Photo 118472981 © Flydragonfly | Dreamstime.com

SPECTRA Study Visit to Copenhagen

The Study visit to Copenhagen, Denmark, hosted by the Creative Business Network, was composed of several elements and took place over several days from 2-6 June 2023, including:

  • 3 June ekip project Demo-Policy-Lab Meeting including SPECTRA partners.
  • 4 June SPECTRA Partners visit Copenhill and Networking dinner at the Reffen Street Food Market.
  • 5 June SPECTRA partners attendance of the Creative Business Cup Global Finals.
  • 6 June SPECTRA Study visit with stakeholder initiatives.

As a part of the SPECTRA study visit, the partners had the opportunity to collaborate and network with another Horizon Europe project relevant to the strengthening of ecosystems – ekip -European Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries Policy Platform. The ekip project held a session on the methodology for the policy lab, hosted by the SPECTRA partner Creative Business Network, which was highly relevant to SPECTRA activities and targeted outcomes.

ekip brings together highly networked and diverse organisations with strong track-record in research, innovation, and policymaking for and with the CCIs. Beneficiaries from 12 countries with different social, cultural, and economic contexts. Leading universities with expertise on research and innovation in culture and creativity. Organisations with online data collection and analysis competences and visualisation skills. Specialised policy consulting companies and advisories will be linking practice, research, and innovation with policy development for the CCSI. Operating with open innovation principles, ekip will establish a partner and network-driven policy recommendation engine to continuously drive the formulation and adoption of policy development recommendations for Europe’s Cultural and Creative Industries. This will result in support and guidance that strengthens the capacity for CCI-actors to engage in and contribute to complex innovation processes.

The interplay between the project’s activities will allow the consortium to deliver two objectives: building the meta-network amongst ecosystems and developing the knowledge-based and participatory policy engine which will come together in making the third objective – supporting the development for CCI-centered ecosystems – possible.

On the second day, SPECTRA partners were invited to visit the Copenhill facility. Amager Bakke or Copenhill, is a combined heat and power waste-to-energy plant (new resource handling centre) and recreational facility in Copenhagen Denmark, located prominently within view of the city’s downtown.
The facility opened in 2017, and partially replaced the nearby old incineration plant in Amager, which is in the process of being converted from coal to biomass. The two plants play a major role in Copenhagen’s ambitions of meeting zero carbon requirements by 2025. The recreational components of the facility (the dry ski run, hiking trail and climbing wall) opened in December 2018, with an attendance estimated at 42-57 thousand visitors annually.


Copenhill was named the World Building of the Year 2021 at the fourteenth annual World Architecture Festival. It is estimated to cost $670 million and is expected to burn 400,000 tons of municipal solid waste annually. It also houses a sports facility designed by Bjarke Ingels Group with an 85 m (279 ft) tall, sloped roof that doubles as year-round artificial ski slope, hiking slope and climbing wall, manufactured by Walltopia (a Bulgarian company), is the world’s tallest climbing wall at 80 meters. The facility is a great example of creativity enabling cross-sectoral innovation. The partners met up with other stakeholders at the facility, to network and discuss topics of common interest.

On the 5th June, SPECTRA partners engaged with the Creative Business Cup. The Creative Business Cup (CBC) 2023 Global Finals was a celebration of innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship from around the globe. This annual event brings together the most exceptional startups, industry experts, investors, and creative minds to showcase their groundbreaking ideas, products, and services. Taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark, the CBC Global Finals is the ultimate platform for creative entrepreneurs to connect, collaborate, and be inspired with many high-profile speakers and exciting pitches. The Creative Business Cup 2023 took place in Volume building, a revitalised regenerated industrial space that provided a creative environment for the event and for the SPECTRA partners to connect with attendees, presenters and stakeholders.

The last day of the study visit kicked-off with the visit to Confederation of Danish Industry – Host: Lise Thomsen, Head of DI Creative Industries at the Industriens Hus. DI is a private business and employers’ organisation representing approximately 20,000 companies in Denmark. They aim to provide the best possible corporate conditions for their member companies. They provide a range of supports including Advisory – legal advice, business services, global trading and more, as well as Events, courses and networks, business delegations, and assist with gaining of new knowledge.

This was followed by the SPECTRA partners project meeting, to discuss project progress and planning of next steps. Following a networking lunch, the SPECTRA partners visited Copenhagen Capacity – Host: Nikolaj Lubanski, COO. Copenhagen Capacity are the official organisation for attracting international companies, investors and professional talent to Denmark and the Greater Copenhagen Region. By facilitating close partnerships across industries, academia, and the public sector for more than 20 years, they are the go-to experts in promoting our region globally, making it an attractive destination for international talents and businesses. Their passion is helping international companies realise their business opportunities and local companies prosper with the world’s talented professionals.


Finally, the study visit was rounded up with a visit to Creative Denmark – Host: Christian Kierkegaard Michelsen, Project Manager, at the BloxHub and the tour of this innovative and creative facility.

