The hybrid International Festival of Creative Industries, took place at the Ksystri theme park in Pyrgos, Ilia on 29 December 2021. The objective of the festival is to generate potential cooperation between companies and organizations in order to strengthen the capacity of the regions in the creative sectors, including companies in advertising, marketing, architecture, manufacturing, fashion, film, photography, music, arts and other industries whose main activity is the “ability to create”. The main conclusions from the Festival will guide the Region of Western Greece to a new path of development policies and support project for the creative sector.
Special guests of the Festival were Mr. Fokion Zaimis, Deputy Governor of Entrepreneurship, Research and Innovation in the Region of Western Greece, Mrs. Tina Ranieri on behalf of INTERREG V-A GREECE-ITALY 2014-2020, Mr. V. Gorgolis – Deputy Governor of Environment Development and Trade on behalf of the Region of Epirus, and finally Mrs. Serena Mingolla on behalf of Puglia Region.
The event started with the presentation of Dr. Takis Lybereas who outlined the objectives, targets and current status of the Creative@Hubs project. The next presentations included the President of the Chamber of Ilia, Mr. Konstantinos Nikoloutsos, the representative of the Chamber of Aetoloakarnania Mr. Tatoulis Triantafyllos and the General Secretary of the Chamber of Achaia, Mr. Tsoubelis Theodoros, as well as Mrs. Danai Katsanta from the Chamber of Achaia. The first session of the Festival, was concluded by two presentations, from Mr. Andreas Koskeris from the Institute of Computer Technology and Publications “DIOPHANTUS” and Mr. Vasilis Avdikos, Professor of Economic and Regional Development, from the Regional Development Institute – Panteion University.
The presentations continued with the representative of the Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People, Mr. Christos Konstantopoulos, Mr. Christos Liagkouras, Archaeologist MA, Ephorate of Antiquities of Elis, Mrs. Ira Kouri, President of the Public Benefit Enterprise Municipality of Patras, Mr. Athanasios Chaikalis, representative of the theatre company “Doureios Ippos”, Dr. George Pavlidis, Research Director, “ATHENA” Research Center, Mr. Vassilis Artikos, Hub Manager Creative@Hubs Aetoloakarnania and Mr. Andreas Tsiliras, Publications “TO DONTI” & “MOSAIC / Culture & Creativity”.
The discussions that followed were organized into four parallel “round tables” and focused on the following topics: “Local-Regional Development and Creative Industries”
“New skills in the economy of creativity”
“Cultural Tourism-Cultural Routes
Good practices of local economy development”
“Creative industries and connection with other sectors of the economy”.
After the completion of the round tables, the four coordinators made a presentation of the main results from the round tables and the discussion that followed enabled the participants to better visualize the next stages for the project development.
The International Festival closed with the Apollon Pyrgos theater and the screening of films in the framework of the competition programme of the 24th “Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People”.
The Region of Western Greece, is the Lead Partner of Creative@Hubs project in cooperation with the Region of Ionian Islands, the Region of Epirus and the Region of Puglia (Italy).