How Collective Creative Culture Can Take on Global Challenges: The Creative Incubator’s 2021 Mission
Since 2018, the Art Directors Club of Europe (ADCE) has run a Creative Incubator - a programme that debates the most relevant topics in the advertising, design and marketing industries. The subject changes from one edition to another, as the organisers carefully select the most pertinent issue of the future to be addressed in advance.
Together with Jamshid Alamuti, the programme director and facilitator, and dozens of international professionals, the participants research, debate, and ideate new models to be implemented in our business, applied to work methodologies, and put into action in society. The Creative Incubator concludes each edition with a white paper that holds the recommended guidelines that emerge out of the group’s work.
Past editions of the programme have discussed new models to design creative organisations, considered how to use creativity to transform ideas into high-impact actions and conscious business and purposeful organisations.
2021’s edition is titled ‘Collective Creative Culture’ and the summary is as follows:
“In order to deal with our current and future global challenges, we need to create a culture, a united, diverse group of people with different expertise to maximise the impact we can make – all under the same flag. For this reason, we need to give birth to a ‘Collective Culture’. As our collective will be diverse and come from various backgrounds, we will use creativity as the bridge to connect and unify.”
Applications are now open to anyone from any department of a creative organisation, creatives from other types of organisations, and freelancers; professionals involved with transformation, consultative creative solutions, and technology integration, within the communication and advertising industry. As his ranks begin to swell, LBB’s Alex Reeves checked in with Jamshid to hear more about the goals of this year’s Creative Incubator.
LBB> What is the biggest difference between this year's Creative Incubator and previous ones?
Jamshid> The biggest difference is definitely the richness of input we will provide, as we have made sure that a wide range of excellent mentors are coming together and dedicating their energy to our cause, building a creative collective!
LBB> What drove the decision behind this year's area of focus - collective creative culture?
Jamshid> Looking at challenges around us, it is clear that we need a much stronger force to tackle them. This year’s programme was designed to ensure we can mobilise creativity to tackle major challenges of our society.
LBB> What's the most exciting opportunity for you?
Jamshid> I am dedicated to contributing to a better future. Any platform I can use to have an impact is an opportunity for me.
LBB> What sort of person do you think would benefit most from being involved?
Jamshid> Really anyone who is aware of the problems we are facing these days and is looking for a way to join forces with a bigger group of likeminded people and make every step count.
LBB> And what sort of collective do you want to build through it?
Jamshid> Our goal is not to build one. You could say we already are a collective, when you look at almost 30 mentors who are coming together, united and willing to help talented creatives maximise their contribution to turn the world into a better place. What we want is to explore how a collective is best designed, maintained, and pushed forward, so that our participants of this year can go back to their lives and launch magnificent initiatives backed up by much bigger groups of talented individuals. You can also say it is not the collective that is the main topic on our table, it is the shift of culture that we are about to explore.
LBB> Can you talk about the results of previous Creative Incubators a bit? The white papers are always fascinating. I wonder if you have any information on how they've changed the creative industry since 2018?
Jamshid> One of our most valuable mentors, Luis Villa del Campo, used to say, the creative incubator is like therapy. You come and join, as you are searching for answers on what’s next with you! So what I can definitely say is that participants who went through the programme ended up changing and starting a new chapter of their both professional and personal lives.
We had companies using our outcome to transform their organisations, we had investors approaching the participants and offering support to turn their ideas into reality, we had participants launching their own companies and those who left their previous work and dared to explore new opportunities.
LBB> What is most interesting to you about the collection of mentors?
Jamshid> The diversity - every one of them is having an amazing personal story. As I was curating the team of our mentors, I was less interested in their craft and professional achievements. I took that for granted as they were all recommended as stars of their industry. I looked at their personal stories and had the pleasure of having tears in my eyes when listening to them. Every one of them touched my heart and will touch yours too!
LBB> You're plugged into the creative community from around the world. With that in mind, what do you hope will define the coming (hopefully post-Covid) creative landscape?
Jamshid> The industry is finally waking up. The creativity has lost track of what it is there for. We kept selling consumable goods and false stories for too long. We owe it to ourselves to do better, to be better and not waste the power we are trusted with. Creativity will be there to tackle our challenges, not to run shiny campaigns. Any machine will be able to do that soon.
