Participants TTT 2007

Host:

Michael DaCosta (UK)

Founder Director of Architects of Communication (Europe).
From 1999 to 2001 Michael carried out research on the subject of Enterprise and Management of the Creative Arts for London College of Printing at the University of the Arts London focussing on the relationship between commerciality and creativity. He is a London advisory Council member of Arts & Business and a board member IXIA (UK Public Art Think Tank). Michael was host of: the World Creative Forum during the London Design Festival in 2003; the Great Artistic Metropolis, National Public Art Conference, London in November 2005; the Can Artists Make Great Places Conference (London Design Festival) 2007. He recently worked on a successful Culture 2007 application for the Portuguese Order of Architects and was a consultant on the winning Wieden and Kennedy pitch for the global Nokia advertising account (worth 200m USD) earlier this year. Michael also lectures, is a contributing editor to Art and Architecture Journal and writes for Prophecy magazine in NYC. He contributed to the forthcoming book ‘1001 buildings’ by Quarto Publishing in the UK. He participated as a panelist in the One Dot Zero and British Council Re-Imagining the City tour of South East Asia 2008." He lives in Porto and London.

Ana Umbelino (PT)

She holds a Master degree in Sciences of Education, specialized in Adult Education, and a degree in Psychology, both from the Faculty of Psychology and Education of the University of Lisbon (FPCEUL) and she is doing the Doctorate in History of Education also from FPCEUL, in partnership with the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon.
At this moment, she works as Culture Deputy of Torres Vedras’ Town Hall, responsible for Culture, Social Affairs, Health and Habitation, Youth and Tourism. In 2006 she was Assistant to the President of Torres Vedras’ Town Hall. During this period she coordinated the Social Affairs, Health and Habitation Department. She’s a board member of Western Region Development Agency - ADRO, where she worked from January 2002 to the end of 2005, at the Centre for Recognizing, Validating and Certifying Competencies, recently renamed Centre for New Opportunities by the Ministry of Education. While she was involved with Adult Education/Formation, she participated as a speaker/educator in several seminars, conferences and educational actions directed to technicians, invited by the old National Adult Education and Training Agency (ANEFA) – Ministry of Education and Labour and Solidarity, by the General Administration of Vocational Training of the Ministry of Education and by the National Centre for the Training of Trainers of the Employment and Vocational Training Institute. During the 2003/2004 school year, working simultaneously at ADRO, she was a teacher of the Post-Graduation in Clinical and Health Psychology from ISLA – High Institute of Languages and Administration – Leiria.

Bronac Ferran (UK)

She was Director of Interdisciplinary Arts at Arts Council England (ACE) where she led a team responsible for areas of practice which connect the arts to other disciplines including art, science and technology. She is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, where she studied English Language and Literature before helping set up an experimental theatre company in her home town, Belfast. Key projects at ACE have included organising the CODE conference at Cambridge University in 2001; commissioning a DVD series Pioneers in Art & Science, a CD ROM Ways of Working about artists working in business contexts and a forthcoming programmes of research into art and shopping, and art and the brain, with academic partners in England and abroad. Bronac was also involved in setting up the Art & Science Fellowships initiative which ACE runs jointly with the Arts and Humanities Research Board. She is on the UK's Government's Creative Industries and Higher Education Forum; also a board member of Creative Commons UK; a reviewer for Leonardo Electronic Almanac and has been a Visiting Associate at Darwin College, Cambridge.

Catarina Vaz Pinto (PT)

Former Secretary of Culture; Consultant in Quaternaire Portugal, S.A. in the area of cultural development; Executive Director of the Post-Graduation in Cultural Management in the Cities from INDEG/ISCTE; Executive Coordinator of the Gulbenkian Creativity and Artistic Creation Programme; Law Graduation (UCP), Post-Graduation in European Studies.

