HackCreative: An Industry Transformed – Creative and Cultural Industries hackathon to tackle the current crisis
The cultural and creative industries across Europe have been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, and both individuals and organisations in the field are trying to understand the ongoing impact and adapt to this new reality. A 48-hour fully online hackathon HackCreative: An Industry Transformed on May 1-3 invites industry leaders, creatives, artists, event organisers and culture workers to build new solutions for this unprecedented challenge.
Cultural and creative industries across Europe, heavily reliant on physical and local experiences, have been disrupted by the current COVID-19 crisis. Event cancellations, travel restrictions, quarantine and self-isolation protocols along other containment measures aiming to protect the public against the pandemic have left the industry, heavily reliant on physical and local experiences, transformed and disrupted. In this time, creatives, freelance workers and events are particularly threatened by the pandemic at a time of huge uncertainty across all sectors.
This challenging time is also a time of opportunity for transformation, collaboration and learning. Cultural and creative industries are in a strategically important position to promote sustainable and inclusive growth in all EU regions and cities both during and after the crisis. The 48 hour online hackathon is open to all creatives, event organisers and culture workers, as well as professionals from other industries, eager to develop new ways of building bridges across industries and creating platforms for collaboration with the audience. Registration for the event is available here: hackcreative.org
The online hackathon will not require previous experience in digital technology, only a proactive interest to work on new solutions and devote 48 hours to learn and work on projects together with other creative professionals from different cultural backgrounds and industries. During two days, participants will learn, build & share their creations over the course of a weekend with the help of experienced mentors and industry experts.
Over the course of the weekend, participants will divide into teams and work on their own projects – or join projects proposed by others. During this time, they will have the opportunity to attend six online workshops hosted by industry professionals and consult with several mentors available on hand at all times, offering advice on a wide range of topics that range from UX to event management.
Workshops will be led by industry proffesionals – Alex Antolino (Spain), Creative director at typeform, advertising specialist, documentarian and an overnight producer; Birgitta Persson (Sweden), COO at Point of Value & Director at Olivearte Cultural Agency; Sebastien Toupy (Netherlands), Head of startup Relations at The Next Web, open innovation and global events scene master; Līna Marta Sarma (Latvia), Computer scientist specialising in creative coding, hackathon veteran & former Executive Director at TechHub Riga; Egita Poļanska (Latvia), Partnership Manager at Startup Wise Guys specialising in business model & commercialisation; Edgars Zvirgzdiņš (Latvia), Founder at Partners et Sons, specialising in branding, product & graphic design.
Creative and Cultural Industries hackathon is organized by Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture (NDPC) and supported by the Latvian Ministry of Culture, the Embassy of Sweden in Riga, the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office in Latvia and Swedbank, in cooperation with the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art and Trans Europe Halles network. NDPC focuses on improving operational conditions for cultural and creative industries, bridging the gap between various sources of funding, sectors of activity and strengthening cooperation between project owners, business communities, the public sector and international institutions throughout the Northern Dimension.
