Driving innovation in the cultural & creative sectors with EIT Culture & Creativity
You could feel the buzz the moment we stepped into the Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision. Surrounded by decades of cultural history, it was the perfect place to have a frank conversation about the future. We’d all gathered with partners from across Europe, ready to challenge each other and dig into what "innovation" really means for culture and creativity today.
The central question, posed by our hosts at EIT Culture & Creativity, was a provocative one: How do we move beyond the buzzword? How does innovation actually happen, especially when it’s tangled up with Europe's pressing social and environmental challenges?
Policy, participation, and the soul of heritage
We kicked things off with the Ekip Policy Lab, and it was anything but a dry, theoretical session. This was a hands-on workshop where we got to rebuild policy from the ground up. We debated, scribbled on drafts, and shared hard-won insights on a key question: How can cultural heritage institutions be more than just guardians of the past? The consensus was clear: they need to be active players in our digital and green transitions.
The real magic happened in the small group discussions. We wrestled with practicalities: How do you turn a high-level policy into something that works on the ground? How do we invite citizens to participate in authentic ways? For us at CollectiveUP, it was powerful to see so many different perspectives align around a single goal: keeping culture at the heart of Europe’s evolution.
Case Clinics: Innovation meets DIGISET
The afternoon was where theory met practice. In "Case Clinics," we opened up our real-world projects and challenges at the crossroads of tech, creativity, and social impact.
Our CEO, Liliana Carrillo, put CollectiveUP’s upcoming DIGISET project on the table. This December, we’re co-organizing an event with EIT Culture & Creativity, called DIGISET Forum: Creative Industries for a Sustainable Future, which brings together pioneers from the creative, cultural, and social innovation sectors to explore how creativity can drive the triple transition, green, digital, and social, dedicated for Social SMEs which can receive financial support for their participation and we used this session to co-create it. Instead of just presenting, we asked the room: What should the agenda be? Who needs to be there? What are the burning issues for social SMEs facing digitalization?
The response was incredible. The feedback ranged from practical tips on making digital tools less intimidating for small organizations to ideas for weaving in sustainability and ethical AI. It was a perfect example of what DIGISET is all about: empowering social economy groups to steer their own digital future.
The conversations in between - voices from the cultural and creative sectors
Let’s be honest, the most valuable moments often happen outside the conference room. A chat over coffee, wandering through the Sound & Vision museum, or sharing a meal in Amsterdam, that’s where you find the unexpected synergies. A casual comment over dinner could be the seed of a collaboration six months from now.
By the time we reconvened at Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam on Friday, those new connections had already taken root. The second day pushed us to look forward: How do we build a European policy that actually serves the creative sector? Can we redesign funding and collaborate on big issues like ethical AI?
These discussions hit home for us. The creative industries and the social economy are fighting similar battles: scaling up digital skills, creating inclusive models, and finding sustainable funding. DIGISET is our attempt to build a bridge between these two worlds.
Taking home the energy of turning ideas into impact
As inspiring as these two days were, their true value lies in what happens next. For us, it’s not about collecting notes or ticking boxes , it’s about taking the energy of these conversations home and turning them into concrete actions. The insights from partners, the new connections, and the shared challenges are not just ideas to reflect on; they are catalysts for the projects we drive forward, like DIGISET, and for the broader transformation of the cultural and creative sectors.
This is where CollectiveUP feels most at home: translating dialogue into tangible impact, making sure that what starts in a room in Amsterdam or Hilversum can ripple out into schools, organizations, and communities across Europe.
👉Want to be part of shaping what’s next? Stay tuned for details on how you can join us. The future of innovation is, after all, a group project.