Creative Denmark is a not-for-profit, public-private partnership that creates awareness about Danish creative strongholds internationally and the potential of Danish creativity in solving global challenges. They work to match international demand for creative innovation and human-centred solutions with the vast competencies in the Danish creative industries. Creative Denmark is funded by a strong group of public and private partners that count the Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, the Ministry of Culture, the Confederation of Danish Industry, the Danish Chamber of Commerce, and the philanthropic association Realdania.

They are based in the BLOX building located in the heart of Copenhagen. BLOX is a national and international epicenter that engages people in sustainable design, architecture, and urban planning through collaborations, cross-sector learning, partnerships, events, and business development.

More details and more about lessons learned, can be viewed under the resource page on this website, in the published deliverable.

Photo 37642982 / Berlin © Mathiaspetro | Dreamstime.com

SPECTRA Study Visit to Berlin

SPECTRA partner attended a study visit, hosted by the German partner Media Deals, during 9th and 10th November 2023.

On the first day of the study visit to the Berlin Ecosystem the partner learning activities kicked-off with the meeting with Marte Hentschel- Co CEO of VORN- Fashion Hub situated at Bikini Berlin.


VORN – the Berlin fashion hub is offering space for collaborations for positive impact within the fashion industry and culture. It is a physical and digital place in the heart of Berlin, where innovations for a sustainable development of the fashion industry are collaboratively designed, communicated and implemented. As a registered cooperative, our focus is on the profitable business of a community. Their four programs Community Services, Innovation Lab, Scaling Program and Coworking Space create a pre-competitive environment for positive impact in the fashion industry: they are a marketplace for curated services. Their goal is an economically successful circularity in the fashion and textile industry as well as taking social responsibility and reducing CO₂ emissions. VORN is commissioned and co-funded by the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises.

This was followed by a meeting with Berlin Partner at the Industrie- und Handelskammer zu Berlin (IHK Berlin), the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Berlin (CCI Berlin). Berlin Partner works on economic growth, promotes business, technology and innovation, and presents the advantages of the capital to companies, investors and talents.

Berlin Partner supports companies and scientific institutions that are already established in the region in their expansion plans and connects them within the strong Berlin Partner network. In addition, Berlin Partner’s experts provide information on funding opportunities and advise on the search for suitable locations or highly qualified personnel. Berlin Partner’s successes are measured by a range of indicators: the focus is on the number of jobs that can be newly created or secured in Berlin with the support of Berlin Partner. In addition, it is worth taking a look at the investment volume and third-party funds raised. In the last year 2022, 8389 new jobs were created in just the 239 projects we successfully managed. In the process, around 1100 million Euro were invested and third-party funding of 140.1 million Euro was raised for research and development. Specifically, Networks and funding for Berlin based creative companies were discussed.

Highlights discussed included:

  • Headquarters of Axel Springer AG, Universal Music Germany, Paramount, Wooga, elt, DW TV, rbb, Netflix, Sony Deutschland, Zalando
  • Berlin as an International event location: Berlinale, German Film Awards,Gamesweek , Deutscher Computerspielpreis , re:publica
  • Film location for numerous national and international productions
  • Germany’s music capital with an annual turnover of 700 million
  • Most varied newspaper region and Germany’s strongest publishing location
  • A hotspot for the international games industry and e sports companies.

Twice a year, Berlin Fashion Week brings fashion lovers and the fashion industry together. Numerous companies from the media landscape have settled in Berlin. All of the major international broadcasters, news agencies, and editorial offices are represented here. Various universities, research facilities and institutes form a unique science and training landscape.

The introduction of the Berlin Partner was also accompanied by a presentation on the activities of the European Enterprise Network. The Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) helps businesses innovate and grow on an international scale. It is the world’s largest support network for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with international ambitions. The Network is active worldwide. It brings together experts from member organisations that are renowned for their excellence in business support.

Member organisations include:

  • chambers of commerce and industry
  • regional development organisations
  • universities and research institutes
  • innovation agencies.

These informative and interactive sessions were followed up by a consortium meeting where SPECTRA partners discussed the project progress and forward planning with a particular focus on Work Package 4, investor and start-up pitching activities.

Following the conclusion of the meeting on the project management activities, the SPECTRA partners had the opportunity to hear from and interact with Spielfabrique Professionalization programs presentation where Julia Krüger and Melanie Seifart presented on this initiative.

SpielFabrique stems from a Franco-German video game initiative created in April 2015 by Media Deals at the French Embassy on the occasion of the International Games Week Berlin. As a catalyst for the video game ecosystem, they bring together all industry stakeholders to create greater understanding, knowledge, and collaboration. From mentoring indie game studios looking to bring their first game to market or established indie studios looking to scale up, to its consulting business towards public entities, SpielFabrique has built a comprehensive understanding of the video game ecosystem. Their goal is to stimulate international activity and strengthen ecosystems. Their annual pan-European programme comprises 6 intense months of workshops, networking, and 1-on-1 mentoring. The programme helps participants make the leap from having a functioning prototype to becoming a financially independent and successful studio.

