and the books that you read, and the restaurants you frequent.

Indeed, the Keystone Innovation Zone, a state-wide initiative started by Governor Ed Rendell in 2004,charged to create this "Knowledge Neighborhood" and foster the spirit of entrepreneurship.  To that end I believe we have been and will continue to be very successful.  Southside Bethlehem is becoming very much a place that a ''Knowledge worker" would like to live and work.