Fred Manson (US/UK)

Former Director of Regeneration and Environment at the London Borough of Southwark (1994-2001). At Southwark he oversaw economic development, planning, property management, environmental management, regeneration, leisure and community services.
He is a member of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment design review panel. He was a design advisor to the GLA Architecture and Urbanism Unit from 2003 to 2005. From 2004 he has been an associate Director of the Heatherwick studio. In 2000 he was awarded an honorary OBE.

Henry Lydiate (UK)

Is a legal and business consultant specialising in the creative arts. An experienced lawyer, manager, educationalist, strategist and change specialist, with a life-long commitment to the arts and to the support of creative practitioners and organisations through innovation, people development and co-creation. Over twenty-five years experience of international legal and business consultancy work in the creative arts, alongside work undertaken in other content-led industries such as sport, the legal professions, higher education, and public administration. Extensive experience as a public speaker, lecturer and trainer; published writer and journalist with broad experience of media liaison. Sustained commitment to supporting creative arts practice that has been recognised nationally and internationally, most recently by appointment as Visiting Professor to the newly designated University of the Arts, London (formerly The London Institute). He is the founder director of the Henry Lydiate Partnership and since 1976 has written a monthly column on legal issues for artists in Art Monthly magazine.

Liz Lydiate (UK)

Is Course Director for the full-time international MA in Enterprise and Management for the Creative Arts and the linked EU part-time MA in Enterprise and Management for the Creative Arts at the University of the Arts London. Prior to joining UAL she was Reader in Design Management for the Surrey Institute of Art and Design (now University College for the Creative Arts), where she established successful BA Hons and MA programmes in Design Management. She acts as Director of Professional Practice Training for the Design Business Association, and has research interests in the self-image of the artist, tertiary level curriculum development for professional practice, and CPD for the creative industry sector internationally.

Scott Burnham (US)

Scott Burnham's work exploring creative catalysts, urban culture and open innovation has appeared in numerous cities throughout Europe, North America and China. He is the former Creative Director for the Urbis Centre for Urban Culture in Manchester, UK, where he directed "Ill Communication", one of Europe's largest overviews of street art; 'SuperCity', a multi-disciplinary collaboration with architect Will Alsop to re-think the future of the urban environment, "At Home", with designer Peter Saville, "The China Show" exploring contemporary Chinese creativity, and “Urban Oasis” with The Office for Subversive Architecture.
He has also created and directed projects for London's National Theatre, The Royal Society for British Sculpture, the cities of Barcelona and Prague, and Jude Kelly's METAL organisation in London.
A frequent lecturer and writer on creative catalysts and cultural innovation, recent keynote lectures have been delivered to organisations in the UK, Portugal, Austria, Italy, United States, Canada, and the Netherlands, where he addressed the International Conference on European Policy. His work and commentary has been featured on BBC television, The Today Programme, BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service, Sky News, Spain TV1, Design Week, Grafik, The Guardian, Icon magazine, and The BBC Culture Show. He is a contributing author to the book "Visualising the City" (Routledge 2007), numerous periodicals, and maintains a series of international projects, consultations, and writing and lecturing appearances.
He has recently been appointed as Creative Director for the 2009 Montreal Biennale.

Observers:

Cláudia Galhós (PT)

