Today, October 30, EOI-Fundesarte has hosted the second local stakeholder meeting of CRAFTS CODE on an online platform due to the current pandemic. People in charge of crafts from the different autonomous communities of Spain together with representatives of national organisations, universities and other experts have come together to share good practices that are being developed in their territories.
In this second meeting, Fundesarte has introduced an overview of the CRAFTS CODE project and has focused on the analysis and identification of success stories and good practices regarding the second topic of the project, which is about how to access new markets and targets in the craft sector. The guide that contains a selection of ten good practices that were presented during the first interregional thematic seminar was also shared with the attendees in order to show the result of their proposals.
To contextualise the current situation that SME’s are facing, one of the participants shared a study that is being carried out on the impact and the different scenarios for consumer goods in the near future, analysing their threats as well as their opportunities. She explained the main factors of change to be foreseen and has focused on those that can affect the crafts sector, as digitization, protectionism and changes in social values and habits. Despite the difficult situation that the sector will have to face in the coming years, crafts have a series of values that will be highly demanded by society from now on, such as durability, sustainability, environmental sensitivity or responsible consumption.
Subsequently, the rest of the attendees have been presenting their ideas, points of view and especially the projects they are developing in their different areas. They have talked about the traditional model of commercialization of the artisan product in national and international fairs or in more current formats such as pop-up stores, highlighting the importance of previously carrying out market studies to select which products to take, how and to what events.
The current situation has put on the scene the value of the local and the opportunity to also focus on the nearest market by offering products and services of proximity, which can be linked to tourism through artisan routes linked to heritage and gastronomy; taking into account that foreign tourism has now practically disappeared and that national tourism can be attracted.
Finally, attendees committed to send the good practices to EOI-Fundesarte for their evaluation and the next presentation to the interregional thematic seminar that will be held virtually from Spain.
