The RCIA project partners met in the Belgium region Wallonia for the second study visit on May 22-24. The visit was thematically planned around the project’s objective “To develop/adapt/improve the eco-system from classic spatial cross-collaboration into a holistic approach”.
To get a head start on experiencing the creative initiatives of Wallonia and the work of the regional stakeholders, the partners attended the Walloon Creativity Week launch event at the Albert Jacquard college in Namur. Aside from a well conducted programme with talks from Mr Jean-Claude Marcourt, Walloon economy Minister and Jean-Paul Erhard, Managing Partner of Peoplesphere the RCIA partners were greeted with a merge of RCIA and Creative Wallonia in the shape of a flag.
The afternoon was dedicated to a visit of the Namur Creative Hub “Trakk”, getting hands on experience with their Fab Lab and an introduction to the Walloon “Creative Hub” policy approach. The inviting space was the right environment for the partners to have their internal meetings and led to fruitful discussions on the future work on exchanging experiences: identifying further good practices, analysing them, choosing the relevant one for each region and creating a solid foundation for the upcoming meetings and study visits.
(The Austrian Lead Partner was lucky enough to get this state-of-the-art laser-cut RCIA piece to take home)
Next stop was the city of Liège and a visit to the IDCampus. Here the partners and their local stakeholders got a full introduction to the Creative Wallonia policy programme presented by the Belgium partners from Public Servive of Wallonia, Economic Policy Directorate. To learn more about Creative Wallonia go to the RCIA library and download the Wallonia European Creative District Guide.
Inline with the study visit’s thematic setup – that of exploring ways to adapt and transform the existing classic spatial cross-collaboration into a holistic approach - several stakeholders shared good practices and experiences from their own region. Albert Lorente, Experiences Industries Coordinator from the Government of Catalonia, presented their take on Experience Industries and why this ought to be on your radar. From the Romanian stakeholder Cristian Dascalu, founder of ClujHUB, the partners got valuable insight into their experiences with Hackathons, creative hubs and start-up accelerators in Northern Transylvania.
The IDCampus visit ended with a creative workshop “From Creative Methodology to Creative Ecosystem” sparking discussions and creative input from the partner group.
The final and third day of the visit was a meet-and-greet with the local Wallonia Design Station, a project financed by ERDF funds, Wallonia and SPI and home to Walloon design, a creative and business centre and an incubator.
Representatives from the Design Station presented their different initiatives including “Job´in Design” and “Boost Up CCI”. To get a full overview of the initiatives, we invite you to see the video created by Creative Wallonia, emphasising the value of their activities.
The Italian project partner from IDM South Tyrol ended the visit with an insightful presentation “Can hackathons contribute to making South Tyrol an attractive location for creative talents?".
Stay tuned for the next up for RCIA: a study trip to the city of Lublin in September 2017.
