OKLAHOMA CITY _ Maybe Oklahoma singer-songwriter Hoyt Axton was seeing into the future when he proclaimed in a Pizza Hut commercial two decades ago that his home state was "the cultural center of the universe."

In 2010, Oklahoma will be on the world stage as Oklahoma City hosts the annual Creativity World Forum, where folks from around the world get together and talk about, well, creating things, or doing things more creatively.

Creativity is not confined to the arts, but is what brings great advances in education, commerce and other areas of culture, says Peter Abramo, executive director of Creative Oklahoma, Inc.

Abramo said his organization works with Sir Ken Robinson, British author and creativity expert, "who likes to say that creativity is original thoughts, original ideas that add value. We focus on adding value in education and business and culture."

More than 1,500 delegates attended the 2008 Creativity World Forum held last month in Antwerp, Belgian. The 2009 conference will be held in Stuttgart, Germany.

Oklahoma is the only U.S. state currently recognized as a "District of Creativity" by the World Creativity Project. Other districts are Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany; Catalonia, Spain; Karnataka, India; Lombardy, Italy; Nord-Pas de Calais, France; Qingdao, China; Quebec, Canada; Rhone-alpes, France; Scotland; Shanghai, China; Tampere, Finland and Flanders, Belgium.

Details and speakers for the two-day conference and trade exposition in Oklahoma City are still being worked out, Abramo said Wednesday.

Speakers at the Antwerp event included Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer; Chris Anderson, editor of Wired Magazine; Tom Kelly, CEO of design firm IDEO; Dan Heath, author of the best-selling book, "Made to Stick," and actor-comedian John Cleese.

"This gets Oklahoma on the world stage," Abramo said. "People will come here from Europe, India, China and other areas."

Abramo said the idea for a counterpart to Britain's Academy of Contemporary Music, to be located in Oklahoma City's Bricktown, came to fruition after discussions by two members of the Oklahoma Creativity Project — and University of Central Oklahoma President Roger Webb and Scott Booker, manager for the alternative rock band, Flaming Lips.

V. Burns Hargis, Oklahoma State University president, is chairman of the board that guides Creative Oklahoma's work. Other board members are community and tribal leaders, educators, corporate executives and state agency directors.

"Oklahoma is well on its way toward promoting new opportunities for creativity and innovation at all levels in education, in government, in the workplace, and in the daily lives of its people," Hargis said.

A 16-member delegation led by Commerce Secretary Natalie Shirley, took part in the 2008 conference in Antwerp, where a segment on "Creativity in Education" was presented by Don Betz, president of Northeastern University, and Jean Hendrickson, executive director of A+ Schools.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.