Our friends over at PSFK just wrote an excellent piece on New Orleans. They state that New Orleans has a huge potential to become the next creative capital of the US. And I would have to agree..

a fairly blank slate rested upon a city with deep history and culture. After the post-Katrina exodus, young creative thinkers have been passing through the city exploring the idea of working there - Likemind New Orleans is a particular starting place for new folk to meet other likeminded people.Almost half-way between New York and Los Angeles, there’s an opportunity to hold these young people here with a mix of jobs and culture and with their help encourage the region to boom as a creative center. The city has everything that creative minds seem to need: a deep authentic and slightly dark culture, cosmopolitan people, an unhealthy appreciation of alcohol, a local music and arts scene and a growing number of people that want to make things happen.

Totally agree with all those statements but being someone that lives in New Orleans, here are some of my thoughts to strengthen what Piers mentions..

Couple that with the rising trend of the Fourth Sector. Organizations driven by both social purpose and financial promise. Combination of the public, private and volunteer sectors. Before, students mainly had two choices - working for a non-profit to do good or selling out to Corporate America. Now young professionals can do both within the Fourth Sector. “Young M.B.A. students are not satisfied with going to work for a normal corporation because they are passionate to do good in the world and do it in business. People of faith want exactly the same thing, and there is a whole generation of people who’ve become extraordinarily wealthy as a result of the technological revolution and are now asking themselves if they can create change in the world.”

Here are some statistics to prove the point. The number of college students who volunteer are up from 600K to 3.3M (2002 to 2005). Nearly half of young professionals would turn away from an employer that lacked good corporate social responsibility policies. 1/3 of them said that working for a caring and responsible employer was more important than they salary they earned (BT Survey, August 2007). And just a decade ago, there were virtually no business school courses with a social curriculum. In 2003, Fast Company announced that a total of more than 250 colleges and universities offered either coursework or degree programs for students interested in jobs “with a social focus.”

Companies like Patagonia, Method and Nau embrace the double and triple bottom line where profit is just as important as social factors and sustainability. Even companies such as Toyota and Gap have adopted social policy within their brand mission statements. Change is evident. People are fed up. Documentaries like An Inconvenient Truth tipped the Green movement and SiCKO will change the healthcare system within our country. People are becoming fed up with the way things are run.

This movement is evident in New Orleans. The Times Picayune article showcases the influx of young Vanguards into New Orleans. Over half of the schools in New Orleans are charter schools. We’re leading the sustainable green movement with companies such as Global Green and Jeriko House. Startups like New Orleans Exchange are launching here to help rebuild the city through entrepreneurship. We just elected the youngest and first minority governer in Louisiana, Bobby Jindal. There’s even more evidence in the newly released top 40 under 40 by Gambit Weekly. And it’s not just us, major outlets such as Business Week have labeled New Orleans as the “Startup Laboratory“.

New Orleans should be known as the leaders within the 4th Sector movement. Our city is ripe with opportunities for massive change. The talented Vanguards are moving into the city now. Much like Austin is known for music, Silicon Valley for software development, New Orleans should be known as the leading innovators within the 4th Sector movement.