Documentation

Network meeting
at the
Forum d’Avignon Ruhr
2015
2015: Network meeting of the N.I.C.E. Partners: (from left to right) Mikel Goni,
Thomas Weiß, Robert Piaskowski, Justyna Jochym, Sebastian Dresel,
Dr Anna Stoffregen, Andrea Wisotzki, Andreas Piwek, Bernd Fesel.
At least once a year, the Network for Innovations
in Culture and Creativity (N.I.C.E.) organises
a partner meeting to discuss the network’s goals and
developments for the following months. In addition to
the focus of the network’s activities, these meetings also
provide for a constant exchange of partners and the
establishment of new cooperation projects. In 2015, all
members met in Graz in May and then at the Forum
d’Avignon Ruhr in Essen in September.
The meetings are not exclusively open to N.I.C.E. members,
potential partners who are interested in the network
are also welcome to join in. So at the meeting in Essen
we were delighted to welcome representatives of the
Krakow Festival Office and Donostia/San Sebastián 2016,
who wanted to gain deeper knowledge of the network
and were interested in becoming members themselves.
Since several events relating to the N.I.C.E. Award 2015
were taking place at the same time, the focus was on
the development of the award and the plans for the year
2016. In the future, the focus will remain on digitisation.
The aim of the network is to look for farsighted ideas
and projects that go beyond the issues and discussions
of 2015.
At the time the network was founded, the N.I.C.E. Award
was considered as a tool to increase the visibility of those
projects and institutions in the Cultural and Creative
Industries that enable spillover effects into other social
areas. This is still the priority objective of all partners.
There is a mutual agreement, however, to jointly work on
more concrete results in the future – for example through
more targeted mentoring and networking for the winners
of the award and methodological matching with the
economy.
The N.I.C.E. Exhibition is another factor to increase the
visibility of the projects and the network, which will be
displayed by the respective partners – the exhibition
venues for the next year were discussed at the network
meeting as well. In addition, winners of the N.I.C.E.
Award are supposed to be given the opportunity to give
presentations at conferences and workshops throughout
Europe. In this way, the partners are hoping for a broader
coverage and real networking effects.
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