Their supports include:

  • international mentoring programs for indie games studios.
  • Empowering Development – boosting video games development through mentoring and networking.
  • Global Market Advisory – advising institutions, funds, and studios to develop their international market.
  • Globalizing Local Gaming – making local gaming ecosystem international.

Finally, at the end of day 1, SPECTRA Partners attended a networking event and dinner at the Games Ground Conference 2023. This included a meeting with Medianet’s Florian Masuth. Medianet berlinbrandenburg eV is a network association for the media, creative and digital industries. Medianet, together with the members of the network, politics, business, and science, creates cooperation on an equal footing in the Berlin-Brandenburg metropolitan region and beyond national borders. Medianet strengthens the locations as employer regions. Medianet is an impetus, supporter, doer and connects actors in an interdisciplinary manner on the common path to the digital future.

In addition to regular training opportunities for members’ employees, they cooperate with universities, integrate market drivers of future technologies and record the business climate in the capital region with the annual medien.barometer.
On day 2 of the study visit, the SPECTRA partners travelled to Potsdam to visit Studio Babelsberg.

Studio Babelsberg is one of Europe’s largest film studio complexes, offering 21 state-of-the-art sound stages, flexible backlots and vast production facilities on a 42-acre lot. Take advantage of our exceptional production services, internationally experienced crews, and the diversity of attractive film locations, only a few steps from the vibrant city of Berlin that make Studio Babelsberg one of the most attractive film and TV production sites in Europe. In 2018, Potsdam is classified as MediaTech Hub. Volucap at Studio Babelsberg, the first volumetric capture studio on the European continent, is one of its flagships. The circular studio, equipped with 32 cameras, makes immersive VR and AR projects possible.

SPECTRA project partners had the opportunity to meet with the MediaTech Hub and Volucap.
The MediaTech Hub (MTH) Potsdam is the umbrella under which MTH bundles their community, projects and activities. They are all interconnected and interlocked – be it in their startup programmes like the MTH Accelerator or the MTH Space as well as their annual conference. With all the projects, MTH pursues a goal of further advancing the media tech ecosystem and shaping a more efficient, inclusive, and creative future. The SPECTRA partners benefited from meeting Andrea Wickleder, CEO
The MediaTech Hub Potsdam is the only digital hub in Germany with a focus on media technology. It makes media technology innovations from Potsdam visible, strengthens entrepreneurship and connects actors from the network and beyond (CONNECT!). Developing media-tech ideas and business models (DEVELOP!) is what the MTH Accelerator encourages young founders to do. It is the sparring partner for start-up teams in the early phase. The programme was initiated by the Hasso Plattner Institute, the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF and the University of Potsdam. In the heart of Babelsberg, the media city, MTH have created a space for media tech start-up teams. In the MTH Space, ideas and innovations are realised (DO!). Media technologies pave the way for every business. The MTH Conference brings together new ideas and business models, international perspectives and groundbreaking applications to think ahead together (THINK!). In an increasingly digital world, Knowledge Transfer is an essential factor for the ability to innovate and thus the key for business competitiveness and success. The MTH Innovator identifies itself as an MediaTech enabler and creates the framework conditions, in which MediaTech innovations can be introduced and applied in SMEs (MOVE!).

Following this very insightful presentation of MTH, SPECTRA project were treated to a visit to the attendance of the Volucap volumetric studio and interaction based in Babelsberg Park. Volumetric studio opened in Babelsberg just outside Berlin in 2018, driven by a high-profile consortium. New stereoscopic depth technology enables innovative forms of presentation for film and media beyond entertainment. Actress Emilia Schüle (known from Ku’damm 59, Traumfabrik) was the first person to be recorded in the volumetric studio at the opening.

The studio is located on 170 square meters in the fx.center on the grounds of Studio Babelsberg and is equipped with 32 cameras, which are installed all around on a nearly 4 meter high light rotunda. People and objects can be scanned three-dimensionally and lifelike in the room. The corresponding basic technology was specially developed by Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute. The previous prototype of the volumetric video studio is for laboratory use only and has been in operation since October 2017. The installed software “3D Human Body Reconstruction” does not create digital avatars but creates hologram-like representations of real people that can be processed like computer-generated models. The actors recorded in this way can be placed in real and virtual worlds. It is also possible for spectators to enter the world with the help of VR technology and view the events and the person photographed or the object photographed from every possible angle.

The latest development of Volucap includes the possibility to produce footage underwater, and mobile studio facilities. In a custom-built underwater tank at a depth of 7 meters, it took the Volucap team 2 months to develop the world’s first volumetric underwater film studio from initial concept to successful on-set deployment.

