30.06.2010

The Creative Cities project, financed within the framework of Central Europe programme, from ERDF fund, organised its opening conference in Pécs in 28-29 June, 2010. Altogether 80 people attended the two-day conference. Several articles appeared mainly in the electronic media. There was one radio interview and two television appearances – one by the local PécsTV and the other by the Regional Studio of the Hungarian National Television (MTV) prior to and during the conference.

28 June 2010
Following the introduction of the aims and activities of the project by project manager Susanne Kucharski-Huniat, three presentations were held by partners from Ljubljana, Genoa and Leipzig. Each presentation described a flagship creative industry in the given cities. During coffee break the audience had the chance to see the poster exhibition. Posters had been prepared by the partners on the creative industry projects in the involved partner cities. Before the panel discussion about the AV industry moderated by János Keresnyei, president of the Cultural Innovation Competency Centre Association in Pécs, Tamás Síkfői, president of the South-Transdanubian Cultural Industry Cluster gave an overview about the situation of the creative industries in the South Transdanubian Region. Not only did he describe the situation of this industry in the region but tried to reveal more complex relation and to put the present situation into a global context. Following the panel discussion, where the three panellist, Susanne Kucharski-Huniat (Leipzig), Fabio Canepa (Genova) and Damjan Kavas (Ljubljana) shared their views on the potentials of AV industry in their hometowns and regions, Attila Zongor, the CEO of Kultindex and a member of Team Europe Hungary gave the audience an overview on the Green Paper of the European Commission, published in 2010 April about “Unlocking the potential of cultural and creative industries.
After a short lunch break, Tamás Szalay, the Cultural Director of Pécs2010 Management Centre gave an hour presentation about Pécs 2010 European Capital of Culture [ECoC] and its creative industrial effects, introducing the 5 main investment projects with an insight into the structural change as main objective of the EcoC project. The programme for this day was finished by 3.30.p.m. Participants of the conference were invited to a tour of Pécs. The tour started at the venue of the conference, at the Cella Septichora Visitor Centre, which is a UNESCO world heritage site.

29 June 2010
Following the welcome speech given by the mayor of the City of Pécs, Mr. Zsolt Páva, Ms. Roberta Comunian gave a lecture on Creative industries from a researcher’s perspective. Dr. Comunian is a representative member and initiator of the Regional Studies Association Research Network on Creative Regions in Europe. This presentation was followed by a questions/answers section on the topic. From 11 o’clock in the morning the audience was split into two for two workshops in the Civil Community Centre, a short walk from the original venue of the conference. Two topics were discussed and analysed in detail. One of them was ‘Innovation and the creative industries ‘ and the other is ‘Creative Development of Brownfields.’
In the afternoon, the Interregional Steering Committee held its official meeting, where they discussed issues connected to the first two implementation period: Reporting, Communication, SWOT Analysis, Work Plan. In the meanwhile the other partners took a trip to the city centre, to the House of Arts and Crafts, where they had the possibility to be familiarised with a traditional craft, namely bookbindery, and they had the chance to master themselves in this craftsmanship.