Creative Industries: Business, Innovation, Politics & Culture

Creativity, innovation and culture are important factors for the competitiveness of not only companies, but also for cities, regions and nations, in particularly as we move from goods and service economies to experience economies. The course explores the relations between culture, business, society and politics by analyzing business cases, trends in society, and political initiatives. And takes a multi-level approach: from the psychology behind the Creative Personality to global issues such as copyright protection and implications of Chinas rise in textiles trade.

Not a business student? The multidisciplinary approach with literature from business, political science and cultural theory and cases makes this course relevant and accessible also for non-business students. The course covers up-to-date readings with titles such as:

• How to manage a dream factory
• Free Mickey Mouse
• Lights! Camera! No profits!
• Nestlé enriches its choc value
• We have reached Utopia – and it sucks
• Billion-dollar circus
• The Curse of the Creative Class
• Creativity, fashion and market behaviour
• Lights… sounds… and chaos
• Luxury: Inconspicuous consumption
• Creativity – Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention
• Why, oh why, do we love Paris?
• Creative New York
• The Rise and Fall of the Hit
• Forget downloads, the storm over music is in a coffee shop
• How to be a smart innovator
• Why origami is critical to new drugs
• Creative resources of the Japanese video game industry
• A storm in a D-cup

The course includes field studies to businesses in the creative sector in Denmark and guest speakers from creative industries and academia. Three interesting Field Studies:

• Tivoli – the park that inspired Walt Disney to create Disneyland
• VEGA – the leading concert hall and night club in Scandinavia
• Zentropa – where most of the Danish movie successes were made

Creative industries are big business!

• Film, Video and other Audiovisual products
• Games and Leisure Software
• Fashion Clothing
• Television, Radio and Internet Broadcasting
• Architecture
• Design
• Live and Recorded Music
• Crafts, Furniture
• Venues: Music, Theatre, events
• Theatre, Musicals and Live Entertainment
• Visual Arts
• Advertising
• Literature and Publishing

And the experience economy is relevant to all sectors of the economy!

Your motivation?

• You want to know where society, business, consumers are going
• You want to work in the creative industries
• You want to work in traditional business but apply the experience economy approach to make profits
• You want to be ready for challenges in the new ways of working
• You want to be able manage creativity and innovation
• You want to know how to bring business into a creative cluster
• You want to make money on ideas
• You want to know if policy-makers are getting it right
• You want understand culture, creative industries, experience economy, cultural production and other concepts shaping the world
• You want to get a new perspective on business and how culture and business can collaborate
• You want to get a new perspective on the arts and how it shapes business
• You want to have fun and learn

Some of the questions the course explores:

• What is creativity? What is innovation?
• Why have the creative industries gained such attention? What are the factors behind the development of creative industries?
• Why are Creative Industries seen as the sector that can increase competitiveness for cities and nations?
• How can companies improve the business by working with experiences?
• What are the effects on a political and social level?
• Can you prepare for the transformation of the workplace, the markets and media?
• Will society be driven more and more by innovation and creativity
• How will it shape daily life?
• Which qualifications and competencies will individuals need in the experience economy?

Are you ready for the creative industries? Can you make a business plan for a new soup concept? Create your own fashion collection? What sound identity would you create for a top 500 company?

Creative Industries: Business, Innovation, Politics & Culture – Spring 2007

Please see the Full Course List for a complete directory of all courses offered at DIS