European Creative Business Network& Dutch Creative Residency Network

REPORT / MAY 29-31, 2014LONDON CREATIVE CENTRES STUDY TOUR

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Introduction: London’s rise as the world’s creative capital

Creative centres for cultural & social impact

Shoreditch Trust East Road

Somerset House

Southbank Centre

Ravensbourne

Trinity Buoy Wharf

Impact Hub

Creative centres for incubation & investment readiness

Club Workspace

Central Working

Microsoft Ventures Accelerator

Rainmaking Loft

Google Campus

Other important visits & debates

Greater London Authority

Hospital Club

The White Building & Crate

Provocation & debate with Tom Fleming

Provocation & debate with Charles Landry

Results of the Study tour according to the participants

List of all participants

INDEX

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Hyper connected, hyper busy, and hyper expensive – London has become one of the world’s creative capitals. Some of the world’s most innovative creative products have begun in this city, including games such as the Grand Theft Auto series and Singstar or the well-known Harry Potter franchise, while film production agencies in Soho – just one square mile - can expect to win at least two Oscars each year on average. This success has attracted big businesses to town: Facebook, Google, Last.fm and Spotify all have their European HQs in London.

The creative industries are the city’s second largest sector, worth $32 billion per year and generating 16% of the city’s annual gross value added (GVA). The city has one in every six of the UK’s jobs in the creative industries amounting to about 400,000.

But while these jobs are creative, they are also poorly paid and insecure. With the average rent in Inner London of £1500, how can Londoners working in the creative industries cope, as the average monthly creative salary is only £2000 a month? And how can the creative businesses afford to lease space in the centre?

This pressure has started to create a “doughnutification” of the creative industries – smaller creative businesses are pushed out into a ring around the inner city. On the ECBN tour we saw some great examples of organisations fighting these changes. The Shoreditch Trust is making big money from the crazy property prices and using it to support grass-roots creativity while Impact Hub Westminster is pushing the benefits that the creative industries can bring to other sectors and provides a space for start-ups that is close to government.

One of the participants told me that London was like “a creative Disneyland” - so hyper it’s not real. One guesses we will have to wait to see whether the pace of change is too much for the city, and whether it heads for a creative boom or a creative bust.

Callum Lee,Deputy director European Creative Business Network

INTRODUCTIONLondon’s rise as the world’s creative capital.

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Shoreditch Trust East Road

Shoreditch Trust works to reduce social and economic disadvantage in Hackney (and similarly deprived neighbourhoods) by supporting people to gain knowledge, skills and opportunities so that they can:

• access the services and support they need• participate fully in the workplace and in civil society• gain confidence & achieve greater independence & resilience• lead healthier, more fulfilling lives in their communities

The Trust has developed innovative models of engagement, partnership, community planning and consultation in the belief that their approach sets contexts and creates environments within which people and communities can develop resilience and aspiration. The Trust works to a person-centred approach. This is applied across all of their programmes, working with clients to tailor support according to individual need.Their focus is on delivering equality of access and opportunities for the people and communities that they serve.

We were received at one of the Trust’s projects, the Waterhouse Restaurant, on the morning of the first day of our tour. Set up by Shoreditch Trust in 2008, the canalside restaurant is one of the area’s hidden gems and a great place to have breakfast, lunch or dinner alike.

Being one of the Trust’s projects, the Restaurant is mostly manned by trainees who have been out of the job market for a while, or who have never had the opportunity to competitively start a career. This programme helps them in learning the skills they need in order to find work and take their next step.

The programme has been running for 8 years now, programme director and Waterhouse chef tells us filled with pride. Through the years, 8 different generations of trainees have entered and left the Restaurant, most of them successfully accessing the job market after finishing the programme.

After a delicious lunch, we were guided through the neighbourhood to one of the Trust’s workspace building, by their Director of Enterprise & Asset Development. On our way to the Trust we were shown some examples of the Trust’s work in the neigbourhood like the Shoreditch Park.

Ultimately, at the Trust’s Workspace Building, we were received by one of their artists in residence who gave us first hand information about how he found the Trust, what it is like dealing with them and how their mission helps him find a space to develop and grow at the difficult first stages of his career.

Shoreditch Trust East RoadUnits 1–2 Waterhouse, 8 Orsman Rd, London N1 5QJ, United Kingdom

Hilary Clayton, Director of Enterprise & Asset Developmenthilary@shoreditchtrust.org.uk 07581 231400www.shoreditchtrust.org.uk/

CREATIVE CENTRES FOR CULTURAL & SOCIAL IMPACT

Somerset House

Somerset House is a spectacular neo-classical building in the heart of London, sitting between the Strand and the River Thames.

Ownership of the Somerset House was transferred from the central government to a Trust to turn the building into a multifunctional location for art, exhibitions, (open-air) concerts, films, family workshops and free guided tours of the impressive building. The Trust’s mission is to conserve and maintain Somerset House to the highest standards and to develop the site as a public space which is universally recognised as a world class visitor attraction and centre of excellence for culture and the arts.

