“Adopt a compact way of living.”

This is the message that resonated with me the most after attending “Social Connect Presents Richard Florida” as part of the Social Innovation Ideas Festival hosted by the United Way. It was the kind of advice that doesn’t just end once heard, but a challenge for all those in the audience to put it to practice.

According to dictionary.com, COMPACT is defined as:

“To be closely and firmly united, designed to be small in size and economical in operation.”

As Richard stated, “our inner core needs to be re-used, it has wonderful infrastructure already built in” – it really is up to us to take advantage of opportunities at hand.

In the spirit of Richard’s interactive presentation, I will not instruct you, as the reader, on how to adopt a compact way of living. Instead, I ask that you send us your thoughts so that we can learn from each other. Send your ideas of what compact living is to contact@calgaryisawesome.com or drop us a tweet to @aptulio or @ciawesome.

With your awesome input, I hope to put together a “How To” guide for a future post!

Richard Florida is an Urban Theorist and author of several influential best sellers, including The Rise of the Creative Class and Who’s Your City. Richard is Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and a Senior Editor for the Atlantic.

For more information on items discussed in this post, please go to:

Richard Florida

http://www.creativeclass.com/

United Way’s Social Innovation Ideas Festival

http://www.cvent.com/events/social-innovation-ideas-festival/event-summary-efd739a9f3524a73ba9094abf5570e71.aspx

United Way Calgary

http://www.calgaryunitedway.org/

The lovely event organizers from the United Way