Barcelona is one of the sites of European Culture & Creativity, the new European platform to foster the cultural and creative industries

Barcelona today hosted the European Culture and Creativity Conference held as part of EIT Culture & Creativity, the new European innovation community to boost the competitiveness of the cultural and creative industries which has one of its six centres in the Catalan capital and from where it will connect with players in the ecosystem in Spain, Portugal and the south of France.

The event, organised by the Eurecat technology centre and held to coincide with Barcelona Design Week, brought together leading experts and businesses in the sector to address new concepts in digital culture and humanism against a background of the rapid rollout of technologies such as artificial intelligence and augmented reality and their application in the cultural and creative industries, with a special focus on audiovisual, digital culture, creativity and design.

The official welcome featured Carmen Páez, Director General of Cultural Industries, Intellectual Property and Cooperation in the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sport, and Daniel Altimiras, chair of the Eurecat technology centre. Altimiras underscored the importance of EIT Culture & Creativity “as a European ecosystem of cultural and creative industries in which Eurecat has a long track record of technological innovation” in a constantly evolving context where “the convergence of technologies such as augmented reality and artificial intelligence with cultural and creative expressions is changing the way we experience art, entertainment and culture.”

Bernd Fesel, CEO of EIT Culture & Creativity, noted that “today is a day of celebration because we are presenting the southwest branch of EIT Culture & Creativity, based in Barcelona and covering Spain, Portugal and the south of France” and added that “we would like to invite our partners and the business community in the cultural and creative industries, the third largest in Europe, to back our mission: leading the creation of sustainable value and the growth of Europe’s green transition.” This support was also stressed by Manuel Szapiro, the European Commission’s representative in Barcelona.

Technological innovation in the cultural sector

The conference addressed the impact of design and creativity across all industries in partnership with La Fura dels Baus Epic Foundation and Ogilvy Barcelona and also unpacked technologies such as virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence with specialists from RTVE and Tecnalia.

Officers from GSMA, EGEDA and the Spanish Government discussed how to create and grow culture and the creative industries in Europe while Integrated Systems Events (ISE) looked at the audiovisual industry in Europe.

The European Culture and Creativity Conference’s afternoon session featured case studies of leading businesses including Grup Mediapro and “la Caixa” Foundation which shared innovation projects carried out by the companies.

The Eurecat technology centre outlined the potential of artificial intelligence in creativity while UPTEC and MIN4CI explored creative and technological talent in the digital arts.

The event, which has been held with the support of Barcelona City Council, was wound up with a talk by Francesc Vilaró, the Head of the Technical Office in the Catalan Ministry of Culture. At the end of the conference at the Cibernàrium Auditorium, the event moved on to Eurecat’s headquarters which hosted a reception to mark the unveiling of EIT Culture & Creativity in Barcelona.

Culture in Catalonia

The “White Paper on Artificial Intelligence applied to Cultural and Experience-based Industries” produced by the Centre of Innovation for Data tech and Artificial Intelligence (CIDAI) says that the culture sector in Catalonia embraces a total of 39,558 companies and 112,567 workers with an annual turnover of €12.44 billion and gross value added worth €4.67 billion, figures which account for 5.1 percent of Catalan GDP and 3 percent of jobs.

EIT Culture & Creativity

EIT Culture & Creativity is a knowledge and innovation community bringing together over 3,000 partners from Europe’s leading business, research and education organisations. It is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a European Union agency, and has six Co-Location Centres across Europe to develop various ecosystems.

Eurecat is one of the founders and host of the South-West Europe Co-Location Centre which is a key hub connecting stakeholders in the Spain, Portugal and southern France knowledge triangle.

The founding members in the South-West Europe Co-Location Centre’s area of influence are the Eurecat technology centre, Tecnalia, University of Porto, MIN4CI and Grup Mediapro.