As part of their aim to be a place of inspiration, the upper levels of their building are configured as workspaces and have been converted into high quality lettable spaces for the creative industries. Somerset House is home to over 30 organisations, where private and public sector enterprises enjoy the advantages of fully serviced flexible office solutions in a unique community environment that supports growth. In order to be able to open up this experience to a wider group of business users, Exchange at Somerset House is able to offer a flexible working environment at competitive rates.

Somerset HouseStrand, London WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom

Central Desk: +44 20 7845 4600http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/

Southbank Centre

Southbank Centre is a world-famous arts centre on the South Bank of the Thames. Created in 1951 for the Festival of Britain, Southbank Centre draws on its heritage as a festival site, with art and activities inside and outside.

They offer a wide range of cultural events, including music, dance, art, performance and spoken word events throughout the year. Every year, thousands of musicians and artists perform to millions of visitors, making this one of the most popular cultural destinations in the country.

The Centre is committed to working with young, emerging and established talent across the artistic community. They currently support four Resident Orchestras, 14 Artists in Residence and over 100 other artistic organisations. They also manage the Arts Council Collection on behalf of Arts Council England and curate the Hayward Touring Exhibition programme in venues throughout the UK.

Southbank CentreSouthbank Centre, Belvedere RoadLondon SE1 8XX, United Kingdomhttp://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/about-us

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Ravensbourne

Ravensbourne is a University for new media and design next to the O2 Arena at the Southbank. In 2010 it started up an incubator for (student) companies, that has free access to all student facilities, such as high speed internet or even a TV-studio. Access is also provided to activities, such as industry events. Coaching is provided in numerous ways.

The Ravensbourne incubator now houses about 40 companies, a little less than in the past, since they have been becoming increasingly selective. Around 20% of the housed companies is run by students.

Ownership and businessmodel

The incubator is part of the University and was set up as a means to create jobs, innovation, valorisation and meanwhile generating extra income for the University.The programme has been thus far funded by ERDF (European Regional Development Funds), although this funding will end next year which makes it necessary for Ravensbourne to change it’s businessmodel. One of the offered ideas, to have the entrepreneurs pay for the facilities was met with too much resistance as they are used to getting everything for free.Another potential revenue stream would be partnerships with the industry. Partnerships have been setup with Barclays (bank), Ogilvy (advertising agency), Marks & Spencer (Department store) and Mozilla (IT company). These partners organize labs with the students and companies, offer internships and employ students. However the partnership contributions are at a low level and Ravensbourne wants to increase these.

Ideally Ravensbourne would like to have half a million pounds a year as a budget for the incubator, with Cambridge University serving as best practice for them, their incubator having already generated many successes in a sustainable way to this day.

Ravensbourne6 Penrose Way, Greenwich Peninsula, London SE10 0EW, United Kingdom

Hatice Ozdemircilerh.ozdemirciler@rave.ac.uk+44 20 3040 3500http://www.ravensbourne.ac.uk/

Trinity Buoy Wharf

Trinity Buoy Wharf is situated on the banks of the river Thames in the Leamouth neighbourhood, on a peninsula surrounded by the Thames and the river Lea. Trinity Buoy Wharf used to be a terrain for manufacturing buoys and docking lightships. It is located close to Canary Wharf, spanning 1 acre of land with a lot of different types of buildings including the one and only remaining lighthouse in London or an old Chain and Buoy store, and some recently built container buildings, together providing studio, exhibition, performance, rehearsal and event space.

History

The London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) bought the area from the Corporation of Trinity House in December 1988 because the wharf had stopped it’s activities. The LDDC was in charge from 1981 to 1998, set up at the time by the Thatcher government as a quango agency to regenerate the eastern docklands. It was non-democratically chosen thereby diminishing the role of the local planning authorities that would normally take care of this.

The area was up to be redeveloped, it’s realization in the hands of the LDDC. The LDDC then put up a competition in 1996 to find a manager whom would turn the then derelict industrial site into a creative quarter, and it was Urban Space Management that won the bid. Once this was settled, the LDDC was abolished and the free hold was turned over to the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Urban Space Management then received a long term lease of 125 years, that would be given to the Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust, which in turn gave a lease hold to the Trinity Buoy Wharf Space Management company to manage the terrain. This was done for the symbolic amount of 1 pound.

The LDDC’s permission statement towards Urban Space Management was quite flexible in it’s wording, which allowed USM to part ways from the habitual planning regulations that stated fix percentages of space utilization. Instead of aiming for a more regular scheme composed of residences and some art spaces, Urban Space Management chose to completely develop it for arts and creative uses instead with just some space left for less creative offices.

