The birth of Ecosystem Film & Creative Industries
Just born but already in full swing
The IDM Alto Adige Ecosystem Film & Creative Industries was born in January 2018 but has already collected several initiatives to support companies in the province that use creativity in their production process. From mapping the sector to the creation of sectoral working groups up to events for networking at local and European level. The first event in the "Get-Together" series on the theme of creative industries was recently held at the NOI Techpark, where the guest of honour was Romina Surace from the Symbola Foundation, coordinator of the "I am culture" report on the state of the art of the CCI sector in Italy.
The speaker presented the report’s national and local statistics that highlight the growth of the sector: “Trentino Alto Adige is the second region in Italy for the growth of the economic-employment impact of cultural and creative industries. In the last 5 years, it has recorded an increase of +7.2% compared to the +0.8% in all of Italy. In Alto Adige in particular, sectors that achieved the best growth performances are Design (+26.7%) Video games and Entertainment software (+39.7%), but Cinema, Radio and TV also stand out with a +16.1% increase, as well as architecture with +12.9%”.
This is why the birth of Ecosystem Film & Creative Industries of IDM is strategic for the economic development of the whole South Tyrol territory: “These sectors contribute to the smart specialization strategy of our province - the so-called RIS3” explains IDM Development Director Hubert Hofer, and continues “IDM with its Ecosystems implements this strategy by launching projects, promoting cooperation and facilitating and targeting the transfer of knowledge and technology.” Moreover, to better guide the growth of creative industries and the film industry towards innovation, increase the competitiveness of these companies and positively influence the whole South Tyrol system, Ecosystem Film & Creative Industries is conducting an analysis with scientific support of the Institute for Regional Development of Eurac Research.“ For 2018 it is important to build a solid base of names and data in order to be able to take even more targeted actions, define the sector's priorities on the ground and the next steps to be taken” says Renate Ranzi, Ecosystem Film & Creative Industries coordinator. An example of the carried-out initiatives is the workshop for digital designers on the 9th and 10th of March organized by a group of design companies, Designerds, with the support from the Ecosystem.
A look at Europe
The Ecosystem not only focuses on our province but also on other European regions’ cultural and creative realities. From 7th to the 9th of March, eight European partner regions from the Interreg Europe project "Regional Creative Industries Alliance - RCIA", including South Tyrol, met in Bolzano for the fifth study visit. Here they compared their local activities, collected examples of good practices and significant experiences, and also discussed tools and measures already applied in other regions, in order to understand which ones are best suited to the specific needs of their region.
The final aim of this project is to create a strategic action plan by 2021 to improve the competitiveness of companies and professionals in this sector. In the meantime, two Working Groups are brought together within the Ecosystem, focusing on specific issues. The first one is "Coworkingspaces - startbase", heir of the activities that generated the coworking space for "startbase" in Merano last year which aims to create similar ones for Silandro, Brunico, Bressanone and Bolzano. The second one will be born at the end of March and will focus on "VFX and post-production" to network companies that deal with visual effects and post-production in cinema and television.
