Partnerships and cooperation projects

Impulses & Projects

Both nationally and internationally, Creative Industries Styria is an active partner of cooperation projects, thus generating synergies and impulses that are of crucial importance for the economy in Styria and throughout Austria. In 2020, virtual networking came more into focus – a trend that continued in 2021.

National and international networking is of incredible importance for the creative economy. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, networking largely shifted to virtual space, which resulted in new solutions and innovative ideas. Cooperation and exchange between networking clusters increased significantly in Styria, as the Holzcluster Steiermark, Human. technology Styria, the Green Tech Cluster, the ACstyria Mobilitätscluster, the Silicon Alps Cluster and the ICS – Internationalisierungscenter Steiermark continued an intensive exchange both online and offline.

Cross-Cluster Cooperation Since 2020, cooperation activities between Styrian cluster and network organizations have intensified in order to make new suggestions for use across industries and to leverage yet untapped potential. This trend continued in 2021, albeit with a focus-shift towards online formats. Among other things, CIS nominated enterprises from the network for the “Green Tech Valley” platform. The project “Redesign the Future” also took place virtually: FH JOANNEUM and Creative Industries Styria organized the online symposium in cooperation with the Green Tech Cluster for the Design Month Graz. In three panels, international speakers presented solutions and best practice examples for the largescale project of the future. The event took place in cooperation with Holzcluster Steiermark. Creative Industries Styria was also a partner in a series of cross-cluster webinars. The Green Tech Cluster, Human.technology Styria and the ICS – Internationalisierungscenter Steiermark led the individual sessions, with topics ranging from working from home and post-Brexit Great Britain to 100 days of Joe Biden and the Green Deal. The hybrid event WouldTalk@Weitzer Parkett took place in cooperation with the Holzcluster Steiermark on June 1, 2021.

Impulses & Projects

New Edge Furniture New Edge Furniture is a platform that simplifies the global sales process for design products made of timber. Designers upload their plans and manufacturers in the vicinity of the buyer can then produce the products according to plan using CNC machines. This process allows for more customization and shorter shipping routes.On December 6, 2021, the designer Ronen Kadushin presented the platform via Zoom to all interested parties, explaining to creative professionals how to use the platform.

Global Innovation Summit 2021 Under the motto of “Exploring new perspectives!,” the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), the Steirische Wirtschaftsförderungsges.m.b.H. SFG (Styrian Economic Promotion Agency) and the international research promotion network Eureka hosted a major event from May 18 to 20, 2021, in Graz as part of the Austrian Chairmanship of Eureka. Around 3,500 participants from 89 countries followed international keynotes and discussions on the three focus topics “Green Transition”, “Digital Transformation” and “Post-Covid Developments”. Subsequent multilateral workshops promoted the substantive examination of both global trends and regional priorities of Styria from an international perspective. Creative Industries Styria nominated Daniel Huber from moodley Industrial Design as expert in the “Mobility of the Future” session. World Usability Congress 2021 The 9th edition of this international conference on usability and user experience, the largest of its kind in Europe, took place on October 13 and 14, 2021, in Graz and featured talks by top international UX & CX experts. The World Usability Congress is organized by youspi Consulting.

C hoch 3 – creative economy coaching Creative Industries Styria organizes a coaching for creative professionals in cooperation with the City of Graz Department for Economic and Tourism Development and Kreativwirtschaft Austria. For many years, this coaching has aimed to facilitate exchange between creative professionals and to foster their economic empowerment through new collaborations and fresh know-how for the respective company. C hoch 3 offered 22 creative professionals in Styria the opportunity to learn from each other and to stay up to date in the future. The program took place online in 2021.

WouldTalk @ Weitzer WOOD World “Designing the Future with Wood” – At this online event, experts discussed the topics of wood, innovation, design and the future. The WouldTalk also discussed wood as a game changer and its possibilities for the future. The event took place in cooperation with Holzcluster Steiermark, Creative Industries Styria, Weitzer Parkett and the Innovationszentrum W.E.I.Z.

Network & Service

Information takes the lead. In other words: Be informed!

Innovation can only ever flourish if the seeds of the creative scene fall on fertile ground in the traditional economy. Creative Industries Styria considers promoting such synergies through events and projects as its core task.

The numerous events and projects of Creative Industries Styria provide the right place and time for the right people to meet. To do this, Creative Industries Styria bundles information together to make complex networking possible and to target individual actors in order to empower transformation forces in the sector, to make them more effective and to drive innovations. In 2020, many service processes had to be changed and shifted to the virtual world. New formats for events and projects were launched, such as the “Shop Local” section on the CIS's own website, which is intended to promote local value creation. In 2020 in particular, “Christmas Shopping” also increasingly took place online and Creative Industries Styria and its website now provides strong support for this change in trends. Tools can be used to obtain data from past events and projects and to derive trend analyses based on them, which in turn provide impulses for new developments. This way, the potential from the environment of the creative economy is augmented and the business location Styria is ultimately strengthened.