Officially Trinity Buoy Wharf posesses only 8 live/work studios, but in reality there are at least 20 people living there. Moreover they acquired multiple temporary planning permissions, that will probably outlast their original period of validity simply because the council never inspects the Wharf. Even so, in case the council would argue that one of their developments would not be in accordance with the wharf’s planning permit, they would probably never be able to legally disapprove of it. Nonetheless, Urban Space Management is a quite socially aware organization and they will not abuse the freedom they have been given. It is this freedom after all that has procured the area’s development in it’s quite unique, flexible and organic way.

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The tenants.

Trinity Buoy Wharf houses about 190 artists and creative entrepreneurs in more than 110 studios and at the time of ECBN’s visit, there was a new complex of containers being built. Besides the studios, it hosts temporary and regular exhibitions, educative workshops and a diner and cafe. They also own a space for more commercial and temporary uses, such as film location, weddings or company events. Price levels vary, as art users get lower prices than commercial rentals. In net floor space, the square meter price goes up to 300 euro per square meter (including service costs and VAT). The Trust receives 25% of the rental income that is generated and gives that to local arts projects.

Trinity Buoy Wharf64 Orchard Pl, London E14 0JY, United Kingdom

Main Desk: +44 20 7515 7153www.trinitybuoywharf.com/

Visit Trinity Buoy Wharf

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Impact Hub

The Impact Hub Westminster currently houses 520 members and is part of a network of 51 Impact Hubs across 5 continents. The Hub has 4 centres in London, which all started out quite individually and grew out to be full-grown co-working spaces. In the past years they have been doing a lot of double work, so nowadays they are looking for more collaboration with each other by, for instance, communicate from one central office thus lowering their personnel costs and work. The Impact Hub focuses on the triple bottom line: people, planet, profit. This is a much broader view than the normal view on businesses as having a single bottom line, being financial results.

The Impact Hub Westminster has 54.000 visitors in 2013 participating in hundreds of events. About 80% of their events are relevant (and accessible) to the members of the Impact Hub, the resting 20% is organized at the Hub’s location by external parties. Only 5% of the total events are organized by the Impact Hub itself, making the majority of the even user generated. The members of the Westminster Hub have access to 800 square metres of work and event spaces.

Range of activities

The Impact Hub Westminster focuses on the full life cycle of entrepreneurs, from developing their first idea to impact scaling through investors. It offers coworking spaces, accelerator programmes, access to angel investors, VC’s and crowdfunding platforms and actively works to influence policy to create more opportunities for social entrepreneurs, like new tax breaks for small size investments.

Concretely it offers access to work and meeting spaces 7 days a week. A host (professional or volunteer) is present at all times. It also offers (cost saving) services through a range of partners and affiliates.

Many events are organized to stimulate members to meet each other, innovate and cooperate. Every Thursday at 16.00 for example a ‘tea and scones’ break is organized. It’s informal and very popular.

They have two largescale programmes funded by the EU to accelerate growth.

The Hub Launchpad is a 4-year programme with a budget of £ 1.5 million from the EU, and private investors have committed to the same amount. It consists of a 14 week incubation programme with each time a specific theme, such as public procurement or renewable energy.

A second programme is targeted at bringing existing entrepreneurs into the next growth phase. It is an accelerator programme that offers ‘bitesize’ workshops and coaching, that allows entrepreneurs to combine their growth activities with their regular work in the company. The programme is funded through the ERDF (European Regional Development Funds).

Ownership and businessmodel

Impact Hub Westminster is a limited company owned 40% by the borough of Westminster (local governmental body) and 60% by investors. Turnover in 2013 was 1.2 million pounds, over 1.5 million euros. This breaks down in to £ 650.000 made on memberships, which makes the turnover per square meter reach up to € 1.000. Another £ 350.000 was made on events and the remaining £ 200.000 on EU and other funding. The Impact Hub has always been full throughout it’s three years of existence, but it currently sees the amount of coworking spaces grow spectacularly with many of those undercutting prices. This creates bigger competition, but as the director of the Impact Hub says many of these new spaces deliver much less value and activities.Members pay by the hour because this offers flexibility. Members can choose between 5 levels:

30 h/m costs £30 per month per person50 h/m 100 h/m200 h/munlimited h/m costs £400 per month per person

Since the new competition will have an effect on the prices in the market, the Impact Hub intends to enlarge the income generated out of partnerships. It is now working on a partnership with Yammer, a private social network that helps employees collaborate across departments, locations and business apps.

Another focus is on creating better links to impact investors, for example the Atonic Investment Network, a network of high net worth individuals who each invest at least £ 10 million in this fund for social entrepreneurs. In total the fund is worth over £ 10 billion.

Impact Hub1st floor, New Zealand House, 80 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4TE, United Kingdom

Main Desk: +44 2071 486 720. Mathew Denham: matthew.denham@hubwestminster.net+44 7769 297 934http://westminster.impacthub.net/

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Club Workspace

The Workspace Group owns around a 100 buildings in Central London, usually a couple of buildings being in each other’s vicinity. They strive for a maximum of 95% occupancy, since this is the optimal level to keep churn (renewal) and accommodate new companies (at higher rates). They offer space exclusively, no services. There’s no reception, no mail service in the buildings and the doorbell is connected to a (mobile) number of the company. Only 100 people staff the Workspace Group, head office and local offices included. That’s one employee per building. They have developed the ‘Club Workspace’ concept for coworking, which is now operational in 7 clusters in the city, with at least 5 more planned to open up.

