What’s in a phrase?  Mike Ross–Director of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts–has captured the essence of Urbana-Champaign as a globally connected, entrepreneurially dynamic,  culturally hip, technology center on the prairie in the term micro-urban.  The concept comes from Richard Florida’s American urban theory (The Creative Class), in which he praises cities for their power to bring together “creative clusters” and so spark revolutions and revelations faster and more frequently than would otherwise be possible.  Creative clusters often have specific orientations, of course, such as the popular movie-making magic of Hollywood or Bollywood.  The Krannert marketing team has captured some of Urbana-Champaign’s particular creative flavor in their new open-source micro-urban toolkit and video, launched on October 20th on Corporate Circuit Night.  We believe that spirit is very much alive in eDream, with its mixture of emergent visual, virtual, musical, and performance arts with science and technology.

Watch the video here:  

Champaign-Urbana.  smart.  innovative.  micro-urban.

— Kelly Searsmith