Thursday, 25 September
*All session times are listed in Central European Summer Time (CEST)
Creative Skills Conference
Across the conference days at CSW2025, you’re invited to mix and match sessions from the Create, Transform, and Regenerate streams, crafting a path that reflects your interests, goals, and role within the cultural and creative sectors.
Whether you’re looking to gain hands-on skills, explore big-picture strategies, or get inspired by bold new ideas, the programme is designed to meet you where you are and take you further.
Venue: Prague Congress Centre
09:00 – 09:30
Registration & Welcome Refreshments
09:30 – 11:00
Projects Marketplace
Dive into a dynamic exchange of ideas at the Regenerate Projects Marketplace. Across three simultaneous stages, 21 proposals will be pitched in fast-paced rounds, offering a snapshot of emerging practices and bold visions across the cultural and creative sectors. Equipped with headphones, the audience navigates seven rounds of 10-minute exchanges—8 minutes of pitch—choosing where to focus their attention. This format fosters serendipitous connections and cross-sector insight, inviting participants to learn, challenge assumptions, and explore new potential collaborations. Project tracks will be announced on site—prepare to move, listen, and evolve.
Speakers:
- Anne Louise Bang, VIA University College
- Catherine Barron, The O(map)
- Jiří Bartoník, Pink Box
- Kornelia Dimitrova, Foundation We Are, Collaborations for Future Project
- Filiz Güleç Kutlu, ReSkills Training, TalentAstra Project
- Martin Hollinetz, OTELO eGen, x-Inno Radar Project
- Katarína Kalivodová, Společnost pro kreativitu ve vzdělávání
- Andreas Knab
- Lucie Kroftová, Nolimi
- Kojo Marfo, My Runway Group
- Simona Martini, Fondazione Fitzcarraldo, and Lenka Fendrychová, Creative Prague; The European Audience Data Alliance
- Lucie Moravcová, Mladiinfo ČR, z.s.
- Katerina Moreira, STAR 2.0 project
- Susana Nogueira, EfVET, MOSAIC Project
- Abid Qayum, University of Westminster, College of Design, Creative and Digital Industries, ELIA ETHO (European Technical Heads Organisation)
- Sam Rowe, Arts University Plymouth
- Violeta Vasileva, Future Innovation Labs
Additional presenters to be announced shortly.
11:00 – 11:30
Coffee Break
11:30 – 13:00
Parallel Sessions
This panel explores how regional initiatives can drive transformation by aligning local skills strategies with broader European objectives, particularly in the context of the green, digital, and social transitions. The session highlights existing partnerships as models for building resilient, responsive, and inclusive local skills ecosystems. Participants will examine practical pathways for reinforcing cross-sector cooperation and embedding long-term competences into territorial development.
Speakers:
- Gerbrand Bas, Federatie Dutch Creative Industries
- Carina Dantas, SHINE 2Europe
- Wolfgang Gumpelmaier-Mach, Creative Region Linz & Upper Austria
- Simona Martini, Fondazione Fitzcarraldo
- Marta Rota & Martin Schwab, SCALExD Project
- Eszter Tóth, University of Debrecen Faculty of Economics and Business
In this session, panellists and audience explore the challenges and opportunities facing the European craft sector. Craft, a sector rich in diversity and deeply linked to heritage, region, culture, and tradition, is undergoing significant changes influenced by economic trends, technological innovation, and shifting market preferences. There is a significant resurgence of interest in handmade, artisanal products, partly driven by an appreciation for traditional craftsmanship, authenticity, making spaces, slow movement, and sustainability. This resurgence is evidenced by the estimated size and value of the European market for crafts and makers. However, challenges such as skill gaps, inadequate training, and a lack of entrepreneurial skills persist. Education and training are key factors to guarantee the future of crafts and creative makers.
Speakers:
- Rolf Hughes, EIT Culture & Creativity
- Adriënne Heijnen and Marianne Ping Huang,CRAFT-IT4SD, Aarhus University
- Apostolina Tsaltampasi, Craftwork 4.0, CUBE
- Louise Allen, Creative Futures Academy
- Laura Miguel Baumann, European Crafts Alliance
- Becky Riches Materahub, MOSAIC
This session explores how cultural and creative actors can expand their impact through collaboration beyond traditional boundaries. Drawing on examples from sectors such as healthcare and aerospace, it highlights the potential of cross-sectoral alliances to unlock new competences, foster innovation, and address complex challenges. Participants will gain insights into looking outward and on how strategic partnerships can catalyse transformation.
Speakers:
- Umberto Bellodi, Accademia Teatro alla Scala, INSPIRE
- Veronika Liebl, Ars Electronica
- Amalia Egle Gentile and Lucrezia Micheli, Health Humanities Laboratory – National Centre for Rare Diseases – Italian National Institute of Health
- Petya Koleva, Koleva Intercultura Consult
- Georg Russegger, Ludwig Boltzmann Societ
This interactive session reimagines entrepreneurial training to better respond to the evolving demands of the cultural and creative sectors. Participants will join focused discussions on key themes—from youth entrepreneurship to non-formal and lifelong learning—examining how training programmes are developed, recognised, and tailored to market needs. A final round will distil the most relevant transformational skills emerging from the dialogue. Guided by the Working Group on Entrepreneurial Skills of the Creative Pact for Skills, the session offers a platform for shared insights and practical exchange.
