Earlier this year, we shared a preview of the June cover story of Wired magazine. Titled “Smart Jobs,” the 15-page article and infographic spread, took an analytical look at the next phase of job growth in the U.S.
At the time we published the story, we were unaware of its connection with a presentation given by the article’s author, Adam Davidson of Planet Money, at the WIRED Business Conference in May. Now, that presentation has been made available for free on FORA.tv (previously, only a snippet was available).
In his 20-minute presentation, Davidson opens with the backstory of his research – a six-month project by Wired and Planet Money – and describes what it set out to understand: “As this economic recovery just begins,” Davidson says, “what are the contours of good jobs in America in the coming years?”
After an example that epitomized the changing landscape, the cotton industry, Davidson dives into industry clusters across the U.S. that represent these “smart jobs.”
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At this point, he approached the section of the article that we previously reported on as he began the part of his talk titled “Creativity is Spreading: Midwest Growth.”
“The old story is,” Davidson says, “if you were a smart, creative, ambitious person in Omaha or Sioux Falls or Champaign, you got out of town as soon as you could and moved to the big city nearby. And if you were really ambitious, you moved to the coasts.” This, Davidson says, is changing.
To hear all of what Davidson had to say about Omaha, I encourage you to watch his full presentation found at FORA.tv. To view the portion that addresses the Midwest, specifically Omaha, play Chapter 7.
Watch Davidson’s full presentation at FORA.tv or click the image below.