She was born in Lisbon, in 1972. Currently she writes on dance, performative arts and new circus for the weekly paper Expresso. She was editor of "Artes de Palco", weekly supplement of the program "Magazine", 2: RTP channel (from 2004 to 2006), and journalist of Diário Económico; theatre, dances and plastic arts editor of NetParque (the culture portal of Parque das Nações, former-Expo'98); dance critic at the newspaper Público and specialist on the same area at Jornal de Letras. From 2001 to 2003, she had a weekly program of interviews at Voxx radio, entitled «À Conversa sobre Artes».
Started in the area of fiction in 2001, with "Sensualistas", the first book of the Rock Trilogy, and after it "Story of Summer", in 2002 (book selected by the Instituto Português do Livro e da Biblioteca to be promoted in the Frankfurt Book Fair on the following year), both edited by Oficina do Livro. "O Tempo das Cerejas", romance that ends the trilogy, was edited in July 2007.
She has several short stories published in collections, in Portugal and abroad, and texts on theatre and dance in foreign publications, some presented in international conferences (for example, «Património da Inovação», at the «Contemporary 05» festival, that took place from 30 May to 7 June, 2005, in Prato, Italy; or the conference «Unidades de Sensação e a Continuidade como Ruptura», about the Portuguese performative arts, in Serralves, Porto, on 8 June, 2006; or, more recently, on June, 2007, at the Centro Coreográfico Galego).
She is, since March 2005, observer/consultant of Iris (a network of programmers from Italy, France, Spain and Portugal). Still in this area, she has recently published the book «Corpo de Cordas – 10 anos de Companhia Paulo Ribeiro», a biographical story about a life connected with dance, edited by Assírio & Alvim (February 2006), and she is now working on a book that follows the creative processes of Portuguese theatre companies.

Renata Catambas (PT)

Currently finishing the Painting course in FBAUL. She integrates the editorial board of Marte (publication directed by students from FBAUL - research space, on the current artistic creation), which is now designing the 3th number, where the subject “performance” has been discussed. Programming and production of the cycle of conferences PERFORMANCE: estudos, Culturgest - Lisbon, 2006. Some of her works are: exercicío, with Lúcia Prancha, Alkantara – International Festival of Performative Arts, 2006; trio mutiplicado, from Tiago Guedes, interpretation; como eu e tu cycle, Teatro Camões, 2006; exercício sobre verdade, with Yann Gibert and Ana Moreira, project Inter.faces07 – NEC, 2007.

Organisers:

Luís Firmo (PT)

Artistic Director of Transforma.
Luís Firmo is a Cultural and Arts Manager and Curator and holds a Degree in Product Design from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon (FBAUL) and a Sculpture qualification from AR.CO. He holds a Post-Graduation in Arts Management from the Instituto Nacional de Administração (INA), Fundação CCB-FLAD, and a Post-Graduation in Curatorial Studies from FBAUL-Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. He develops a continuous activity as creative, as teacher and as manager and curator in contemporary arts. He is a Co-Founder Member and Chairman of Transforma AC, where he is currently responsible for the Artistic Direction and Programming.

Tiago Miranda (PT)

Executive Director of Transforma.
Previously he was administrating an international transdisciplinary arts centre and before that he was Marketing Coordinator of the Engineering Division of Novabase, the largest listed Portuguese IT consultancy firm.
He led a logistic Shows team in Lisbon Expo'98 World Exhibition and developed several productions of theatre and audiovisual projects.
He studied Economics in Lisbon (ISEG-UTL) and History of the Arts in AR.CO.

TTT Timetable

Transforma Think Tank is especially targeted at creative practitioners, art policy makers especially performance, combined arts, public art, urbanism sector, brand owners especially property developers, art commissioners, specialist media, creative industries in general, students.

Day 1 (2nd Friday)

09h30_Welcome coffee
10h00 > 11h15 _TTT2 welcome + working schedule (Michael DaCosta) followed by Guided Tour of city by Luís Firmo president of Transforma
11h15 > 11h30 _ Coffee-Break
11h30 > 13h30 _ guests TTT2 presentations*
13h45 > 15h00 _ Lunch
15h30 > 17h30 _TTT2 Workshop 0
17h45 > 18h00 _ Coffee-Break
18h00 > 19h30 _ TTT2 Workshop 1 + discussing workshop Themes /Thinking Space
21h30 > Transforma_B arts programme, free attendance**

Day 2 (3rd Saturday)

09h00_Welcome coffee
09h15 > 11h00_TTT2 Workshop 2
11h00 > 11h15_Coffee-Break
11h15 > 13h15 _ TTT2 Workshop 3 + Group Summaries / Main FindingsEnd of Transforma Think Tank
13h30 > 15h00_Exclusive VIP Lunch and key note speech introduced by TTT2 facilitator Michael DaCosta.