Following this exciting experience of a company active in the Babelsberg ecosystem, SPECTRA partners, engaged with Mafalda Duarte, Head of Studio Telescope Game Studios UG. Mafalda in the addition to building a team to work at game development, is also an ambassador for Women in Games and also work for the organisation as Ambassador Coordinator. In 2022, she co-founded the Game Dev Lisbon collective with other game developers based in Lisbon, with projects such as Game Dev Camp since 2020, Spotlight Awards and most recently, Spotlight Magazine. Telescope Game Studios are a part of a trail-blazing studio group run by passionate storytellers. Utilizing cutting-edge real-time tech, they create interwoven story universes for global audiences. Their narratives span across animated films, series, games and immersive experiences with heart and soul.
Their two animation and game studios are powered by a proprietary process and Unreal Engine production pipeline and have been awarded with two MegaGrants by Epic Games, as well as an innovation grant by the European Union.
Telescope Game Studios stand for equality, diversity, and inclusion – in their projects and their team. By integrating green workflows, a no-crunch policy and remote work capabilities, they provide a sustainable, inspiring environment for creators.

The day 2 of the study visit concluded with a presentation by Prof. Dr. Björn Stockleben, Professor of Emerging Media Production. Head of Studies Film- and TV Production Programme, Co-Head of Creative Exchange Studio (CX Studio) at the Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, together with Jörn Krug, the Project manager of the start-up service & MOVE2startup. The Babelsberg Film University is a lively place for film; it stands for a variety of materials and forms, genres and formats, for specialization and exchange. In their unique trade-oriented and interdisciplinary training, creative personalities develop their filmmaking attitude. They teach and research both scientifically and artistically and thus actively shape the development of media, science and society. In research, the film university pursues a variety of topics, approaches and projects that can be assigned to seven major research fields.

The partners were also part of a deep-dive into the University’s ecosystem, getting a sense of partnerships, collaborations, and networks, as well as funding supports, sponsorships and projects, an example being MOVE2startup, which is the laboratory for creativity-based entrepreneurship at the Babelsberg Film University. The lab promotes creative originality as a basis for media innovations. This looks at the impact on the creative industry and well beyond it. A wide variety of disciplines work together as teams on innovative solutions, facilitated by a strong international and regional partner network to support the start-up projects.

More detail about this study visit and lessons learned, can be found on the resources page, in the published deliverable.

SPECTRA at the EIT KIC CCSI Creativity Days

SPECTRA project was delighted to be represented at the City of Amsterdam Creativity Days on 16th and 17th October 2023, launching the EIT KIC CCSI Colocation Centre – CLC North West Europe.

City of Amsterdam hosted the event, which enabled project partners to learn more about how culture & creativity contribute to social innovation and cohesion, while developing innovative solutions for pressing social challenges, with the event uniting artists, innovators, investors, academics, policymakers and the entire culture & creativity sector with two inspiring days of innovation, collaboration and unleashing of boundless creativity.

European Culture & Creativity Days in Pakhuis De Zwijger

A great day delivered by the talented team from led by Anouk Wieleman and Marjolein Cremer of teh Cuty of Amsterdam, teh conference featured businesses who showed how they are pushing social innovation while scaling for growth and global competition – Lalaland.ai Michael Musandu, The Fabricant Adriana Hoppenbrouwer-Pereira. Stephen Fegan of Studio Meala, to name but a few. We also deep dived into EIT Culture & Creativity Investment Network at EuroQuity – Bpifrance and what it can do to increase the capital to culture and creativity sector in coming years and looked at social innovation and challenges of and opportunities for attracting private investment to this space with expert panel comprising Martijn Blom EVPA, Fran Sanderson Nesta, Mark Laagewaard CrowdAboutNow, and Mirjam Niessen of DOEN Participaties B.V.

Culture and Creativity Days Marineterrein

We had a chance to form many new connections during the study visit tours organised by the hosts, for the benefit of the SPECTRA project and respective partner ecosystems, while our engagement with the EIT KIC continues into the future.

Photo 79508794 © Rawpixelimages | Dreamstime.com

Welcome to the SPECTRA Community Space!

Following the SPECTRA project Panel Discussions on the topics of Stimulating Internal Innovation and use of Experimentation, as well as the Ecosystem as an Open Innovation platform, utilizing Inclusivity, and Diversity as key enabler – we are pleased to announce the formal launch of the SPECTRA Community Space.

The pandemic has served to reinforce the importance of peer-to-peer support for entrepreneurs to overcome challenges and keep moving forward. It is not only integral during times of adversity – it is also crucial for those looking to resume their growth strategies in a variety of other contexts. ‘Peer-to-peer support’ networks encourage likeminded individuals to share brilliant ideas, best practice and learn from one another. They bring together different types of peers, and this encourages dynamic thinking and provides fresh perspectives on ideas and challenges. It gives a forum to peers to ask questions, seek advice, find out about others’ experiences, and share fears, concerns and successes. Peers feel safe and able to express themselves in a non-judgmental environment where everyone is there to help one another.

SPECTRA harnesses the experience that the Creative Business Network has in facilitating community building and peer to peer platforms utilising MIGHTY NETWORKS and has built a peer-to-peer and community exchange space for ecosystem stakeholders. SPECTRA is all about supporting growth of innovation eco-systems and knowledge sharing!

