“Boosting innovation through Arts & ICT” | #EURegionsWeek2020

As part of the ’18th European Week of Regions and Cities’

Cultural and creative industries (CCIs) have always played an important driving role in the development of innovative processes that leverage human capital, vertical specialisations, and networks – often informal – that contribute to the creation of the ‘soft economy’. The creative sectors are not only the generators of initiatives with a strong social impact but also create positive effects on the economy.

In fact, during the lockdown due to COVID-19, CCIs have exponentially increased the use of digital technology. On the one hand, the awareness of the importance of ICT, a channel on which to invest more resources, has increased; on the other hand, the technological gaps of cultural organisations that would need greater interaction with ICT professionals to develop integrated strategies and key competencies have become evident.

The crisis also brought to light the urgent need to further encourage cross-fertilisation between the cultural and creative sectors and traditional industries, such as health and education, to develop new and more sustainable business models, to increase the innovative offer and generate positive spillovers on the territory and the economy. With this in mind, our workshop will present projects linking ARTS & ICT and activities that expunge the boundaries between the two sectors to stimulate creativity and innovation.

The workshop will be designed as follows:

• Interactive dialogue outlining the main issues on the importance of integrating Arts in ICT for SME innovation and competitiveness. Initial brainstorming for collection of keywords
• Effects of collaborative processes on SMEs’ innovation and competitiveness. A Case Study/ Good Practice of RegionArts to be presented
• Making ICT usable and Arts useful – how does design provide a bridge between user needs, creative ideas and technology? Design4Innovation presentation
• How can regional initiatives and hubs for collaborative practices between artists and technologists be created to trigger regional ICT innovation and learn from art thinking as a strategy for innovation? STARTS initiative
• Conclusions and debate

Discover why projects such as RegionArts and Design4Innovation and initiatives such as STARTS are so relevant, and how they develop real actions and initiatives aimed at fostering collaborations between artists and technology, influencing and improving regional measures that can make these relations more structured and systematic.

Moderator:
Chiara Frencia, Board Member, Startup Europe Regions Network, Belgium.

Speakers:
Ana Fonseca, Scientific and technical coordination, Porto Global Hub of Polytechnic of Porto, Portugal.
Veronika Liebl, Director of European Cooperation, Ars Electronica Linz, Austria.
Anna Whicher, Head of Policy Design, Cardiff Metropolitan University, United Kingdom.

Thank you Andreia Mendes for sharing this event with STARTS community through “share content” form.