Introducing Creative Growth Anna Jacobson, project manager Östsam Regional Development Council Open Days, Brussels 5 october 2010

What is CREATIVE GROWTH?

CREATIVE GROWTH.. is a cooperation project between 10 European regions with the objective to create improved business support services and solutions for the creative sector and to raise awareness of the importance and potential of the creative sector as a key driver for regional development and economic growth

Some basic facts and figures INTERREG IVC Regional Initiative Project Lead Partner Östsam Regional Development Council, SE Budget: 1,9 million out of which 1,47 milion ERDF Project period: partners from SE, UK, HU, DK, LT, IT, ES, RO, BG

What is the creative sector? The creative sector as we know it: The creative sector includes media/digital, art and craft /design and heritage/information. Challenge – lack of definition!.

Why betting on the creative sector?

Mapping the creative sector shows.. Size of creative sector Relative growth of creative sector The creative Sector is an important part of economy in all partner regions The creative Sector is a growing part of economy The number of SMEs in the creative sector in our regions is rapidly growing Micro businesses are important for the creative sector

In the highly globalized and constantly changing world which we live in, creativity is both a tool and a must if we want to be successful as individuals or as companies or as communities Joséf Gonda, Manager Forensys Communication Consultant Ltd, Észak-Alföld, Hungary CREATIVE GROWTH wants to promote the link between business and culture; generate know-how on how to address the field strategically; and support the development of business support structures tailor-made for the creative sector

Achievements so far.. Phase 1 - Mapping the creative sector Limited regional mappings of the creative sector using a joint set of standards with a joint interregional analysis Thanks to the mapping one focus area of the innovation stategy will be on creative industry. The findings of the regional mapping functioned as an imput for the state of the art of the revised regional innovation strategy. Mapping the creative sector has increased the knowledge about the creative sector in our region. The creative sector is shown to be growth sector and the work in the project has created a new link between culture and business. Challenge: Available statistical tools are not appropriate and available statistics are scarce. Statistics on regional level is a neglected topic at EU level

Phase 2 – Benchmarking 4 Thematic working groups on Access to Finance, Incubators, Science and Industry and Networks 4 Pilot cases (ongoing activities) Creative Growth new business support path (Asters IT) - defining a specific support path for new creative businesses and testing this path on a selection of companies. Creative Growth training workshops (Edinburgh Napier University UK) - increasing knowledge about the Scottish Music Industry for trainers and mentors. Creative Growth moving offices (Spinderihallerne - Centre for Culture and Business DK). "Moving offices" aims to make it possible for creative entrepreneurs to swap office space between different incubators in shorter periods and access other creative networks and environments in other European regions. Creative Growth business support to the creative sector (CEEI Asturias ES) - testing Scottish experiences of business support to the creative sector

Achievements and reactions so far.. Creative Growth has been a possibility to identify initiatives from other partner regions to import in Emilia-Romagna Good practices on online networks and platform presented by Napier University has inspired us to launch a website: which could later on have community development fuction. such a network did not exist before in our region. To share good practices and learn actions / ways of working in the same field from other European regions in the project, which can be put in practice not only in creative sector. They can be also considered for other sectors. It is an opportunity to involve our stakeholders and share/learn directly CG partner experiences.

Coming up.. -Regional actions plans for the creative sector -Policy recommendations -Development and creation of a toolbox for making creative businesses grow in our regions Next step – to go from analysis to actions and results!

Thank you for your attention! For more information: Anna Jacobson, Project Manager Epost: Read more on: