Charles Landry is an international authority on the use of imagination and creativity in urban change. He is best known for having invented the concept of the Creative City in the late 1980s. Its focus is how cities can create the enabling conditions for people and organizations to think, plan and act with imagination to solve problems and develop opportunities. The notion has become a global movement and changed the way cities thought about their capabilities and resources.
Charles noticed, however, that there was a crucial gap in the Creative City concept that needed addressing: a focus on the vital role of bureaucrats as facilitators and drivers of change. It was at this point that he came up with the Creative Bureaucracy idea – a seed planted 3 years ago which has since developed into the movement you’re part of today.
Charles helps cities and the public administrations behind them to identify and make the most of their potential by triggering their inventiveness and thinking and by opening up new conversations about their future. His aim is to help cities become more resilient, self-sustaining and to punch above their weight.