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RALEIGH – Monday started N.C. State's 25th annual Emerging Issues Forum, a chance for minds from across the state and across country to come together to discuss ways to move North Carolina forward.

More than 1,200 people registered for the event.

This year's theme is "Creativity" and that means finding innovative ways to push job growth in the state.

“We moved from the traditional, agricultural and manufacturing economy to more of the technology kinds of things, knowledge base. Now, to make the knowledge base work, we have to make our people more creative,” former Gov. Jim Hunt said.

"We've got people from across the country that are going to be sharing best practices and who are going to be inspiring us with their own notions of what creativity is, and what it will mean,” said Anita Brown-Graham, director of the Emerging Issues Institute.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has led his state in a similar effort to create jobs. He'll share ideas with North Carolina's leaders about doing the same thing here.

For many years, the UNC School of the Arts has been training young people for jobs in creative industries. Students will get a chance to demonstrate their education's return on investment when they perform.

“Our creativity is the envy of the world. Our industries in creativity are always admired, never outsourced, and they are exported to every corner of the globe,” UNCSA Chancellor John Mauceri said of America's creative industries.

School of Dance Dean Ethan Stiefel said creativity and innovation need to be nurtured, even in tough economic times.

"It is a challenge that people don't understand and appreciate how much art does contribute, not only to the human spirit, but also to local communities, quality of life, and in the end, actually does make a great contribution to the economic climate," he said.

Tim Horn, an industrial engineering Ph.D. candidate at N.C. State, was demonstrating the advances that are being made in building custom medical implants for animals and humans.

"There's a saying that industrial engineers don't make things, we make things better," he said. "Implants have been around for awhile and this process of bone in growth has been around for a while. But, we're trying to apply new technologies to make that particular field better."

Hunt believes that kind of inspiration will make this year's forum the best ever.

"I guarantee they'll be more stimulated than they ever have been in their lives,” he said.

Gov. Bev Perdue will also be there to discuss her North Carolina Innovation Council.

Stay with News 14 Carolina on Monday and Tuesday for continued coverage of the Emerging Issues Forum.