We have visited the very first Club Workspace that opened and were told that the new ones have developed further and have bigger variety in types of workspaces although they operate in the same way. There are different kinds of workspaces with different types of seats (from desk to kitchen seats) and teamrooms are also provided. A ‘nosy’ manager is at the core of the concept, who is in charge of connecting people and stimulating collaboration.

There are different membership options at Club Workspace. The cheapest model is 3 days access to 1 club, and the most expensive one is a dedicated desk for £ 400, while another interesting offer is unlimited access to all clubs without a permanent desk for £ 300 per month.

Club Workspace31 Clerkenwell Close, EC1R 0AT

Andrea Kolokasi, Head of Club Workspaceandrea.kolokasi@workspace.co.uk +44 20 7369 2366http://club.workspacegroup.co.uk/

Central Working

Central Working is a young player in the field of coworking and incubation. However they are growing fast and hope to open 7 more locations in the near future. At present their organization consists of 11 people already housing 900 people forming many companies, including Angry Birds.

Their coworking concept is called Escalator and focusses on networking, connecting and sharing knowledge amongst their tenants, by for exampleorganizing a monthly party.

Prices for a membership differ from £ 99 for 40 hour access to £ 350 for unlimited access and £ 450 for a permanent desk as a resident.

Central Working 69-89 Mile End Road, E1 4TThttp://www.centralworking.com/

Impact Hub

CREATIVE CENTRES FOR INCUBATION & INVESTMENT READINESS

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Microsoft Ventures Accelerator

Microsoft’s Ventures accelerator is located within Central Working Whitechapel. They own a dedicated corner in a shared space with many other flexible companies, as well as Barclay’s Accelerator for creative businesses.

Microsoft’s London Accelerator started in july 2013 and is managed by a very motivated team. They have designed a 14 week condensed incubation programme that has so much content that it would normally take two years to complete. It includes workshops, personal coaching, access to Microsoft (developer) products and access to investors.

Happily the main director and management find startups to be very important. Their selection criteria are a strong team and a concrete, ready product. The build-up of the team is most important to them, as they don’t believe in companies that are only driven by one entrepreneur.

Their businessmodel is simple: they beg for money at Microsoft UK, they don’t take an equity share from the companies.

Microsoft Ventures AcceleratorWesley Knowles, Operations Managera-weskno@microsoft.com+44 758 389 7842https://www.microsoftventures.com/accelerators/london.aspx

Rainmaking Loft

Rainmaking Loft is a network of creative hubs located in Berlin, London and Copenhagen. The UK location owns 10,000ft2 in the iconic St Katharine Docks - in the heart of London. It features open plan workspace with 180 desks and a 150 person event venue. The location just got started, and is now open for applications.

It hosts accelerator programmes such as Startup Bootcamp Global by FinTech. Startupbootcamp is a 3 month acceleration program that focuses on exposing and connecting startups to our expanding community of top-level mentors and advisors. At the end of the program, startups get a chance to pitch to top angel investors and venture capitalists for funding at the Investors’ Demo Day.

Unfortunately, we were unable to visit this location.

Google Campus

Campus is a community of early stage startups, backed by Google in collaboration with some partners. Officially launched on March 29th 2012, Campus provides free event spaces, fast wifi, subsidised desk space and a home for the vibrant startup community in East London.

The premises

The basement houses a cafe, run by previously mentioned Central Working, which is free to use and open to all entrepreneurs. . Since August this year, this floor of Campus has been home to London’s largest public mobile device lab. Powered by Google for Entrepreneurs, the Campus Device Lab includes over twenty new phones and tablets for startups to test their apps across operating systems and form factors. In addition to tablets and smartphones running Android (2.2 - 4.4) and iOS, the lab includes a document camera for sharing mobile demos with a larger group.

The ground floor hosts a 140-seater event space, which anyone can book and use to run their startup event at Campus. Levels 1 and 2 house Techhub, an established London co-working space. On Level 3 Campus has rotating startup accelerator programs, hosting early stage teams for an intense 3 month period of rapid-prototyping and mentorship. Level 4 hosts multiple partners and startups. It is home for the Seedcamp team who specialise in scouting and mentoring early stage startups across Europe, as well as some of their portfolio companies. Also on level 4 are Coadec and Startup Weekend who very actively support the wider startup community in the UK and the rest of Europe. The fifth floor is a Google floor, where Campus staff and Googlers who volunteer at Campus come to work. And finally there is an open rooftop deck - which is mostly just for fun, when the sun is shining.

The community

An increasing variety of startups engage with Campus. At the start of 2013, about 63% of Campus startups were involved in one of three industries: Technology, Communications and Entertainment. This is diversifying rapidly, as is shown in the image on the next page.

