Network of Medium Sized Creative Cities
ORGANZA's objective is to systematically collect and exchange policy experiences of local and regional authorities regarding creative industries. ORGANZA focuses on medium size regions and cities that lack critical mass and face brain drain of creative talent. A key element in the lack of critical mass is an incomplete production structure and environment. Often either creative entrepreneurship or industrial entrepreneurship dominates. The challenge is to dynamize entrepreneurship but also to foster industrial change. Synergies between creativity and industry is an objective sought after, in line with the Lisbon agenda, but often not attained at a regional level. A European dimension may enable synergies and attainment of critical mass. Cities and regions have struggled in defining policies for creative industries. ORGANZA brings together cities and regions with different profiles of creative sectors, which enables capitalisation from the project results._x000D_
Partners in ORGANZA may be at the stage of policy inception, at the stage of studies or stakeholder consultations, they may have developed instruments (promotion actions, incubators, training programs etc…) or they may have integrated several instruments in a coherent framework or extended policies for creative industries to other areas. ORGANZA brings together partners at different stages of policy making and with different models of policy development in terms of competences and means, in terms of articulation between local and national policies and in form of implementation. ORGANZA enables regions to understand the relevance of policies with regard to their specific competences. Results also enable structured understanding by non-partner regions. The involvement of public authorities in ORGANZA will enable to understand how to leverage results from past, current and future ERDF funded projects for creative industries._x000D_
The ORGANZA project is structured around a strong methodological core. This is required since it is a new policy area, hence a taxonomy of collecting regional profiles and experiences is an important element. A structured database with search engine enables systematic access, customized to the profile of the interested region. ORGANZA then entails a collection and validation of experiences including stakeholder assessment. From this systematic collection, a limited set of inspiring practices is selected for transfer. Limited pilot actions will focus on the three stages of the policy process: inception, instrumentation and integration. ORGANZA includes capacity building in the form of seminars as well as dissemination actions with a focus on stakeholders. The project is set up in order to prepare for regional action plans and possibly a Interreg IVc Capitalisation project.