the global network for cultural & creative entrepreneurs

b.creative – the global network for cultural & creative entrepreneurs – facilitates the convergence of various artistic and creative competences, technical, scientific and entrepreneurial skills in order to generate social and economic innovation and to ensure that creative ideas permeate societal development.

b.creative addresses several issues:

- - The power of creativity in shaping tomorrow’s social and economic innovation
  - The role of policies in enabling creative entrepreneurs to create wealth
  - The contribution of creative entrepreneurs to urban living and social cohesion
  - How to reconcile wealth creation with sustainability
  - The promotion of intercultural exchanges and cross-disciplinary activities

The network

b.creative is a unique community of around 2500 creative entrepreneurs, incubators, hubs, networks and associations throughout the world, representing 22 cultural and creative fields in 116 countries. The network gathers entrepreneurs across all sectors of the arts, culture and creative / digital industries, predominantly cross-sectorial.
Across Europe, b.creative has direct access to more than 350 creative spaces:

186 fablabs and living labs

105 incubators and accelerators

62 CCI clusters, hubs and co-working spaces

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The event

b.creative is also an international conference. b.creative – the global event for creative entrepreneurship is interdisciplinary, aiming to gather participants from a wide spectrum of creative professions, cultural policy makers, scientists, engineers, investors and academic in order to spark ideas that permeate societal development. The event has an interactive format of panels, debates, workshops, network fairs and speed-networking sessions run in a fun creative atmosphere.

‘Encouraging innovation through the arts and creative entrepreneurship‘ – first edition of b.creative in Namur 2-3 November 2016
‘Creative entrepreneurship and urban challenges‘ – second edition in Shanghai 15 November 2017
b.creative panel @ Startup:CON – Seoul 19-20 November 2018
‘Financing creative entrepreneurship‘ – fourth edition in Zagreb 24-25 October 2019

The competition

The b.creative challenge rewards interdisciplinary and international collaborations between young creative entrepreneurs tackling global social, economic, politic or environmental issues. 83 teams representing 50 nationalities worldwide applied for the first edition of the challenge in 2017. The 2017 award was won by LATRA, an innovative architectural, engineering and humanitarian organisation based in Lesvos (Greece) working in a refugee camp.

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Organisation

b.creative is an international non-profit association (AISBL) established in Brussels in March 2019. It functions under the management of a Board composed of 9 members and a General Secretariat represented by KEA European Affairs – an international policy design research centre specialised in culture and creative industries.
Based in Brussels since 1999 and in Shenzhen since 2013, KEA’s mission is to provide policy advice to make territories, organisations and people more aware of their cultural and creative resources, to unlock the potential of culture, including heritage, for economic and social development. KEA has consolidated its brand and reputation over the years as a result of a proven track-record of successfully concluded assignments and studies throughout the EU and in third countries (Albania, Georgia, China, Ukraine, Serbia, Russia, South Africa and the Caribbean).

KEA is involved as initiator or scientific coordinator in various high profile EU-funded projects related to trans-disciplinary collaborations between art, science, technology and business. For instance: