A digital tool which offers solutions for various problems in cultural and creative industries through joint effort and collaboration
COVID-19 and its physical and inherently financial restrictions rob the Cultural and Creative Industry (CCI)of a once-in-a-lifetime chance to prosper, develop and increase their visibility through Rijeka 2020 European Capital of Culture mega-event.
The concept of “Creative Doctors” was born, as an action for Rijeka’s future Action Plan, to strengthen CCI resilience through creative cross-sectoral collaboration.
The role of Creative Doctors is three-fold: it is a support mechanism which solves problems, and at the same time, serves as a collaborative platform and a base for creating intra-sectoral and cross-sectoral cooperation aimed at sustainable development. Its most important function is the establishment of two-way communication between those with problems caused by e.g. the Pandemic, current operations, challenges, dilemmas, etc. (‘patients’), and those with possible solutions (‘doctors’).
Creative Doctors cherishes exchanging experience and knowledge, learning from mistakes and sharing such stories with the community. Refreshing and out-of-the-box suggestions on how to solve a problem are encouraged.
Creative Doctors will be established on Start-up Incubator Rijeka’s Facebook page.
Creative Doctors will be advertised as a concrete guide to everyday problems in CCI. All users can be ‘patients’ in one situation and ‘doctors’ in the other. City of Rijeka (Department for Entrepreneurship) will promote Creative Doctors through its communication channels to increase the number of possible users. They will disseminate success stories from the platform, motivating existing and future users to interact and get involved.
The administration will play a crucial role in the mediation of democratisation in problem-solving. They will monitor all activities, post problems from the ‘patients’ and suggestions from the ‘doctors’. They will also delete inappropriate comments and motivate users to engage in discussions.
A physical version of Creative Doctors will situate in Start-up Incubator Rijeka in the form of “Board full of solutions”. This includes smartboards placed in the common spaces, especially near the entrance to be visible to visitors. Similar to the digital platform, individuals (mostly Start-up incubator users) can write their problem on the board, and others (their peers, mentors, visitors) can suggest ways of solving this situation. This “traditional” tool will also offer opportunities for networking, collaboration and interaction as visitors will be able to place their business cards on the board with a message (if they are looking for partners, closer collaboration, if they need or want to provide financial or non-financial support).
To facilitate a proactive and engaging problem-solving environment, the City of Rijeka (Department for Entrepreneurship) will award the most active ‘doctors’ with a special acknowledgement called “Doctor Specialist” for their volunteer contribution to CCI. This will, hopefully, motivate other users to become more active and additionally, contribute to the platform visibility.
Additional services are already foreseen to be developed to further strengthen the position of individuals and/or organisations from this field. Some of them are:
- “Home visit” – a chance to solve a problem “one-on-one” (meeting with experienced ‘doctor’)
- “Doctors without borders” – networking tool focused on EU projects
- “I can take a look” – users are expressing their opinion about the entrepreneurial idea, new project and/or fresh initiative
User satisfaction will be measured against the following parameters: number of users, reach and scope of Creative Doctors’ functionality, scope of interaction, effects, and feedback. Based on the results, and if needed, the Department will suggest and implement improvements to the functionality of the platform.
The following partners are vital to the development and operation of Creative Doctors:
- City of Rijeka, Department for Entrepreneurship – management and administration
- Smart RI – programme creation and support
- Rijeka Development Agency Porin – programme creation and support
- Representatives of SMEs in CCI
- TBD
