Good practice:

Urban center of creative and digital industries

In 2009, the City of Varaždin initiated the development of the Center for Creative Industries (CKI) in former military facilities. It engaged twenty entrepreneurs in the field of arts and creative industries. Unfortunately, this space was allocated to the State Archives. Some tenants of the former CKI moved to other offices in the city and some found temporary accommodation. In addition, in Technology Park there is a significant concentration of startups and businesses in creative industries, which also need more space, and especially specialized infrastructure, equipment and platforms. The City of Varaždin is preparing a reconstruction of the former Cinema Dom for the CKI. There should be places of creative industries such as: multimedia, sound design, design, web design - therefore the creative industries that are touching the ICT sector. The building is abandoned and no activities take place in it.
Project implementation is expected in the period 2020-2022. In order to create a critical mass of I SME’s creative entrepreneurs, activities have meanwhile been diffusely launched at other spaces, such as the nearby Youth Center and Technology Park.
After reconstruction, the building of the former Dom cinema should contain coworking spaces, llving labs, sales / exhibition space in the lobby and polyvalent hall for public gatherings and film projections for creative industries such as: multimedia, sound design, design and web design.

Reconstruction of the building of the former Dom cinema into the Center of creative industries. The plan and project for reconsttruction neds to be implemented after obtaining funding. The total amount of reconstruction is estimated at 1 million Eur, and equipment 0.6 million Eur.

A growing number of individual entrepreneurs and SMEs in the creative industries, especially those based on IT

The main challenge is to provide political support and the necessary funds for the reconstruction of the building for the needs of the CKI. Although the activity can be organized diffusely, in different spaces, at a certain point it is necessary to provide shared infrastructure and space.

Very often, the basic content of projects for the development of creative and digital industries is the construction or reconstruction of a building, and in parallel, an entrepreneurial and organizational structure is established. Also, very often the "bricks and mortar" component ends, without creating the conditions for successful use of buildings and infrastructure, there are no real users.
This example shows that preconditions for their use should be created before major construction or reconstruction projects. In our case, it is the establishment and support of higher education institutions that educate the necessary professionals, support to companies in the field of creative industries, the creation of organizational frameworks and the development of the startup scene. There are examples of good practice transfers in the region, especially related to the development of incubation of startup companies.