The SPECTRA Community Space will provide everyone with the opportunity if you want to stay up to date on these topics, please join our SPECTRA community space at the following link HERE.

You can gain access to the recordings of the Panel Discussions and much more – all free of charge! In our Community Space, you can access the links with the recordings – to re-watch the sessions do the following:

Go the Events – > Past Events -> And choose the Event you want to watch. At the top of the event description, you can find the link with the recordings.

Stay tuned for the next SPECTRA activities and please connect with us.

Photo 147635653 | Play Learn © David Burke | Dreamstime.com

Play’n’Learn Methodologies for Ecosystem Growth

How might we gain new competences, to enhance innovation eco-systems growth, through Play’n’Learn methodologies?

That is next on the agenda for the SPECTRA Consortium Partners, as a part of the objective to demonstrate successful existing initiatives, their role and activities towards uniting, and representing a bigger ecosystem of stakeholders with a joint clearly defined purpose to support key stakeholders, including SMEs and start-ups towards innovation deployment. In particular, mechanisms that exist need to be enriched further by cross-collaboration and new learning mechanisms to increase the body of knowledge and enhance capacity building.

Play & Learn can be defined as creative and imaginative ways to transfer knowledge (e.g. cities as playgrounds, playful universities etc.). Creative Business Network have devised a methodology where learning meets playing, as a way to generate impact, helping start-ups, companies and institutions working on education, games and learning to grow and implement innovative projects in the creative sector. SPECTRA partners will test this methodology within a serious game setting on 12 September 2023 in a hybrid setting, to tackle the issue of more inclusive, diverse ecosystem growth.

This Creative Business Network activity will be supported by a lead expert in Play and Learn methodologies – Kim Holflod.

Kim Holflod is a PhD in Education Studies with a dissertation on playful approaches in higher education. He holds a Master of Arts and a Master of ICT and Learning and is currently assistant professor at University College Copenhagen and postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University. He is part of the EU Horizon project ‘EPIC-WE’ as a task lead and hub lead and also part of Playful Learning Praxis Research in Denmark working with design-based research, playful design, higher education, and boundary-crossing co-creation.

The session will comprise the following activities:

Activity 1: Weaving futures
This activity aims to play with and identify contextually relevant/inspiring playful design principles and relate them to your current challenges to motivate shared reflection.
Activity 2: Prototyping futures
This activity is aimed towards playful co-creation of a prototype to trigger discussion about the future – and its diverse issues, problems, or potentials.

The knowledge, experience, methodologies and recommendations from this session, will be summarised in a report and shared with the public for further dissemination, via our mighty networks SPECTRA community space. Stay in touch for more!

Photo 147635653 | Play Learn © David Burke | Dreamstime.com

“Ecosystem as an open innovation platform with inclusivity as key enabler”

The ambition of SPECTRA is to build methods, tools and ecosystem interventions that are capable of self-perpetuating collaboration and innovation, creating added-value, and provide an incentive for adaptive, resilient and sustainable ecosystems.

The expert panel discussion to be held on 21st August 16:30-17:30 CEST, virtually, co-organised by the SPECTRA partners Creative Business Network and Western Development Commission, will support learning of new and extended innovation skills to support development of creative industries ecosystems. Such frameworks are extremely important to enable an ongoing process, that self-perpetuates and renews in order to create a sustainable cycle with regular influx of new ideas based on open innovation, new investment, and increased participation of innovators, in particular underrepresented groups such as women innovators.

Panel discussion objectives aim to help stakeholders to:

  • Pin-point specific learnings from the though-leaders on inclusivity and diversity
  • Identify and examine best practice and key directions
  • Engage in intra-territorial learning and knowledge exchange, facilitating replication and new linkages
  • Identify examples for great inclusivity and open innovation methods for ecosystem development, to support advancement of innovation supports for creative industry sector and greater involvement of typically underrepresented groups and communities.

Panelists:

1. Mikkel Orlovski, Associated Partner, ConnectingCultures and Owner, Diversity HR Partner

Mikkel is a senior expert on Inclusivity and Diversity. Currently he is Principal Consultant and Associated Partner at ConnectingCultures and owner of Diversity HR Parner. He has more than 15 years of experience working with developing cultural intelligence in global teams and facilitating Diversity & Inclusion (D&I)/Unconscious Bias workshops.

Mikkel has a background in Intercultural Psychology, is CQ certified from the Cultural Intelligence Center, and primarily works with building Cultural Intelligence in teams and organisations as well as Diversity and Inclusion programs.

As a consultant, Mikkel often combines his knowledge on how to lead or collaborate effectively in diverse groups and across cultures, genders, professional backgrounds, ages and personality styles. He is certified and experienced in a variety of personality and developmental tests and tools.”

2. Martin B. Justesen, Senior Consultant at Kooperationen, Ex – Founder and Director of SundHub & CSE

Professional, committed developer of successful Innovation and Learning environments. Experience entrepreneurial eco-system builder, with 15+ years of experience in Business Development, Coaching and Matchmaking.