Financing

Campus startups have by now raised at least £ 34M in self-reported funding, with £ 27M of that from formal startup funding sources such as venture capital investment, accelerator programmes, government grants and angel investors. The median amount raised from these sources is approximately £75,000, compared to a median amount of £3,000 from other sources. The overall funding estimates are conservative in the context of the wider Campus community, given that the survey only covered about 15% of the Campus member base.

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Self-financing is still the major funding avenue pursued by startups (60% of startups). There are many small startups out there which are only ideas at this stage, and they have raised small amounts of private funding just to explore those ideas. It is hoped that Campus Investor Office Hours, launched in 2013, will encourage and enable more startups to successfully pursue other funding avenues as they develop their ideas.

Google Campus4-5 Bonhill St, EC2A 4BX

Bruno Panara, Host departmentbrunopanara@google.comhttps://www.campuslondon.com/

Google Campus London

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Greater London Authority

In London, the policies for cultural and creative industries (CCIs) are coordinated by the Greater London Authority (GLA) under direct supervision of the mayor of London.Their cultural department has a small budget of £ 2.3 million per year which they mostly to plug gaps. They only intervene when they spot a chance of economic gain to create jobs and economic growth. Other city organizations focus at different goals, such as improving skillsets of entrepreneurs and cultural actors.

The GLA cultural department focuses at the following activities:

> Fashion Weekrecently having had a big growth in men’s fashion.

> Film, to make the City of London filmfriendly for producers. For example they recently made it possible for Tom Cruise to land in a helicopter on Trafalgar Square for a movie recording.

> Games,mainly through the London Games Festival.

> The London Design Festival. The GLA pays for the basic costs of the team, with which the festival generates over £ 90 million in sales for design companies.

There’s also a programme for creative workspaces, artist spaces and to boost cultural and creative skills in schools. Goal of GLA is to have 220.000 apprenticeships for youngsters each year.

All these events have to be world class and attract attention from around the world.

Adam Cooper, Senior Cultural Strategy Officer to the mayor also tells us that recently a debate has started about the construction of 230 highrise towers in London, 130 already being built and a 100 more have permits granted.This will surely have a big impact on the city.

Greater London AuthorityCity Hall, The Queen’s Walk, SE1 2AA

Adam Cooper, Senior Cultural Strategy Officer, adam.cooper@london.gov.uk020-7983 4580https://www.london.gov.uk/

Hospital Club

As the story goes, Paul Allen (Mirosoft) and Dave Stewart (Eurhythmics) were having a drink one night in Covent Garden when they spotted a boarded-up and lonely-looking building over the street. Enquiry revealed it had once been a hospital. Between them, the plan was hatched to revive this once elegant shell and transform it into a hub of creativity, full of people, ideas, music and life. Paul bought the former St Paul’s Hospital in 1996, and opened its doors as The Hospital Club in September 2004.

Located in the heart of Covent Garden the 60,000 square feet space provides a platform for the Hospital Club’s many parts. It involves a members’ club for those in the creative industries, an award-winning events company, a venue for some of London’s most chic and exclusive events, exhibitions, installations and parties.

More on the club’s activities and history.

The Club is a four story, exclusively decorated venue located in Covent Garden. The members are classy, affluent people who come to the Club to enjoy it’s top range offer in drinks and food, as well as the relaxed yet extraordinary atmosphere.

Thanks to the invertention of one of the European Creative Business Network’s members, we were granted entrance to this very exclusive venue. The evening started with a fun jazz event, with fantastic cocktails and good music followed up by a delicious dinner at the club’s restaurant, featuring some delicious traditionally British dishes, including one of the best fish and chips in town.

Hospital Club24 Endell St, London WC2H 9HQ, United Kingdom

General Enquiries: reception@hospitalclub.com +44 20 7170 9100http://www.thehospitalclub.com/

OTHER IMPORTANT VISITS & DEBATES

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The White Building & Crate

The White Building is London’s a small, autonomous creative hub for art, technology and sustainability located in the Hackney Wick’s creative Powerhoouse „The Queen’s Yard“. It’s an incubator for discursive and innovative thought, it serves as a testing ground and creative lab for artists and creatives whose work engages with technology.

The centre is anchored by a residency programme that is unique amongst UK public institutions, offering opportunities for emerging and mid-career artists to produce new work on an international platform. It comprises a residency studio, which doubles up as a temporary exhibition space, a flexible event space, studios for creative practitioners and CRATE Brewery & Pizzeria – which is regularly voted as one of the UK’s best independent breweries and eateries.

The White Building is a partnership with the London Legacy Development Corporation. SPACE sponsor Bloomberg is the White Building’s major programme sponsor, supporting the residencies and the People Power schools programme under the Bloomberg ONcollaboration.

