Creative State North West
As part of Creative State North West 4CNW programme two key reports have been published
- The final report Brokering Creative Advantage
- The Independent Evaluation Report.
Brokering Creative Advantage is the final report on the outcomes of the pilot 4CNW Programme, carried out by Sligo County Council during 2012 and 2013. It summarises the benefits and impact of the project and captures the lessons learned, key issues and challenges that have arisen, and proposes a framework and recommendations for future action.
The Independent Evaluation of the programme found that it has demonstrated the merits of what creative input can give to business in terms of value, changed thinking, opening mindsets towards implementing new approaches to problems and thereby enhancing capacity competitiveness and innovation in industry. Therefore there is strong merit in the continuation and expansion of 4CNW actions.
Key findings include
The operation of 4CNW demonstrated a huge latent capacity for the application of creative services and input across business sectors. It showed a lack of capacity for businesses to define their creative needs and a lack of awareness of the depth of creative talent available in their local region. It provides evidence of the need for capacity building mechanisms to grow knowledge and awareness within industry as to the value of creative services.The application of the talent voucher fund allowed the value of creative services to be showcased and demonstrated. It created new avenues to markets and clients for creative industries while developing new solutions for participating business.The holistic, bespoke business supports offered by 4CNW provided a co-ordinated and targeted response, towards stimulating new markets, enhancing competitiveness and innovation among many small firms across a range of enterprise sectors.
Both the Independent Evaluation Report and the Creative State North West, Final Report ‘Brokering Creative Advantage’ strongly suggests there is merit in the continuation of the process of bringing together the skills of both the business and the creative sectors in the periphery regions and in elevating the process from a regional to a national level.
Both reports illustrate that the brokering of creativity clearly creates better business advantage.
Next Steps
4CNW was a two-year pilot programme, but as you will see on page 83 of the report, we met with the Minister for Small Business and officials in the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in 2013 in order to define and position the 4CNW Programme. We also consulted extensively with a number of national government departments and key enterprise and cultural agencies. The purpose was to highlight the potential of this programme and initiatives of its type as a driver for business innovation and change. As part of this process the 4CNW report will be disseminated widely to relevant parties at regional, national and transnational levels and to the European Commission over the coming weeks.
ECIA Policy Findings
4CNW has also been selected by ECIA as a model of good practice and will feature as a case study in its final report, which will be launched at the closing conference of the European Creative Industries Alliance, November 27th-28th 2014, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The conference will provide a platform to further showcase the innovative approach to cross-sectoral understanding promoted by 4CNW to a wider audience and in particular to those agencies with responsibility for developing policy in this area.
