The CEO of our agency has been officially appointed as a Fellow of the Federal Cultural and Creative Industries. I am pleased to announce that our boss Matthias Petri has been appointed as a Fellow of the Cultural and Creative Industries by the Competence Center Cultural and Creative Industries of the Federal Government. The certificates were presented in Berlin on June 7, 2016 as part of the official ceremony following the speech by Economics Minister Sigmar Gabriel. Matthias is thus one of currently 50 selected fellows who, according to kreativ-bund.de, make up "the nationwide sounding board of the Federal Competence Center for the Cultural and Creative Industries." "As the radar of radars, they support the Competence Center in achieving its goals. As a regional and thematic network of actors, they actively shape the cultural and creative industries in Germany for the future."
Hear, hear! We are happy for our boss for this award and are excited about new options to participate and take action in this network.
Meanwhile, the network has also grown. New Fellows have been accepted, nominated in advance by other existing Fellows. We put two nominations into the running. Our nomination for Martin Horst from Mecklenburg, who runs the agency 13 Grad in Neubrandenburg, made it. He has since become a Fellow himself and is involved in a variety of ways in the context of the Fellows and beyond for the interests of the cultural and creative industries.
To make the cultural and creative industries in Germany visible, to communicate their cross-disciplinary potential for business, society and politics, and to develop approaches to solutions for industry-related challenges together with the players. This is the task of the Competence Center, which founded the Fellow Network for Germany's Cultural and Creative Industries. Since 2016, I, Matthias Petri, have been acting as a Fellow in this network and interacting with other players in the multifaceted creative industry.
In regular meetings, trend reports, feedback sheets and impulse events, we succeed in exchanging and determining what makes the cultural and creative industries tick and what influence they have on society and productivity. From this, recommendations for action are formulated for policymakers in order to make the voice of creative professionals heard and improve future framework conditions.
In August 2018, the Fellow network met again in Berlin to exchange ideas. Questions we ask ourselves include: What value is created in the creative industries for society as a whole? Why is the appreciation for creative work different/lower than for consulting, manufacturing or craft services? How much creative work is in the products of other industries, e.g. in a car? How would the education system have to be reorganized to encourage students not only to train or study, but also to start their own business? What form could political support take that does justice to the importance of the cultural and creative industries?
Seen in this light, these are the big questions surrounding our creative sector and its social and economic significance. On a smaller scale, each Fellow may benefit from the personal exchange with the other Fellows, the very own creative approaches and solutions of the actors, the challenges, insights and experiences we made and thus learn from each other.
If you want to know more about the Fellow network, this way: www.kreativ-bund.de
The images in this article are from the Competence Center Cultural and Creative Industries of the German Federal Government/William Veder.