CRATE on the other hand is Hackney Wick’s first craft brewery and pizzeria, situated canal-side in The White Building. Built, owned and operated by locals, the converted industrial interior is one of a kind and has been made with reclaimed materials from around the Wick. Since launching in late July 2012, the unique look and delicious offerings have received national and international acclaim, with ZAGAT voting CRATE one of London’s Hottest New Bars.

During the ECBN’s visit to The White Buiding, we received a tour of CRATE’s brewery, which has positioned itself as one of the strongest, small scale breweries in Europe exporting beer to all of the UK, Germany and a few other European countries.

The White Building & CrateGeneral inquiries: info@cratebrewery.com+44 20 8525 4330http://www.cratebrewery.com/

Provocation & debate with Tom Fleming

On the first day of our tour we met with Tom Fleming, a consultant and academic specialising in research and support for the cultural and Creative Industries sector at all levels, plus on broader issues of culture and creativity for cities and regions who has led a range of research and strategy programmes on behalf of regional development agencies and high profile national bodies, as well as undertaken significant international work.

Tom talked about his prediction of the economical future of Europe, as well as about the role of the creative industry in that future. He thinks that Europe, understood as a union of countries, is history now. Instead of countries, metropoli will soon become the economic motors of the union. After all, companies and individuals choose their location based on the city’s opportunity climate, and not nearly as much on the country in which the city is located. This tendency is only increasing in the internet age.

Part of this projection involves that the boundaries between countries will soon disappear, and the in between zones will become no one’s land. Rural areas will only serve a purpose in the production of primary resources like food, energy and drinking water.

This, in turn, will also inevitably lead to a new kind of economic and personal traffic between the cities. Within these projected knowledge powerhouses that cities will become, the role of the creative industries is to find partners and work towards innovating in a series of worldwide scale problems, such as: renewable energy, better healthcare, population growth, immigration, clean water, unemployment, the onset of big data, climate change and global conflicts of any ideological kind.

Tom Fleming Creative ConsultancyTom Fleming, tom@tfconsultancy.co.ukhttp://www.tfconsultancy.co.uk/

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Provocation & debate Charles Landry

Charles Landry gave us a lecture right in the Borough next to Tower Bridge, a very lively market with many high quality micro restaurants.

Charles starts out by telling us that London has become extremely popular as a place to live for the ultra-rich. A survey among this group showed they highly appreciated the business climate, quality of life, education and the language. This is becoming more and more visible in the city now.

Great numbers of apartments are being built and bought by rich from around the world: Asians, Arabs, (South) Americans and Africans. An apartment in the centre recently sold for € 25 million and Mayfair, the area where Christie’s and other art dealers are located has become the mecca for hedge funds and their managers.

This situation forces creatives to leave because of the rapidly rising prices. They now have to live further and further away from the centre and are mainly moving east, into areas like Hoxton or Dalston. London is also running out of old buildings, and it becomes more and more important to question how to protect the creatives and non rich from the effects of gentrification.

On the other hand there’s an international debate going on about the importance of the contribution of cultural and creative industries (CCIs) to the sustainability and inclusiveness of society, for example at the ASEM-conference in October 2014 in Rotterdam, in which 50 cultural ministers of Asia and Europe meet to discuss this topic.

To understand the contribution of the CCIs to society you have to look at what the creative sectors actually do and how does this affect the economy. Music for example is all about sound. This expertise is great for enjoyment, but it is also of value when you are drilling for oil in a sand bed at the bottom of the ocean.Charles’s research already proved this in the eighties. One third of the employees in mining companies were actually part of the creative industry, working with 3D-visualization and other creative (gaming) techniques.

According to Charles, creativity has become a necessity for cities just like water and electricity. He has difficulty in seeing the industry as apart from the rest, as he thinks of creativity as this basic commodity for all of the other industries, without which they could not prosper.

Recently Charles has written another one of his short, inspiring books on the creative industries titled “THE ORIGINS & FUTURES OF THE CREATIVE CITY”

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A short summary of his theory would be:

City 1.0 is one that has all the facilities and urban planning in place, but has no heart.

City 2.0 is one that hires star architects to create a spectacular city and focuses at city branding to create more of an attraction and relationship with a city.

City 3.0 is one that is at the next level by co creating the city with it’s people. They are no longer seen as consumers, but as prosumers, who are very capable of creating new initiatives. These cities try to minimize rules and optimize the flexibility in their accommodation of needs and wishes of their people.

An example of a city 3.0 would be Helsinki, which got rid of much regulation after a bottom up initiative to declare a certain “restaurant popup-day”. On this day, everybody who wanted to could open up a restaurant wherever they liked: in their living room or in the park, street, etc. The initiative was a great success and led the city into re-evaluating it’s long list of regulation on restaurants and catering. These culinary initiatives are now being accommodated the best as possible.

Also in Helsinki, another initiative got started which allowed heavy users of health care to decide on the load of provided health care themselves. Instead of a growth in usage of health care, this resulted in a decrease of usage of health care of 60%.

