NOVA ISKRA at the European Lab conference in Lyon

From May 7th to 11th, the third EUROPEAN LAB conference was held in Lyon. This platform for cultural innovation was initiated in 2011, and takes place in parallel to one of the leading French music festivals – NUIT SONORES.

The five-day program of the conference was dedicated to innovation in the fields of culture, politics, media and entrepreneurship, and was held in the historical Hotel de Ville. The program is intended as a think-tank for connecting and presenting new initiatives which are employing innovation in order to build capacities for redefining of cultural policies band cultural entrepreneurship. The idea is to unite a new generation of cultural activists who are aware of the influence of the cultural globalization and current digital revolution.

The conference hosted around 150 delegates and 600 participants from all over the world, including some of the leading individuals from the fields in focus – festival organizers, politicians, journalists, critics, musicians, representatives of the civil sector and companies. Among them were Joschka Fisher (former German Minister of Foreign Affairs), Chris Kaskie (founder of Pitchfork), Larry Harvey (founder of the legendary  Burning Man festival), as well as representatives of numerous organizations, collectives and companies, as well as festivals including Primavera Sound, Insomnia, SXSW, Sonar and many others.

NOVA ISKRA was represented by Nana Radenković (coordinator of our Creative Hub), as part of the special conference module Incubators of Cultural Projects, together with the Paris-based CREATIS center for development of startups concepts, based at Gaite Lyrique in Paris.

European Lab goes on in parallel to the Nuit Sonores festival, which in th least few years has developed into the leading French music festival. Among several hundreds of performers, it also featured the likes of Daphni (Caribou), Dan Deacon, Jamie XX, