Good practice:

Young Creatives Festival: inspiring future entrepreneurs in the creative industry

During the study visit in Bologna, we got to know Creative Keys, an organisation that helps creative minds to realise their ideas. In Bologna, culture is more supported and present than in East-Flanders. For this reason, we wanted to organise an event to bring together young, adventurous artists who only need a small boost to make the shift to their own business.
Together with AmuseeVous, Gentrepreneur, Ministry of Makers and LUCA School of Arts, ECEF is organising a creative festival for young potential entrepreneurs. The festival aims to unite last year art students and graduates who only need a small push to start their own business. Very interesting is the collaboration between academic institutions, non-profit organisations with governmental support and the students themselves.
Five students of LUCA School of Arts do a thorough research into cultural entrepreneurship: how do students feel about it, and how to meet their needs. Interesting in this is the fact that the researchers are also the target group of this event.
The aim is to encourage young creatives by means of peer referral and workshops. The atmosphere has to be informal, to make sure participants do not have the feeling to be in school. There will also be a digital platform to reach more targets and to support the physical sessions.
All of the suppliers for this event, from catering to the performing bands, from the photographer to the student radio, are young entrepreneurs.

For now: € 10K to cover the first costs. We mean to find sponsors and other partners for financial support.
The purpose is to arrange a free location/venue via LUCA School of Arts, and to arrange audiovisual support through LUCA campus Narafi, the academic institute for film, video, photography.

The few platforms for young entrepreneurs, such as Flanders DC, are federal and thus less accessible. With a local festival we can reach more future entrepreneurs. The need of something local and accessible is high.
LUCA School of Arts has already organised an entrepreneurship fair. This was a successful event but because it was rather formal, students found it harder to bond with the subject. That is why this festival has to be inclusive and easily accessible.
Aim: 200 to 250 participants.

Biggest challenge so far is the COVID19-crisis, which made us postpone it once already.
Another difficult but interesting exercise will be to realise an informal event, which is fun and appealing, but also inspiring. We want to set an example without being too school-like.

A very important challenge is to break the taboo against entrepreneurship in a difficult target group. Artists very often cannot rhyme their creative output with the commercial aspect. Furthermore it is defiant to create something interesting without pointing fingers or being too school-like. It might be useful to implement this to other problems and target groups as well.
The fact that we can work together with other organisations (instead of competing with them) gives this event a couple of extra dimensions. We will deal better with all the different questions and issues that will arise before, during and after the event.