The challenge isn´t creativity—but connectivity
Like a bird swarm in perfect sync, Europe’s creatives can enable open innovation to turn diversity into strength. Photo: iStockphoto
CCI includes everything from design studios and architecture firms to fashion designers, digital creators, theatre groups, and filmmakers. It’s a sector buzzing with creativity, experimentation, and ideas. And yet, it’s regularly misunderstood—particularly when it comes to scalability and integration into mainstream innovation ecosystems.
“It’s a sector with a lot of small companies, and they’re used to being extremely creative,” says Charlotte Lorentz Hjorth coordinator of ekip.
“If you look at the innovation capacity, it’s actually very high. But when it comes to scaling up, the structure around them isn’t built for it.”
Innovation in isolation
The challenge isn´t creativity—but connectivity. Most creative entrepreneurs are highly educated in their craft, often forming companies with peers who share similar artistic values. But unlike tech startups that bring in CFOs, marketers, and product managers from the start, CCI entrepreneurs rarely priorities commercial roles early on.
”You are so shaped by your own identity, you are so deeply embedded in the business idea, in a completely different way than in other companies. It’s your own creation. It should last all the way,” says Charlotte Lorentz Hjorth.
Many CCI actors are hesitant to engage in partnerships that might dilute their vision, or they simply lack the tools and support to do so effectively.
The role of intermediaries
One of the most persistent obstacles is the absence of structural support. Unlike tech startups that benefit from incubators, accelerators, and investors who understand growth, CCI players are left navigating a fragmented landscape. Here, intermediaries—such as innovation hubs, cultural organizations, or municipalities—can play a vital role.
“It’s not always about joining an incubator. Sometimes what’s needed is an intermediary that creates a space where people from different fields can meet and collaborate and learn,” says Charlotte Lorentz Hjorth. “Just like in a theatre production, everyone knows their role, the rules, and what to deliver. We need the same framework in innovation contexts.”
The open innovation approach encourages collaboration between CCI actors, tech experts, public sector representatives, and researchers. It helps to move away from individual company growth and toward partnership-based innovation.
Scaling the swarm
CCI doesn’t operate like traditional industries—it functions more like a swarm. Agile, decentralized, and project-based. But policy and funding mechanisms are still built around supporting singular, scalable entities.
“We need to make the swarm logic visible,” urges Charlotte Lorentz Hjorth “If we keep supporting just the individual organization, we’ll never unlock the full potential of these micro-enterprises.”
Instead, the call is for a distributed support system that empowers creative clusters—networks of companies, universities, and institutions that co-create. These structures already exist in pockets, such as Future by Lund in Sweden and Cike in Slovak.
Toward a co-creative future
Ultimately, the future lies in developing ecosystems that recognize and nurture the collaborative character of the creative sector. To build frameworks where they can plug into meaningful, scalable collaborations.
‘What we see is an opportunity to use the Creatives own ways of working – but within a new regulatory framework,’ says Charlotte Lorentz Hjorth. “Can we, as a team, help to create more of these bee communities, working together?”
By embracing swarm logic, rethinking value creation, and recognizing the hidden infrastructure that makes creativity thrive, society can tap into one a rich most dynamic resource.
”The innovation ecosystem of the future does not need to consist of large, fixed colossus. Instead, they will be mobile, flexible networks – where each project can give birth to the next, in a constant movement forward…without boarders,” Charlotte Lorentz Hjorth concludes.
What Needs to Change?
To elevate the CCI sector, a few key changes are required:
Intermediary Infrastructure: Increase support for curating spaces of open innovation. These are not just physical spaces but structured contexts where the Creatives feel respected to experiment, collaborate, and scale.
Cross-Sector Partnerships: Embed the Creatives into partnerships with public institutions, universities, and large companies—recognizing their creative expertise.
Policy Shift: Move away from “supporting” creative entrepreneurs toward co-creating with them. Municipalities and universities in ecosystems can take the lead here and act as collaborators, not gatekeepers. The concept of “Innovation by Production” can be used here.
Recognition of Innovation: Redefine what innovation means in this context. Not all breakthroughs are patentable. Some are deeply cultural, experiential, or system-based.
Cultural Shift in Academia and Government: Institutions need to loosen their rigid work cultures and allow more room for experimentation.
Some conclusions about KKN from ekip:
KKN is a sector with many sectors and industries based not on a few large companies, but on small and often interconnected organizations and companies that span many different areas of expertise. 100,000 or more players in just one part of the sector.
The driving forces and goals spread from the arts for art's sake and from community development to commercial enterprises. The turnover is the same as that of the automotive industry and lays the foundations for other sectors in tech, tourism, travel, healthcare, education, security, resilience, etc. KKN represents the essence of Europe.
KKN cannot be supported in the same way as automotive or life science, which is based on TRL (Technical Readiness Level), but more importantly on IRL (Innovation Readiness Level) and with a portfolio strategy where cross-cutting innovation is key.
Understanding how to build innovation ecosystems serving a swarm of actors with open innovation as standard practice allows us to match Europe's diversity and build on the core, values and benefits, where the creative people are enablers.
Caption: Like a swarm of birds in perfect sync, Europe's creative players can enable open innovation that turns diversity into strength. Photo: iStockphoto