Charles researches the level of a city through it’s creative city index. “These days cities are like fashion stars...!” he says. On our request Charles advises us on the next destination of the ECBN/DCR Study Tour. He finds Copenhagen and Malmö very interesting and also Barcelona, which has been awarded the title of European Capital of Innovation. He directs us to Manel San Roma, who is the Chief Information Officer in Barcelona and played a big role in innovation in the local government.

As both Charles Landry and Tom Fleming pointed out, the key in developing a successful city is not only in trying to keep graduated talent.The attraction and re-attraction of talent from outside a city is very important for the further success. According to Landry the main goal should become setting up an imaginative environment, then communities will arise and produce more talents by themselves.

Another important lesson learned is that nowadays cities matter more than nations. Charles refers to Benjamin R. Barber’s book: “If Mayors ruled the World”. People choose to be in a certain city. They have a bigger emotional connection with this place than the country it is in.

ComediaCharles Landry, charleslandry@comedia.org.uk http://comedia.org.uk , http://charleslandry.com/

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RESULTS OF THE STUDY TOUR according to the participants

On Saturday afternoon, the last day of our the tour we have asked all participants to share with the group what they take home as the most important learning point. Some people also add concrete plans or wishes to follow up.

Jeroen CarelsBIM

The most important thing Jeroen takes home is the importance of the content of the building. It’s not about the stone and mortar, but about the programming and mix of companies. The energy at the Microsoft Accelerator impressed him most. He wishes for the DCR-creative centres to cooperate more, first great step forward would be to open each the flexspaces of these different spaces to each other’s entrepreneurs.

Adrie LesuisBINK 36

Adrie finds most important the fact that we have learned a great deal of London together and also shared our own best practices. Concretely he has new inspiration on nudging entrepreneurs to connect them more actively and to create a stronger community out of the 350 companies in the Bink36.

Johan de JongBlokhuispoort

Johan works at a social housing corporation on all the abnormal buildings they own. He built a creative centre out of an old prison in Leeuwarden. He didn’t see too many new models, but is very positive about the trip and cooperation opportunities between the participants and other creative centres.

Maarten HendriksLittle Mountain

Maarten was amazed by the scattered creative centres popping up all around London. My focus with Little Mountain and Founded By All was to create the perfect space, most oft he directors seem a lot more interested in the businessmodels.Most important for me was the insight by Tom Fleming on the growing importance of cities and the diminishing importance of the nation. I miss the connection of hubs in London, cooperation inside and outside your building is very important.

Paul BarendregtHooghiemstra

Paul has three buildings in Utrecht, which he now calls the Brooklyn of Amsterdam. Seeing the size of London and the proximity of Amsterdam and Utrecht, it’s smart for Utrecht to position itself more smartly as being part of the Dutch metropolitan region with unique qualities because of a high quality of life. Important learning point for is that all organizations seem to work with a membership model instead of renting out square meters. Paul would like to cooperate more with other (Dutch) creative centres.

Marian MatusakKosice 2013

Marian has read Charles Landry’s papers and found it great to meet him in real life again. Most important result for him is the insight that ownership of “the place” where people meet to cooperate and colaborate doesn’t matter and the most important message is thatcollaboration leeds to innovation*, having strong impact on “the place” whether it is the (unused) building, neighborhood, or the whole city. It’s all about creative spillovers, measuring change and (reattracting) talent.

Richard HovingDutch Chamber of Commerce

Richard Hoving, Chamber of Commerce the Netherlands, national department to stimulate growth and innovationRichard found the tour very interesting and has had intensive talks with each participant of the tour. He sees demand and opportunities for a partnership with the Dutch Creative Centres to create a growth programme for the entrepreneurs in the buildings. He will discuss this in his team and hopes to be able to present the outcome at the next DCR-kennisdag.

Liesbeth JansenMarineterrein

Liesbeth started her company Leftbank 3 years ago after 18 years of building up the Westergasfabriek. She now has a new unique place to develop a marinebase in the heart of Amsterdam. She found the Study Tour very interesting, het head is overflowing with all the input, she now has even more questions about how the economy works in London. How are creatives able to live among all the rising prices. Charles’ and Tom’s contributions were very interesting. She enjoyed the White Building, would have loved to explore the area and learn what’s happening,also in relation to the Olympic Quarter.

She enjoyed the time tigether very much, found it very valuable and hopes to meetup with eachother more often, maybe DCR-members can organize monthly site visits to eachother’s buildings.

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Niels MoshagenNote Disrupt

Niels has been greatly inspired by all the different models and concepts we have seen. Most important he finds that there’s no one perfect way to manage a creative centre and stimulate the entrepreneurs. You have to keep experimenting.

Peter PolmanNote Disrupt

Peter is co-founder of Smart Creation with Niels. They have just given over their seat on the board of the co-working space to the new generation. Their own interest is now in starting up an accelerator for product based start-ups in the creative industry in the Enschede region. As the University of Twente already has an accelerator program for start-ups in the high-tech industry, we think that one focussing on creative talent will open up interesting possible crossovers.

