Mr Lis, how would you summarise 2018?
“After a flying start in 2017, the Creative Industries Cluster continued to gain momentum throughout 2018. We reached an important milestone at the end of the year when we welcomed our 400th member.
The focus of the year was to implement and launch tools that foster business growth and promote the sector. The launch of our online platform for Luxembourg creatives, the publication of the DO DO DO magazine and the nearly 20 events and workshops that were organised by the cluster all aimed at putting Luxembourg’s creative sector in the spotlight.
I also have frequent one-to-one contacts with cluster members. 233 individual contacts with creatives were made over the year, which clearly shows that the Creative Industries Cluster has become a first port of call for creatives looking for general advice or searching for collaboration partners which are a good fit.
Matchmaking between creatives looking for partnerships and the dissemination of private or public project calls to the creative community have become key activities for the cluster. The partnerships and projects facilitated by the cluster correspond to a created value of at least €750,000 for the creative industries in Luxembourg.”
Which project would you say was the biggest success of the year?
“In less than one year, we managed to answer the sector’s need for a digital creative hub by setting up and launching our online platform. Its aim is to enable collaboration between creatives and to allow potential clients of the creative industries to search for creative products and services produced in Luxembourg.
The user traffic on the platform has by far exceeded all our expectations. In only 7 months, the site had over 14,000 visitors and nearly 72,000 pages views, with the average visit lasting 3:15 minutes. The agenda and community jobs board feature among the most visited pages, but are by far outnumbered by the profile keyword search.
The 265 creative profiles are consulted by an international audience. The biggest group of visitors (around 3,700) are from Luxembourg. Visitors from the US and India follow, with our neighbouring countries France and Germany in 4th and 5th place. These statistics are encouraging and display a clear interest by the international community in following our creative industries.”
What do you see as the main projects and challenges for 2019?
“Keeping the platform up to date and attracting new cluster members to register their online profile for free will be a main challenge.
However, what I see as our most important task of this coming year is to further facilitate and promote collaboration within the creative industries. The potential is enormous. Look at the realisation of the most successful Luxembourgish film ever, “De Superhjemp Retörns”, for example. The production company behind the film, cluster member SAMSA Film, awarded the task of managing all communication activities and setting up brand collaborations to another Luxembourg-based company, msdesign by myriamschmit. When Ms Schmit attended an event organised by the Creative Industries Cluster, I had the opportunity to introduce her to communications agency 101 Studios. This contact led to 101 Studios being contracted to manage the promotion of the film on social media.
This success story shows how simple networking events gathering creatives can lead to great cooperation. My objective is therefore to continue doing all I can to help the members expand their networks and meet new creative talents within our dynamic cluster.”