The Russian-British Creative Economy forum brought together leading UK and Russian experts in the development of creative economy policy to build relationships between the two nations in this emerging area for business and cultural exchange.
Over a fascinating couple of days in Moscow (30 Sept-1 Oct 2011) participants including policymakers, NGOs and academics discussed the experience of both countries, identifying similarities, differences and areas of common interest.
Hosted by the British Embassy in Russia, the first day focused on the perspectives of the UK and Russia on four key themes. John Newbigin, Chair of Creative England and Elena Zelentsova, Director of the Creative Industries Agency kicked off with insightful overview of the development of national creative economy policy in both countries. On the importance of mapping and research to shape evidence-based and industry-endorsed regional policy to support the creative industries, Jonnie Turpie, Director of Maverick TV, shared his experience in the West Midlands of the UK and Maksim Rumyantsev, Director of the Institute for the Humanities at Siberian Federal University, talked about his mapping in the Russian region of Krasnoyarsk. Recognising the role that creative economy policy can play as a resource for urban regeneration Andrea Stark, Exec Director of Arts Council England illustrated an impressive legacy of cultural development projects over 10 years in the East of England and German Vetrov, Director of the Urban economic development department Institute for Urban Economics described how this agenda is being taken up in policies to support social and economic development of territories and cities across Russia. Rounding off the day we examined policies supporting creative entrepreneurship. Sian Prime, Course Director at the Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths talked about UK initiatives supporting creative business on a city, national and higher education level and Elena Melville, Deputy Director of Creative Industries Agency explained Russian research into creative trade and how to best support it.
Day 2 took a more practical approach, with dyanamic workshops discussing how these approaches are being applied to best support the creative businesses and the cultural infrastructure in four Russian cities/regions: Kaliningrad, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk and Petrozavodsk.
In Russia there has been considerable recent activity around the creative industries and the role of culture as a driver of regeneration, tourism and place-making. With increasing Russian focus on ICT and hi-tech industries and the desire to further develop the knowledge economy, now is the time for more concrete action at a city and regional level. With the input of UK experts from government, support bodies, universities and the private sector who have helped make the UK such a global player in the creative industries, we will be exploring the essentials for developing effective creative industries strategy including mapping, business/entrepreneurship support, investment, clusters, and the wider role of creativity and culture for economic and social development and city/regional competitiveness.
The event is part of a ground-breaking programme around growing Russia’s creative economy through a series of seminars and workshops until April 2012, working towards stronger collaboration between Russia and the UK as well as a series of concrete long-term collaborative projects. We are developing this with UK agency the Tom Fleming Creative Consultancy and Russian partner the Creative Industries Agency.
More information can be found on the British Council Russia site and the event site