Currently he is Senior Consultant for Kooperationen, a new business model of startup incubation. In his past, he has run and started some of the most successful Danish student’s innovation and entrepreneurial hubs including Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship as part of Copenhagen Business School, and SundHub as part of University of Copenhagen.

He is passionate about helping skilled, creative people solving problems, finding solutions, and starting new business.

3. Daiva Staneikaite Naldal, Strategic Advisor and Owner at DSTN Ventures, Ex – Director Lego Ideas and Open Innovation at LEGO, Expert at Creative Business Network

Experienced international marketing and innovation leader with 20+ year of professional career, working with international brands and startup ecosystems .

As former Director of Marketing & Open Innovation at the LEGO Group, she is behind the success of LEGO Ideas (ideas.lego.com) – the best-in-class crowdsourcing hub that integrates user-driven innovation into LEGO’s innovation pipeline, and facilitating meaningful engagement across the user-ecosystem.

Daiva comes with a track record of successfully developing and bringing to market new products and growing newbiz opportunities through unconventional innovation formats and partnerships– all the way from testing radical product concepts, piloting new business formulas and scaling these into sizable & sustainable global businesses.

Currently, Daiva runs her own consulting practice ( DSTN-ventures.com) , helping various companies to develop their own open innovation programs and business strategies. She is a business mentor, guest lecturer at selected universities, board member and advisor for several startups and accelerators, as well as a popular keynote speaker.

Moderator:

Jessica Fuller, Creative Industries Programme Manager, Atlantic Region of Innovation, Western Development Commission

Responsible for leading and delivering the CCSI cluster ambition in the Atlantic Region over the next five years. Led out on models to engage diverse entities across the CCSI and other industries to drive productive industry opportunity, enterprise development and job creation. A dynamic leader, with +25 years track record in senior management driving successful development and tangible impact in all spheres of the quadruple helix including Industry, Higher Education, Community and Government. Extensive experience working on a multi-lateral basis with government departments, state and EU agencies, tertiary education, regulatory bodies and private industry, and comprehensive knowledge of national and European policies, strategies and regulatory resource frameworks. Founder director of two creative enterprises, with direct experience of the complexities of establishing, operating and scaling self-sustaining creative enterprises with a global market focus. Diploma in Corporate Governance (UCD Smurfit) and a Masters in Cultural Policy (UDC). Regular contributor to public institutions policy and strategy debates/papers.

You can register for this event under the following link: “Ecosystem as an open innovation platform with inclusivity as key enabler” Tickets, Mon 21 Aug 2023 at 15:30 | Eventbrite

SPECTRA to host Panel discussion on ‘Stimulating internal innovation and use of Experimentation’

The ambition of SPECTRA is to build methods, tools and ecosystem interventions that are capable of self-perpetuating collaboration and innovation, creating added-value, and provide an incentive for adaptive, resilient and sustainable ecosystems.

An expert panel discussion is going to take place on 21st August 2023 from 15:00-16:00 CEST that will support learning of new and extended innovation skills to support development of creative industries ecosystems. Such frameworks are extremely important to enable an ongoing process, that self-perpetuates and renews in order to create a sustainable cycle with regular influx of new ideas based on open innovation, new investment, and increased participation of innovators, in particular underrepresented groups such as women innovators.

Event objectives are to help to:

  • Pin-point specific learnings from the innovation though-leaders
  • Identify and examine best practice and key future innovation directions and trends
  • Engage in intra-territorial learning and knowledge exchange, facilitating replication and new linkages
  • Identify examples for embedding innovation skills and methods for ecosystem development, to support advancement of innovation supports for creative industry sector.

Panelists are:

1. Ulla Sommerfelt, Entrepreneur, Business Angel, Ex – CEO Eggs Design

Ulla is an entrepreneur and business angel. She recently sold her company and left her position as the CEO of EGGS Design – a successful and leading Nordic design & innovation consultancy. Today, Ulla is focusing on helping startups and scale-ups succeed with their businesses. She is an expert in building and scaling innovation cultures. Ulla is in the process of writing a book about how to build cultures for startups that are scaling up, and gives talks and holds workshops about the topic.

2. Dr. Gjoko Muratovski, Director – Digital Futures, Deakin University / Victorian Government (Australia)

By combining design-led innovation and strategic foresight with lean business principles, Dr. Gjoko Muratovski helps organizations become human-centric, more efficient, and future-proofed. Muratovski has more than 25 years of experience working and collaborating with Fortune 500 companies, NGOs, and governments from around the world, including the US Federal Government, Australian State Governments, NASA, International Space Station (ISS), World Health Organization, UNESCO, Greenpeace, TATA Consultancy Services, Johnson & Johnson, P&G, Toyota, Ford, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Amazon, and Facebook. Currently, Muratovski is the Director of the Victorian Government-funded program, Digital Futures, which is delivered in partnership with Deakin University (Australia). He is also an Innovation Consultant at Stanford University (USA) and Project Partner with the BMW Group + QUT Design Academy (Australia). Muratovski has also been an invited member of thought leading organizations such as the Yale Higher Education Leadership Summit (USA), Oxford Digital Leaders Network (UK), Forbes Councils (USA), and the Future of Learning (India).

