About the conference title LAVA09

The title LAVA09 refers to the fact that the conference is held on the volcano island of Iceland. Lava is a phenomenon that shapes itself when it is surfacing and it is not pre-defined what it will look like. This makes lava a good metaphor for the creative process.

About the theme

The Northern Periphery Programme has a tradition of recognising the importance of creative heritage and the business potential that creative heritage can bring to the programme area. The NPP views that creative industries will be increasingly more important in the knowledge based economy of the future. Not only for a higher average growth and job creation, but the industry plays also an important role in creative identity and in fostering creative diversity. The NPP has also recognised the importance of the industry for young people and the potential for them to stay and act as a young creative entrepreneur in the programme area. For this reason the Northern Periphery Programme 2007-2013 has chosen creative industries as their theme for their Annual Conference 2009.

Objectives of LAVA09

The conference aims to initiate a new generation of industry development, in which industry development takes place with a more innovative approach and in collaboration between traditional and creative sectors.

At the conference, this is achieved by a hands-on collaboration between creative entrepreneurs and a number of NPP projects participating in the project exhibition. At the end of the main conference day, the new input to the project concepts will be presented by the creative entrepreneurs and the project coordinators. The Programme hopes that this type of hands-on collaboration will encourage participating projects and others to contract creative entrepreneurs to improve their implementation.

After the conference, the Programme will organise a smaller workshop to further elaborate on the outcomes of the LAVA09 Conference and potentially develop project proposals that will meet the needs identified at the conference and bring solutions to the NPP area.

The Programme hopes to incorporate into future NPP cooperation, and with this conference initiate, the thinking that creative entrepreneurship can be an integrated part of the innovation process.

 
About the NPP 2007-2013

The Northern Periphery Programme 2007-2013 offers a unique opportunity for regions in the programme area to work together and address specific challenges. Between 2007 and 2013, the Programme will allocate over €45 million to selected project cooperations. 
We especially welcome participants from Finland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sweden and the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland and Norway and interested organisations from other regions.
For more information, please visit www.northernperiphery.eu


About the European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009

The year 2009 is the European Year of Creativity and Innovation. The key message of this Year is: creativity and innovation contribute to economic prosperity as well as to social and individual wellbeing. The NPP 2007-2013 is cooperating with the European Commission in order to ensure a well outlined conference and has invited an ambassador of the Year, Áron Losonczi, to be the key note speaker.  For more information, please visit www.create2009.europa.eu