b.creative – The Global Event for Creative Entrepreneurs

Namur, 2 & 3 November 2016

b.creative is the launch event of Creative Tracks, a EU co-funded project that aims to network young creative entrepreneurs worldwide. b.creative facilitates the convergence of various creative skills, cultural competences and entrepreneurial skills in order to generate social and economic innovation.

The event will associate artists, creative professionals, entrepreneurs, cultural organisations, incubators, creative hubs and investors to consider how to best support creative entrepreneurship, shape innovation and promote international collaborations through networking. It should contribute to the development of the Creative Tracks’ collaborative platform.

KEA is committed to the vision that culture-based creativity and non-technological innovation are key to answer social demands and global challenges of our times. This is why we are thrilled to organise this international conference in the framework of Creative Tracks and bring together some of the most prominent actors of the creative and entrepreneurship world to share their views and experiences.

Creative entrepreneurship?

Creativity is a powerful catch phrase. It epitomises success, modernity, novel trends and excitement.  Whether applied to individuals, enterprises, cities or regions, creativity establishes immediate empathy and conveys an image of dynamism. Creativity is a positive word in a society constantly aspiring to innovation and progress. Creativity has the potential to solve problems whether economic, environmental or social.

Entrepreneurship is the process by which an individual (or a team) identifies an opportunity, acquires and deploys the necessary resources required for its exploitation. An increasing number of entrepreneurs work across frontiers trying to integrate different ecosystems (generally provided by large metropoles) and to obtain funding (provided by VC funds, business angels or large enterprises prepared to take financial risks). Entrepreneurship results in new industries which are often technology lead.

b.creative promotes the idea that culture in general and cultural differences in particular have a strong influence on creativity. Innovation is not only a matter of business organisation and technology. It relies on artistic creation, design, fashion, architecture to give innovation social meanings.  Businesses are inspired by management methods coming from culture and creative industries to generate innovation and creativity within their own organisations.

Culture-based creativity

Culture-based creativity is a concept built on findings from the KEA’s study The Impact of Culture on Creativity and stems from artistic or cultural productions which nurture innovation.

Culture-based creativity is linked to the ability of creative people, notably artists, to think imaginatively or metaphorically, to challenge the conventional and to call on the symbols and emotions to communicate or to give technological innovation a social purpose. Culture-based creativity has the capacity to break conventions, usual ways of thinking and to allow the development of a new vision, an idea or a product.

The digital economy is transforming the economic and social basis of our society. Today technology gives mankind the ability to connect things and people in large networks. The “hyper consumption” model is not sustainable. Economies must compete on the strength of their skills base and on their ability to develop a more “user-centred approach” closer to societal demands for new forms of exchanges. At the same time, art and culture play an important role in moderating a purely technocratic vision of the world solely expressed in terms of technological progress, intelligence or economic goals.

Art and culture make a vital contribution to the achievement of objectives that reconcile wealth creation with sustainability and respect for common humanist values because one of the features of art and culture is that they help us transcend purely economic (“for profit”) purposes.

Creative Tracks is developed with the ambition to stimulate creativity as well as intercultural exchanges. The world’s diverse cultures made of countries’ distinctive histories, language, customs and geographies are a significant source of creativity.  Pluralism and openness to new influences are distinct features of creative entrepreneurs. The world’s future depends on the ability to transcend local identities to harness creativity but also to ensure diverse local identities coexist and exchange in an international context.

The ambition of Creative Tracks and b.creative is to become a nexus of influences and ideas to support creative entrepreneurship and to shape innovation policies.

Visit the b.creative website.

Philippe Kern, Founder and Managing Director of KEA