The conference is not a stand alone. It fits into a broader approach on creativity and medium-sized cities.
We are therefore gratefull this conference is embedded in the European projects Creative city challenge and the Eurotowns network.
I’m pleased to give the floor to the leadpartners of both projects; mister Walter Leal and Mister Alain Jorda.
Voorstelling Filip Santy
Schepen bij de Stad Kortrijk
Voorzitter van Leiedal
en enthousiaste muzikant
The Kortrijk area is situated outside the classical central area of our country.
The Brussels/Antwerp/Ghent triangle is often considered as the backbone.
But, using a different scoop, suddenly Kortrijk is no longer a peripherical region but part of a bigger network; the eurometropool.
This insight is not a new one. Already some 15 years ago the European union detected 3 regions that could be developed as transnational regions. Those regions are complementary with the classical metropolitan areas as London, Paris, Brussels-Antwerp-Gent,…
It is not by accident those 3 regions are crossbroder entities. National borders have always prevented their development. With the disappearance of these national borders, new opportunitues of collaboration arise.
In this transnational context the proximity of Lille gives us a central position in Europe
Using the high speed train it is posible to be
in London within an hour and a half
In Paris within the hour
In Brussels within the hour
What is Leiedal?
An intermunicipal development agency
Originated at the end of the fifties.
At that time our industrie (mainly flax and clay-bricks-tiles) was in crisis
Tool to transform the region mainly by developing industrial zonings to attract investments and to shift our economical model from an agricultural based one towards an industrial based
Some figures:
13 municipalities
277.515 inhabitants(2006)
A territory of 550 square kilometers
50 employees
Core business:
Realisation of industrial zonings
Urban planning and development
Living environment
ICT and e-government
Mobility
Housing
What is Kortrijk?
To present a city in 20 seconds is tricky. For this I use 3 themes:
Historical Kortrijk
Kortrijk as city of innovation, design and creation
Kortrijk, a warm city of people (???)
Historical Kortrijk: Unesco world heritage/Beguinage,
Kortrijk as city of innovation, design and creation
Investments in both buildings and infrastructures
Continous focus on high quality realisations
Kortrijk, a warm city of people (???)
Why do we focus on creativity and more specific on creativity?
Our region is more industrial then the rest of Flanders
The industrial model is no longer competitive by reasons of upcoming upcoming (and cheaper) countries
More-over, the type of industries in the Kortrijk area are footlose and the type of goods they produce are on the downside of the value chain
To counter this negative tendence we aim to upgrade
the added value of the products being produced here
Create conditions to keep those companies here.
For this we think design is way to produce
More valuable products
In conditions they can only be produced here
To do so, among other things, Designregio has been founded, a collaboration between five partners with educational/business/governmental background.
The activities of Designregio Kortrijk aim to further the introduction of design culture in the industrial activity of the region, its educational infrastructure and the public sector.
No better way to show what designregio is doing then by this example.
Eliet is a company that produces gardening machines, in particular shredders.
Their main market was the professional gardener.
At a certain moment Eliet was willing to enter the private market.
Although they had the perfect technology, their product wasn’t suitable for this specific niche.
Designregio Kortrijk appointed a designer a together with Eliet they developed a brand new product.
For this product Eliet used plastics, something they never worked with before.
Combining the existing technology and the knowledge of the designer on plastics the achieved to enter the home market.
The conference of today is also fitting in the constant search of re-enforcing our economic structure.
Hier het tekstje van de intro van de conferentie invoegen? Zie uitnodiging
The conference is build upon 4 major themes:
The first theme explores the role of cities and government. What levers can they use to stimulate creativity?
The second theme tries to tackle push and pull factors for creative industries and the company expectations towards government.
The third theme reflects on a Kortrijk case, the Budafabric. By using dialogues we seek for European inspiration.
The last theme is the best collaboration award, which rewards fruitfull collaborations between traditional and creative companies.
Creativity policy at city level.
Without exploring this theme in depth I would like to draw your attention on two initiatives we undertake.
designregio Kortrijk (investments in the human capacity)
A permanent focus on high quality architecture and public realm (investments in infrastructure)
In a way to attract creative companies the Kortrijk regio is undertaken different kinds of actions.
Again, a small sample of our initiatives:
Evolis (infrastructure)
Kortrijk in (human capacity)
Buda libre (human capacity)
The Budafabric,
Is actually a way of getting our creativity policy on a higher level.
The building should become a focal point where arts-economy-creativity meet.
The special collaboration between traditional industries and the creative industries was the main focus of interest of a new international prize awarded within the project ‘Creative City Challenge’.
The object was to find examples of collaboration with unconventional results beyond traditional business relationships.This award is an annual event and will be given today for the frist time.
The conference is not a stand alone. It fits into a broader approach on creativity and medium-sized cities.
We are therefore gratefull this conference is embedded in the European projects Creative city challenge and the Eurotowns network.
I’m pleased to give the floor to the leadpartners of both projects; mister Walter Leal and Mister Alain Jorda.
