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w w w . i n s i g h t o n b u s i n e s s . c o m D e c e m b e r 2 0 14 • I NSIGH T | 19 B y S e a n P . J o h n s o n • P h o t o g r a p h b y S h a n e V a n B o x t e l , I m a g e S t u d i o s M ark DesJardin could live and work anywhere. Fueled by a creative streak and an entrepreneurial drive, by 2011 he had founded two successful web-based businesses. e first was the daily deal site Groucher.com, followed by GroupRide, a web-based portal designed to boost the sport of cycling by linking group rides across the region and the country. Always on the lookout for new opportunities, DesJardin took a serious look a few years ago at relocating to an area with greater population density and greater access to venture capital to meet his entrepreneurial interests. He was also looking for a creative environment in which to work and play. In the end, he chose Appleton. "I like it here," DesJardin says. "I can live the kind of lifestyle I want to here." Living that lifestyle was an important factor in his decision. DesJardin is part of an emerging demographic economists, planners, demographers and academics refer to as the creative class, the vanguard of the emerging creative economy. Nationally, the creative class makes up one-third of the U.S. workforce, collects half of all wages and accounts for 70 percent of discretionary spending, according to the Creative Class Group, an These young professionals in Northeast Wisconsin have made a conscious commitment to live and work in the region despite the attractions of larger metropolitan areas, including Adrienne Palm, director of Leadership and the Pulse Young Professionals Network at the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce, center. Also pictured, from left, are Anjali Seefeldt of Strategic Solutions Consulting; Dr. Wayne Bentham, a psychiatrist with Affinity Behavioral Health; Mark DesJardin, sales and marketing coordinator for C3 Corporation; and Brian Johnson, manager of the Greater Green Bay Chamber's young professionals group Current. How to nurture a creative economy in the New North