The region has trouble in keeping the talent it educates at the university. After graduation a lot of people move to places in the west because they think it has a way better social and working climate. London showed me that a strong focus on the creative industry can do al lot for a city. Personally I think that a renewed focus on this creative industry in Enschede could be the key in developing a successful city.

Another thing I learned is that you don’t get there overnight. There are a lot of ingredients, small and big, that influence your success. The process of growing the right culture in a successful accelerator program is far more important than most of the functional facilities it’s providing. An energetic host making the right connections. Successors from the field providing real mentoring and coaching, other than talking to the usual business developers who swarm around new startups. Creating a flexible business model that can adapt to the start-ups needs. Let VC’s pitch what they have to offer, instead of the other way around.

Thom AussemsStrijp-S

Thom’s most important learning point is the ways of connecting people, start-up’s need (a bigger) network. Thom sees the memberships as a model of the middle ages, because it’s a model that focusses at exclusion. He sees open innovation as the future and says it’s crucial to accommodate this, so that industry, education, government and (start-up) entrepreneurs find each other.

Sietske AussemsStrijp-S

Sietske found it very interesting to see the huge differences between London and Berlin and feels more at home in Berlin, because she thinks the power of money and the focus on businessmodels is too big in London. She sees a lack of passion and a lack of bottom-up initiatives in London.

Karol RohrerTabacka

Karol is co-founder of Tabacka, an old tobacco factory turned into a cultural space with a great programme and selling loads of beer. Most interesting for him was to see the creative centres focussed at social impact and learn how to support social impact entrepreneurs.

Ivan DebnarThe Spot

Ivan has run The Spot, a creative accelerator in Bratislava for 2 years and is now talking to entrepreneurs who want to start two franchises. He found it very interesting to meet everybody and get to know many new people. Most important insight for him was the possibility to influence the neighborhood outside your building.

Hilde van WijkUrban Resort

Hilde is responsible for renting out several locations together with Marijke. They have recently made a transition with their biggest building the Volkskrantgebouw, from a creative centre with club to adding a hotel. It was most interesting for her to look at the full spectrum of cultural and creative centres. She wants to read Landry’s book on Cities 3.0 and says we all belong to our buildings, but because of this trip also to each other.

Merijn FoetUrban Resort

Merijn is part of the financial team at Urban Resort and found it important to step out of the treadmill of daily work in order to be inspired. He found the program had too much focus on economics. Merijn’s interest is to stimulate the underground and out of the ordinary culture in a city. His goal, is that the organization of Urban Resort is able to survive financially in a healthy way, just treading above water, so as to provide a platform for other initiatives and artists where success is not measured by money alone.

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Marijke EckhardtUrban Resort

Marijke found it interesting to learn about new business models, such as membership programmes. Also the Impact Hub had very clever models, like their franchising and IT-systems. She realized it is important as an organization to focus on what makes you unique, as there is getting more and more competition. The most inspiring location visisted to her was the White Building and that whole area. Furthermore she liked that we met Charles Landry and the way he talked about gentrification and the downsides of it.

Leo van LoonECBN & DCR

Leo has transferred ownership of the Creative Factory to the City of Rotterdam last year. He now focusses even more at supporting creative centres around Europe and battling youth unemployment with his initiative Buzinezzclub. He found it amazing to see the creative coworking spaces mushrooming in London. Real estate has become very expensive, but even in London coworking spaces are economically viable. He was very interested in the way the Microsoft accelerator and the Impact Hub focus at the full lifecycle of entrepreneurs with different programmes.

Leo found it an amazing study tour and was very happy with the open and collaborative atmosphere in the group. It was a great way to be inspired by many different centres in London and also get to know each other a lot better. 5 years ago he founded the Dutch Creative Residency Network together with Liesbeth en Willie and now the network has grown into 32 members. He is looking forward to see the next 5 years of DCR and ECBN and hopes new Board Members will step in the board of DCR to further develop and grow the DCR-network.

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NETHERLANDS

MARINETERREIN

Liesbeth Jansen

ECBN & DCR

Leo van Loon

Callum Lee

Adrian Sneeuw

LITTLE MOUNTAIN

Maarten Hendriks

NOTE DISRUPT

Niels Moshagen

Peter Polman

BINK-36

Mr. Adrie drs Lesuis

HOOGHIEMSTRA

Paul Barendregt

BLOKHUISPOORT

Johan de Jong (dir. Fryslan)

STRIJP-S

Sietske Aussems

Jack Hock

Thom Aussems

BIM

Jeroen Carels 06 51 53 86 30

URBAN RESORT

Hilde van Wijk

Merijn Foet

Marijke Eckhardt

Laurens van Rens

KVK

Richard Hoving

Me We

Winand Singh

SLOVAKIA

Kosice 2014

Marian Matusak

TABACKA

Karol Rohrer

The Spot

Ivan Debnar

PARTICIPANTS

European Creative Business Network