THE ARTS+ Innovation Summit 2018

Reshaping the future of the cultural and creative industries

With the theme “The bigger picture: How can the cultural and creative sectors bridge the innovation gap?”, the Innovation Summit will take place this year for the second time as part of THE ARTS+ Festival at the Frankfurter Buchmesse. On 10 October, more than 100 international representatives from the economy, culture, technology and politics are expected at THE ARTS+ Salon (4.1 R55). The goal of these experts from all across Europe is not only to discuss the future of the cultural and creative sectors, but also to reshape it and to establish a new framework for it. At the heart of these efforts is the question of how technology-triggered innovation can best be promoted.

Presentation of the Innovation Manifesto on 11 October 2018

The aim of the summit is to bring together the European creative sectors so they can jointly tackle shared challenges posed by new technologies such as digitalisation, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and blockchain. “We are seeing a looming divide between technology and culture. Culture – and thus large parts of society – is having trouble keeping up with the exponential pace of technological innovation”, says Holger Volland, Founder of THE ARTS+. “Promoting innovation is uncharted territory for many players in the creative sectors, and the political sector also faces the challenge of understanding their very specific needs”, explains Nina Klein, Programme Curator of the Innovation Summit. 14 institutions from all across Europe – including the strategic partners European Creative Business Network (ECBN) and Fitzcarraldo Foundation/ArtLab (Italy) – have been working together for months to identify the most important structural barriers to innovation in the creative sectors and to find the best potential solutions together. The result will be the “European Manifesto on Innovation Support for Culture”, which the contributors will present at a press conference on 11 October at 1 pm in the “Entente” room in Hall 4.C.

International speakers at three panel discussions on 10 October 2018

To get to the “big picture” of promoting innovation for all, the Innovation Summit will begin by focusing on cultural heritage and publishing before taking a broader look at the European cultural and creative sectors as a whole. Numerous international speakers will participate to stimulate the discussion between the experts.

For the first part of the summit dedicated to cultural heritage, (11.30 am – 1 pm) those experts will be Pier Luigi Sacco (Special Advisor to the European Commission for Culture and Education, Italy), Harry Verwayen (Executive Director of Europe’s digital platform for cultural heritage, Europeana, Netherlands), Tonya Nelson (Director of Museums and Cultural Programmes at University College London, Chair of ICOM UK), Dr Paul Klimpel (irights.law, Germany), Dr Raivis Simansons (Museums & Creative Industries Working Group/NEMO) and Thierry Baujard (CEO MediaDeals, Germany).

For the second part of the summit, “Break-out session on book publishing” (2 – 3.30 pm), the expected experts are Dr Heritiana Ranaivoson (cultural economist, SMIT/Free University of Brussels, Belgium), Dr Leif Göritz (Herder & Thalia, Germany), Eric Briys (Cyberlibris, France), Luis González (Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruipérez, Spain) and Andrea Wagemans (WAN-IFRA/Global Alliance for Media Innovation, France).

For the third part (4 – 6.30 pm), under the heading “The bigger picture: A strong voice for innovation support”, the speakers will be Laure Kaltenbach (Creative Tech, France), Octavio Kulesz (Editorio Teseo, Argentina), Sylvia Amann (inforelais, Austria), Pierre-Yves Danet (New European Media/Orange Labs, France), Simona de Rosa (T6 Ecosystems, Italy), Ugo Bacchella (Fitzcarraldo Foundation/ArtLab, Italy) and Bernd Fesel (European Creative Business Network (ECBN), Netherlands).

European partners from the cultural and creative sectors

The Innovation Summit is organised as part of ALDUS (the network of European Book Fairs) and is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

Its strategic partners are the Fitzcarraldo Foundation/ArtLab and the European Creative Business Network (ECBN).

The programme partners are the Federation of European Publishers; the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers and Booksellers Association); Europe’s digital platform for cultural heritage Europeana; NEMO (Network of European Museum Organisations); and Studies in Media, Innovation and Technology (SMIT), a research group at the Free University of Brussels (VUB), part of the research network imec (Flanders) and a partner of the EU-funded project MediaRoad.

The network partners are the Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruipérez; Deutscher Museumsbund e.V.; EU Commission, Directorate General for Education and Culture (DG EAC), Creative Europe Programme; German Commission for UNESCO; I3, a coordinated support action (CSA) funded by the European Commission (represented by T6 Ecosystems); New European Media (NEM), a partner of the EU-funded project VitalMedia; and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) with its Global Alliance for Media Innovation project.

For more information, including all programme details:

https://theartsplus.com/programme-2/