Transforma Think Tank post lunch key note speeches made by:Fred MANSON and Henry LYDIATE

* TTT presentations: 20 slides max each participant, 30 seconds per slide = ten minute presentation each person.
** Programme to be presented during the meeting.



Photos of TTT 2007


photos©Scott Burnham

Transforma Think Tank (TTT) 2007

2nd and 3rd November 2007Transforma, Torres Vedras, Portugal

Transforma Think Tank explores the role of creative production within the development of the competitive edge of any given city, region or country and the potential importance of leadership, and commerciality within the cultural sector, considering Transforma and Torres Vedras as case studies.

In October 2006 the first ever Transforma Think Tank (TTT) took place in Torres Vedras Portugal. The theme was leadership. The group at this inaugural TTT comprised of creatives, policy-makers, academics, institutions, legal experts, media owners and journalists. The event was hosted and produced by Michael DaCosta, the founder director of marketing strategy consultants Architects of Communication and Transforma-AC, the leading Portuguese hybrid creativity association.

TTT has been set up as a fluid platform for discussion about defining creativity and its past, present and future role within society. The main ambition of TTT is to stimulate exchange on a micro level between the various creative sector stakeholders such as academics, policy-makers, brand owners and media owners and of course creatives across all disciplines. On a macro level the European Union (EU) has long noted the need for more investment in innovation. This preoccupation was highlighted at the Lisbon summit in 2000 where transfer of knowledge was cited as being a key driver of the EU economy:

“The prominence given to the concept of a genuinely creative economy reinvigorated industrial and cultural policy in the UK around a few very specific forms of intellectual property…this was true not only in Britain but far beyond. The European Union’s Lisbon Agenda was constructed upon the idea of promoting a knowledge economy which, in turn, owed much to early thinking that lay behind the development of the UK’s creative economy”[1]
At the moment there is no pan EU definition or benchmark of the creative or cultural industries. However, by 2010 this situation may change. That is the due date for completion of research into the creative economy by the Amsterdam Institute for Metropolitan and International Development studies (AMIDSt). Their investigation is entitled Accommodating Creative Knowledge – Competitiveness of European Metropolitan Regions within the Enlarged Union (ACRE)…Their mission is as follows.
“The central research question we will address is: what are the conditions for creating or stimulating ‘creative knowledge regions’ in the context of the extended European Union? We will compare the recent socio-economic development trends and strategies in several metropolitan regions across Europe to get more insight in the extent to which creativity, innovation and knowledge are indeed the keys to a successful long-term…” [2]

The TTT 2006 final findings:

The TTT group developed and proposed pragmatic steps that Transforma could implement in the short, medium and long term:
§ Research second city networks which other organisations and cities operating within a similar context
§ Look for organisations with similar issues to their own especially those that might be interested in collaboration
§ Investigate possible connections with local industry in Torres Vedras: “Sustainable creativity for everyone”
§ Launch Torres Vedras as the “Davos of creativity”. Just in time for the new airport if it is located in the region
§ Research the potential for partnerships with property developers who are building leisure projects in the region including chain or boutique hotels
§ Research the creative sector and take ownership of that research
§ Launching, updating and maintaining a web site\ blog
§ Comprehensive documentation of all TTT events
§ Major international conference to launch Torres Vedras World Creative Forum

[1] Management and Creativity – Chris Bilton (Blackwell Publishing) 2007
[2] The UK defines the creative industries as “...those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through generation and exploitation of intellectual property”[2] For those unsatisfied with that definition, Justin O ‘Connor defines the Cultural Industries as (…) “those activities which deal primarily in symbolic goods (…). This definition then includes what have been called the ‘classical cultural industries’ – broadcast media, film, publishing, recorded music, design, architecture, new media - and the ‘traditional arts’- visual art, crafts, theatre, music theatre, concerts and performance, literature, museums and galleries” (O’Connor, 1999).