October 21st 2010, Kortrijk, Belgium

Why this conference?
All over the world, numerous cities and regions devote themselves to creativity and innovation to leverage their economic competitiveness. However, it usually does not go beyond ad hoc initiatives. The question that interests us is how you can take it a step further as a city or region. How can we develop such a strategic creativity policy? And what are the success factors of such a policy?

With these questions we wanted not only to inspire local policy makers, but also to challenge other European and Flemish cities with creative ambitions. Diverse European partners, Flemish networks and public bodies, national as well as international cities and regions, partners from the French-Belgian Eurometropolis and regional organisations were therefore present. All in all, some 130 people attended the conference.

Programme of 21 October
A first part of the conference was devoted to creative cities with a clearly distinct creativity policy that has already produced visible results. It is beyond all doubt that Tampere meets that criterium: the “Creative Tampere Programme” will mobilise € 40 million over a time period of 6 years and focus on the growth of the creative industry, more entrepreneurship, innovative forms of cooperation and a more attractive image. A number of specific incentives of the city of Tampere also provided inspiration for many of those present. For example, the “Demola" initiative gained a lot of approval: an open innovation platform where students are put in multi-talent teams with an eye to the development of new ideas and products based on company needs.

In addition, we also gave the floor to the companies themselves: What do they expect of the city or region in which they establish themselves? Speakers: a representative of BBC Scotland and Benjamin Vandorpe, CEO of Aluci, a company that did not opt for Brussels, Ghent or Antwerp, but deliberately established itself in Kortrijk. In spite of the difference in size between both companies, it was remarkable that both told a similar story: about the importance of sufficient critical mass in a certain city (presence of education, related companies, sufficient dynamism and events) and about a long-term creativity commitment of that city. In this story, a central role is played by the (local) authorities, which need to stimulate and support, but nevertheless need to provide sufficient space for the companies to “do their thing”. It was widely recognised that a supportive government policy can be decisive: For example, Glasgow had the ambition to develop a digital cluster in the city, which was a decisive criterion for BBC Scotland to further expand its offices in Glasgow.

In the afternoon the focus was on the “Budafabric”, a concrete leverage project in Kortrijk that attempts to bridge the gaps between art & culture, the economy and education & research. Similar international projects held up a mirror to Kortrijk: how do you organise links between different industries, what could be a successful business model for such breeding grounds, and how can such a project have a lasting impact on its surroundings? Various inputs, including a number of testimonies of CCC partners, provided a wealth of information.

The afternoon was built around dialogues. Each of the presentations had a different focus (infrastructure - no infrastructure to support the creative policy, focus on the product or focus on the process as a working model). Subsequently, there was time for a more detailed discussion of these themes through questions.

Regional and European example projects
The entire programme was interwoven with pecha kuchas to acquaint the international audience in a short, yet powerful manner with leading creative projects from the Kortrijk region and from the CCC and Eurotowns networks.

In the late afternoon the partners of the ‘Creative City Challenge’ project awarded the ‘Best Collaboration Award’ to five nominees. The award rewards and promotes cross-fertilisation between creative and traditional companies and between creative companies The ‘Kunstgreb’ (Denmark), ‘Prizeotel’ (Germany), ‘Kunsthalle’ (Germany), ‘Rockmuseum and Roskilde bibliotekerne’ (Denmark) and ‘Architectural Firm Salinger and Christophe De Jongh’ (Germany-Netherlands) projects were among the winners.

Programme (pdf)

All presentations can be viewed at www.slideshare.net.
All presentations can be viewed as videos in the download section.

Contact:

Eurotowns-partners: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it