We continue our examination of the business book "The Rise of the Creative Class," which helped people understand the identity of their cities, with an interview of author Richard Florida. How did the book come about and where is the creative class congregating today?

Entrepreneurial communities grow up around smart people. Whenever someone in government asks me what they can do to accelerate entrepreneurship, I always tell them to put as much money and energy as they can into education. If you build a broad base of smart, inquisitive, curious people that are long term members of your community, you'll be delighted with the results.

XCel Energy's SmartGridCity project was supposed to turn Boulder, Colorado into the ultimate smart grid hub. But that's not how it's turning out.

Cisco, Microsoft, IBM, Google -- it seems everyone is in the smart-grid fray, trying to transform our electromechanical power grid into a digital network that saves energy, taps alternative sources, lowers costs, and boosts reliability. But Boulder is the first U.S. city to pilot a large-scale smart-grid system, allowing residents to monitor use and control appliances remotely. Xcel Energy has installed 21,000 meters since the $100 million program started in 2008. Early adopters cut energy use by as much as 45%.

Ad powerhouse CP+B announces a new relationship with its parent company, MDC Partners, with a new role for Alex Bogusky as creative head of MDC's mini-empire.

Many leaders are described as "visionary" -- I'm always curious as to how they got that way. Is it something they're born with, or something we can we all learn? I had a chance to participate in a Silicon Flatirons Q&A with media mogul Ted Turner as we probed this question with Ted Turner.