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From the Industrial Age to the Creative Age

hyoin min / flickr

Democratizing entrepreneurship and creativity

On this edition of River to River, host Ben Kieffer talks with co-founder Amanda West and speakers of this year's EntreFEST, a three-day event promising game-changing training and inspiration, featuring over a hundred entrepreneurs. They discuss why co-working spaces are becoming more popular, how tech can help factories thrive in the 21st century, and how politics, art, and contemporary culture inspired a thought-provoking t-shirt line.

"We live in a time where entrepreneurship and creativity have been democratized," says West. "The internet gives us tools so that everybody can be more creative and have the tools to take the ideas and the passions inside of them and put them out into the world. I think we're seeing a transition from the industrial age to one that is really driven by creativity."

Along with creativity, more entrepreneurs are practicing "social entrepreneurship," where they value involvement, have a stake in their community, and are trying to solve deeper societal issues, like poverty.

"We're in this new time, where people have the tools and the capacity; so we can go out and solve a lot of the problems that we've been facing,” West says.

Ben Kieffer is the host of IPR's River to River