Speakers
- Pauliina Seppälä and Riikka Mäkikoskela, Aalto Universit
- Godwin Tom, Creative Industries Initiative for Africa
- Sarah Daly and Oscar Diaz Creative Spark
- Christina Achilleos and Antigoni Komodiki Cultural BEES (C.A. INNOEUSPHERE LIMITED and Junior Achievement Cyprus)
- Annemie Verlinden and Lydia Vandam, Cultuurloket
- Linda Thoen, Curious Culture
- Jonas Johne, Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft
- Dorothée Pauls and John Blanckaert, Haute École Albert Jacquard
- Ruba Saleh, ICHEC Brussels Management School
- Ondrej Klus, Innovation Centre of the Olomouc Region
- Yuliia Kovalenko, Kharkiv State Academy of Culture
- Paolo Montemurro, MateraHub
- Çelebi KALKAN and Levent ABBASOĞLU, Murat Kantarcı Science and Art Center
- Marija Rashkovska, Nikola Karev State High School – Regional VET Centre
- David McConnell and Sean Kelly, Northern Ireland Screen
- Elisa Sánchez Medina and Fernando Galdón, READ
- Filiz Güleç Kutlu, ReSkills Training
- Emilie Lidgard, Royal College of Music
- Natália Machado, SHINE 2Europe
- Lucie Abou and Zdeňka Kujová, Theatre Faculty Janáček Academy of Performing Arts
- Yolima Grandas and Snehal More, Thryves
- Venessa Tanovic, Universität der Künste Berlin
- Anna Wallsten, Uppsala University
- Niels Ketelaars, Utrecht Creative Community
- Aiman Hassani, wedowe Foundation
13:00 – 14:30
Lunch Break
14:30 – 16:00
Parallel Sessions
What do heritage organisations offer in collaborative innovation processes? Too often, their role is limited to valorising collections or exploring reuse in contexts such as creative production and technology development. Yet their expertise goes far beyond this; education and curation, technology and infrastructure, partnerships, advocacy, and participation. This potential is often overlooked by other sectors and policy makers, leaving many struggling to articulate their value to potential collaborators. This interactive workshop invites participants to rethink and reflect on the innovation potential of heritage organisations and consider the new skills, policies, and cooperation methods needed to embed them more fully in innovation ecosystems.
- Gabrielle Aguilar van Gend, Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision
- Kelly Hazejager, Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision
Organised on behalf of ekip, the new Innovation Policy Platform for the Cultural and Creative Industries.
The “Building Futures” workshop is about prototyping futures in a co-creative and experimental way as a group. We will use our material-based method, which generates a deep dive into a jointly chosen topic. Our method isn’t about mastering a craft or looking for perfection. We create and provide a space that invites our participants to think with their hands, connect with their intuition, and free their minds by engaging with materials and their bodies. The imperfections, the raw edges, and the moments of uncertainty are exactly where creativity lives. By leaning into the unknown, we invite participants to imagine, prototype, co-create, and reflect—all at once. We believe that intuitive, results-open making is a way of thinking—a tool that supports our curiosity and playfulness, nurtures our creativity, fosters communication and collaboration, and encourages reflection—with a critical mindset, to cultivate those skills and mindsets that are essential for a constantly evolving world.
Let’s experiment, build and be surprised by what emerges along the way and we will let the process shape what insights, important questions we will find together.
Co-creation with AI in the Cultural and Creative Sectors
In this hands-on workshop, participants will actively engage with AI to explore how digital tools can support co-creation, planning, and decision-making in the cultural and creative industries. The session begins with a brief introduction to AI-enhanced dialogue methods, followed by an individual digital skills self-assessment using an AI-supported tool. Based on shared needs identified through AI-generated insights, participants will break into groups to co-develop concepts in real-time collaboration with AI. The session concludes with a joint reflection on the experience, discussing both the opportunities and current limitations of AI in creative co-production. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of their own digital readiness and new perspectives on integrating AI into their professional practice.
- Peter Hiltunen, Kulturakademin
- Tuomas Pohjola, University of Turku
How can better insights into the impact(s) of cultural and creative work help to improve access to finance? This session builds further on insights from Creative FLIP about financing cultural and creative work in transformative times and the growing attention of public and private financiers for impact financing. In an interactive setting, participants will explore how an impact-oriented business model can guide strategic partnerships, funding models, and investor engagement. Through insights into impact mapping, funding alignment, and monitoring, the session invites all participants to reflect on the role of impact in shaping more sustainable cultural and creative organisations.
- Isabelle De Voldere, Creative FLIP, IDEA Consult
- Joost Heinsius, Creative Flip
- Barbara Stacher, European Commission DG EAC
The topic of micro-credentials and flexible forms of education is highly relevant for the Czech Republic. Join us for a discussion with key Czech stakeholders on how to effectively design, implement, and offer micro-credentials. We will explore opportunities for engagement and consider how this initiative can support our artists and creative professionals in enhancing their skills and competitiveness in the labour market.
The session will be held in Czech.