3. Patrik Sandin, Director and Head of Practice Area Sustainability, Cordial AB

Patrik is currently Director and Head of Practice Area Sustainability at Cordial AB. Prior to Cordial, Patrik was Associate Partner and part of the EMEA Innovation and Sustainabilty leadership teams at Bain & Co and before that Director of Ventures & Growth at Ericsson ONE. Patrik has 25 years of consulting experience and is particularly passionate about facilitating transformation towards sustainable business models leveraging exponential technologies and digitalization. He is a sought after speaker and lecturer having spoken at TEDx, Green Design Forum, Planetiers World Gathering, China High Tech Expo, RISE Corporate Innovation Summit and Singapore SWITCH as well as a frequent guest lecturer on strategy, sustainability and innovation at CEIBS, Shanghai University MBA Program, Low Carbon College and Chinese University Hong Kong.

4. Róisín Buckley, Director and Producer of PIQUANT Creative Agency, Ireland

Communications expert Róisín Buckley is a director at Piquant, a full-service creative agency based in Limerick City with over 10+ years of an international track-record. Róisín specialises in communications consultancy, online campaign planning, media production and management. Róisín leads Piquant’s communication and media production teams in the realisation of effective multi-platform digital projects. She implemented internal innovation processes, such as the ‘Piquant Reflective Process’ used to generate and implement systemic changes lead from within the team. She regularly speaks on the topics of design and innovation and has helped run and participated in a number of growth and capacity building regional and national initiatives, such as with the Irish Design Institute on the topic of building in-house design capability. She holds a Professional Diploma, Creativity, Innovation & Leadership from University College Dublin, as well as a BSc in Communications, Communications and Broadcasting.

Moderator:

Marjan Nikolovski, Innovation Expert Lead and EU Programmes & Project Lead for Creative Business Network (CBN).

Marjan is a Design Thinker, an intrapreneur, and a relationship builder with 13+ years of experience in innovation, people, business, and concept development. He is also highly experienced in building and maintaining Strategic Partnerships, Private-public collaborations, as well Senior Career Development consultant for Academics and Leaders. Marjan has several international degrees from different Danish universities, where the latest is a Master degree in Organizational Innovation and Entrepreneurship from Copenhagen Business School – a top 5 master programme for Innovation, globally.

You can register for the event at the following link: Stimulating internal innovation and use of Experimentation Tickets, Mon 21 Aug 2023 at 14:00 | Eventbrite

Entrepreneurial skills for building innovation ecosystems within the CCSI

Within Work Package 3 (WP3), SPECTRA partners are learning from advanced initiative championed by the Creative Business Network (CBN), focusing on Tools, Systems, Methods & Structures for an Amplified Ecosystem.

Specifically, this includes activities to:

  • Engage with, and learn from, successful CBN ecosystem & network building practices and model for regional ecosystem development.
  • Acquire and exchange new knowledge, skills, methods, tools, systems and structures that can be utilised by moderate and emerging regions to strengthen their respective ecosystems.

On 20th July, CBN’s Rasmus Tscherning and Marjan Nikolovski collaborated with Amy Cosper – former Vice President of Entrepreneur Media Inc., and editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur magazine, an expert on storytelling, delivering insights with focus on storytelling as tool for growing CCSI innovation eco-systems. The learning session was also supported by the EKIP Horizon Project (European Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries Policy Platform).

Amy is one of the most prominent voices in the world on the topic of entrepreneurship. As the Editor in Chief of Entrepreneur magazine, Ms. Cosper knows what it means to innovate, create and disrupt an industry—and an economy. An entrepreneur in her own right, Amy has become an evangelist for entrepreneurship around the globe as one of the most sought-after speakers keynoting and judging at prominent entrepreneurial events, such as Disrupt Athens in Greece, the Creative Business Cup in Copenhagen, ShiftSplit in Croatia, and the upcoming Global Entrepreneur Network Conference in Milan. She is regularly tapped for her commentary among her fellow journalists, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, NPR, and appearances on Fox Business, ABC News, CNN and Bloomberg Television. In addition to her perspectives on entrepreneurship, she is often asked to provide insights on a spectrum of topics from free economics, social media optimization, broadcasting, the Internet, VC strategies, media, online profiling and user behaviors, and content strategies.

This interactive session focussed on factors for success, inspiring change, stimulating investment and entrepreneurship within the CCSI, all as underpinning drivers for ecosystem development. The session provided numerous case studies and examples of ecosystem development, especially in terms of getting from a stage of nascent development to a more mature environment, including overcoming challenges of barriers of mentality, attitudes and bias acting as blockers, to support organic development, driven by entrepreneurs. There is a solid argument for allowing the entrepreneurial movement to be the key driver of policy, in order to create an intelligent ecosystem, harnessing the community at its core.

