Matt Dodds Speaks on the Future of Creativity at TEDx Manchester

Our very own Matt Dodds was one of the 10 speakers featured at Tedx Manchester Village’s sold-out event on “The Future of Creativity”. Tom Peters, author of the international best-seller In Search of Excellence, introduced Matt as a speaker that he was “personally thrilled to have an opportunity to listen to.” Matt’s talk centered on the topic of “Pluralistic Creation.” In the talk, Matt discussed how a new generation of creative Millennials are using new technological tools to collaborate, be inspired globally, and bring down barriers to creative expression and execution. Most importantly, Matt’s inspirational talk demonstrated that because of pluralistic creation, the trends and tools that are operating at the global level can be equally and successfully utilized in the local context of Vermont, and he urged audience members to seize this resource as a chance to ensure a more creative future for the Green Mountain State. He laid out a blueprint for a new Brand Vermont; one inspired by Switzerland, where nature based tourism, agricultural production and economic dynamism all play well together. He went on to call for the state’s traditional stakeholders to be expanded beyond agriculture and tourism, calling for the state to jettison traditional depictions he described as “Bucolic Bumpkinism”. In ending, he told the crowd to work to embrace a new economy, built around firms that leverage Vermont’s hard earned reputation as a place to “live differently, lead differently and profit differently”.