A two-day high-level stakeholder event jointly organized with the European Commission, DG Education and Culture

WHEN: 28-29 January 2020
WHERE: LaVallée Creative Hub – Molenbeek
Rue Adolphe Lavallée 39, 1080 Brussels
PROGRAMME: https://bit.ly/2PTV8wj


BACKGROUND

For many years, better access to finance and improving innovation, entrepreneurship, as well as support-ecosystems for cultural and creative sectors (CCS) have been high on the agenda of policy makers and organisations supporting the CCS throughout Europe. Multiple initiatives have been set up, such as guarantee schemes, matchfunding or other CCS support and programmes. At the same time, the financing landscape itself is developing at a fast pace, with new actors and new financing instruments appearing, widening the possibilities for cultural and creative actors to access finance and to build on CCS innovation and support ecosystems.

So, have we made progress? Yes! Is the work done? Not at all!

Numerous useful initiatives have been developed that can help cultural and creative sectors in getting their initiatives financed and in strengthening their support ecosystems. However, too many cultural and creative initiatives still fail to fully develop their entrepreneurial potential. Truly improving access to finance for CCS can only come when all these initiatives further connect into an integrated support ecosystem. Bringing access to finance and CCS ecosystems to a next level requires FLIPping the odds!

FLIPPING THE ODDS CONFERENCE

During this 2-day event, CCS support organisations, advisors, financiers and policy makers at all levels are invited to join the discussion and help FLIP the odds. The event will be the moment to take stock and learn from existing initiatives that support access to finance for CCS, but especially to reflect and debate about how we can still do better.

DAY 1:
We take stock of the current CCS ecosystem, and discuss with CCS support organisations, advisors, financiers and policy makers what the (common) priorities are to further strengthen the ecosystem in the coming years. What are the necessary building blocks for a mature support ecosystem, how should these building blocks connect and interact, and what is the role of different actors?

DAY 2:
We zoom in on the role of the EU in stimulating better CCS financing and innovation: which policy actions have been taken in past years and what can Europe do next to further stimulate the sustainable development of cultural and creative activities in Europe? We discuss how the recommendations of the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) groups “Access to Finance” and “Public Policies for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in CCS” and the Cross-sectoral Council conclusions have been implemented in the different member states and regions and what still needs to be done.

JOIN!

Making a combined co-creative effort of Creative FLIP – an EP pilot project involving the European Creative Hubs Network on the one hand, and EU policy makers, OMC, Voices of Culture civil society dialogue on the other, exploiting synergies between projects and policy-making and genuinely working across silos and disciplines will help us in FLIPping the odds!

Join Creative FLIP in this future-oriented debate and in bridging the ecosystem gaps together! Register now!