To access these insights, you can view the recording as follows:

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/TtYduWOgE2ytYj3jPcxBwsSfNYfIWJPH4JygAja9TrqO37jwVveuHn6PQ7KqVbDp.egG3FQlC8cbwtmaG
Passcode: pAJ93.we

What is Policy? And its importance for CCSI innovation ecosystems’ development.

Within Work Package 3 (WP3), SPECTRA partners are learning from advanced initiative championed by the Creative Business Network (CBN), focusing on Tools, Systems, Methods & Structures for an Amplified Ecosystem.

Specifically, this includes activities to:

  • Engage with, and learn from, successful CBN ecosystem & network building practices and model for regional ecosystem development.
  • Acquire and exchange new knowledge, skills, methods, tools, systems and structures that can be utilised by moderate and emerging regions to strengthen their respective ecosystems.

On 20th July, CBN’s Rasmus Tscherning and Marjan Nikolovski collaborated with Alexandre Lotito, from Techonopolis Group, to deliver an interactive session on Policy and its importance to ecosystem development, a senior policy expert also helping drive the EKIP Horizon Project (European Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries Policy Platform). The Technopolis Group is one of Europe’s leading consultancies in science, technology, and innovation policy.

The interactive session was focusing on:

  1. Policy: A policy refers to a public intervention in a specific domain where certain challenges, problems, and needs have been identified and must be addressed. This intervention becomes necessary when there is a market failure or where current systems or practices are not sufficiently addressing these challenges. In our context, we will be looking at policies relevant to the CCSI.
  2. Ecosystem: An ecosystem, in our context, refers to a community of interdependent heterogenous actors coordinated through a co-alignment structure who collectively deliver an ecosystem-level output. These actors can include organisations engaged in the production, transfer, and exploitation of knowledge, such as universities, public research organisations, companies, public sector and civil society organisations, and intermediaries.

Understanding these two key concepts set the stage for the discussion about how policy influences and shapes innovation ecosystems within the CCSI.

As part of the presentation, participants reflected on and discussed the following points:

  1. Greatest Challenges: What are the most significant policy-related challenges you encounter in your sector?
  2. Policy Needs: Are there specific needs in your area that could be addressed through policy interventions?
  3. Policymaker Relations: How would you describe your relationship with policymakers within your ecosystem?
  4. Ecosystem Actors: Who are the primary actors within your innovation ecosystem, and how do they interact?
  5. Policy Influence: How have existing policies influenced your activities and the broader ecosystem?

SPECTRA partners benefited greatly from the rich insights provided from this learning session. The recording of the session can be accessed on the Zoom Platform as follows:

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/F8J8k1K0W7szKL6yAeJeSC-Qh4abxcF52jBVHPOY7I917T1gca_1KDv34m8R0i_W.WFge8xnv8Jsyt20r

Passcode: !!4X@^J8

Study visit focusing on the creative and cultural ecosystem in Ruse, Bulgaria

BIC Innobridge and Ruse Chamber of Commerce and Industry hosted a two-day study visit on July 3rd and 4th 2023 in Ruse, Bulgaria. The meetings with representatives of the creative sector were organized under the project “SPECTRA – Stimulating Performance of Ecosystems in Creative Territories and Regional Actors”, funded by EISMEA, within the Horizon Europe programme.

The purpose of the visit was to get the project partners closer to the local ecosystem and policies in order to gain a real insight into the level of development of the creative and cultural sector in the region. The delegation met with both active companies working in the field and local policymakers developing various programs to stimulate it.

The two-day programme included visits to the Ruse Creative Center, Ruse Municipality offices, as well as “Angel Kanchev” Ruse University, where the guests had the opportunity to see concrete products and initiatives. Part of the visit also included talks with representatives of the Bulgarian Fashion Association, the Professional School of Clothing and Fashion Design “Nedka Ivan Lazarova” – Ruse, media company Arena Media and meeting an entrepreneur from a local company for the production of mobile houses “Koleliba”, who shared valuable information related to the work, opportunities, problems and prospects in the sector.

The SPECTRA project brings together a series of initiatives that are aimed at developing the CCI sector, engaging over 1,000 stakeholders through 30 workshops, experiments/challenges, workshops and roundtables and will provide support to over 100 start-ups. The study visit to Ruse was part of the activity dedicated to the preparation of a large-scale analysis of the state of the creative industries, including up-to-date data from Bulgaria, Ireland, Denmark and Germany, identifying specific challenges for the young and emerging ecosystems in Bulgaria and Ireland and possible solutions drawn from the best practices of the already developed sector in Denmark and Germany.

The project is implemented in partnership with WESTERN DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION (WDC) — (Ireland), Creative Business Network — (Denmark), MEDIA DEALS UG — (Germany), Creative Enterprise West —  (Ireland) and BIC Innobridge (Bulgaria).

 

Main Partners:

 

Associate Partners:

 

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Innovation Council and SMES Executive Agency (EISMEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.