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Florida promote a drawback on new capital investments in such traditional creative staples as ballet, opera, symphony and museums. Although these are necessary public entertainment options to maintain, studies show the majority of university students and young to middle-aged professionals who make up the bulk of the emerging creative class, in fact, prefer more accessible venues.

Florida is not saying the city should fund the construction of all these venues, but should support them with entrepreneurial assistance, specified tax-cuts and governmenttools to ease operation, like streamlining the bureaucracy behind applying for liquor licences and permits for musical events and public attractions.

The MaRS centre, located at College St. and University Ave. in downtown Toronto, is a fantastic first step in better integrating the city’s creative talents in the technology and science fields. But more buildings and communities like this need to be developed to take advantage of all of Toronto’s creative economic potential.

* Social Tech Training, or My Charity Connects * Innovation Parkour * Social Mastermind // Social Media for Social Change * The Skills Exchange * Defining and Measuring Social Success And in the evenings, Net Change brings unique community collaborations like: * Mobile Monday takes a social change perspective * Toronto's Internet Town Hall at the Gladstone Hotel * Cocktails and Inspiration: a discussion on profound innovation and social change with Eric Young in conversation with Bill White. * Wired Wednesday gets a dose of Web of Change * Refresh Events encourages collaborative partnerships

Net Change's ticketed and free events are taking place at the MaRS Centre. For more information on events and how to be involved, check out http://www.netchangeweek.ca.

New graduates are known as ‘Generation Yers’. Born between 1979 and 1998, they want to be successful business people, but they also want to do good with their skills. They want luxurious products, but won’t buy from unethical companies. For businesses to recruit and retain the best, they have to offer more than the corporate package. Community engagement is fast becoming a key competitive differentiator between professional services firms. In a recent survey of UK graduates by PricewaterhouseCoopers, 70% said that they will actively seek out employers whose corporate responsibility behaviour reflects their own. An Aspen Institute study shows business school students citing ‘business's responsibility to society’ as a top concern when choosing a job.

social entrepreneurship will be rattled by this economic situation, but we will make changes to our approach where necessary and come out stronger and more central to both business and community.

Pawson was recognized for his research into the way cells communicate with each other, which has made possible the development of drugs that halt the multiplication of certain types of cancer cells, among other breakthroughs. His lab has helped lay the groundwork for this new generation of drugs.

With support from the Mississauga Technology Business Accelerator (MTBA) he started his business, which grew to occupy some state-of-the-art labs at MaRS and is about to take the next step forward by moving its business outside of the protecting and nurturing environment of MaRS. This is the entire purpose of MaRS, which says on its website (www.marsdd.com), "We measure our success through the companies that emerge after receiving help from MaRS." "The resources, the facilities, the training and everything else that MaRS is bringing to the table - we're able to capitalize on that and get off on a very solid footing," says Kamal. Inside the Incubato

Whether you're looking for work - or you want to start your own business, MaRS is one of the best places to start your search.

Everybody you talk to in the elevator, the hall, the cafeteria - they are all in the science field - so you can network with one another," says Ratheesh. "MaRS does not just provide research space, they are bringing business people, people with money." These are the connections that can turn your idea into a profit-making business that employs many people. This is exactly what MaRS is all about. As they say on their website, "MaRS connects the communities of science, business and capital and fosters collaboration among them." MaRS advisors are able to connect entrepreneurs with private funding opportunities as well as free educational programming and hands-on advisory services. Corporate sponsor CIBC funds an entrepreneurship lecture series, for example. Ratheesh adds, "Patent people are here as well, so if you have patentable technology, you can talk to them." Once you start your business, MaRS offers many supports. "When we had the lab space we had the chemical hood that had to be set up so MaRS came and provided people to set up our hood," explains Ratheesh. "They help us dispose of chemical waste, provide water service, fridge and freezer service - so these are all important. "For smaller companies that have problem buying fridges and freezers, they can use common equipment." MaRS facilities also include lecture theatres, meeting rooms and an auditorium. Growing Cultures Bacteria and tissue cultures aren't the only cultures that thrive in the MaRS environment. It's also a great place for newcomers from every culture to

Clera, one of many emerging companies housed in the MaRS incubator.

He says, "MaRS is a one-stop shop for job and information seekers. Here we have many companies - so quite a few job opportunities

"To make failure a learning experience, first you have to celebrate it by acknowledging in a very positive way, the person who tried something and failed. You can't hide it under a table," says Plant. "You've got to develop a system that both rewards for the attempt as well as the success. Frequently, we don't do that and that sends a bad message. The act of punishing people makes them want to stop innovating."

We also need to build more accountability into failure, according to Plant who says that when failures are detrimental to the economy, we can't pretend that nothing happened. "Right now, some people are being rewarded for absolutely hideous failures, such as in the banking system," says Plant, who is also a Chartered Management Accountant. "Part of the problem is accounting which does a very poor job of measuring risk. Never leave anything up to the accountants!"

According to Plant, there's a different risk tolerance in smaller companies versus big ones, although he doesn't see a real difference by industry. Whether a company tolerates or accepts risk depends largely on the nature of the company. "The more established companies probably don't tolerate failure as well so they don't actually incubate a culture of risk," says Plant. "Larger companies do a lot of things to make sure they don't fail. Smaller ones tend to favour risk because it's the only way they can get ahead. And if you're doing things that haven't been done before, then you're going to fail again and again."

"You have to allow people to fail in this economy," says Plant. "It's failure that leads to productivity gain and innovation."

"You need a culture that allows failure for success because without it, people become anti-failure," says Charles Plant. "Trying different things is the act of innovation. If you fail 14 times, hopefully you're going to succeed on the 15th try. Without failure, we're not going to be driving and growing the economy."

Innovation is the result of taking big leaps,

Innovation is the result of taking big leaps, but failure is often the downside of taking those leaps.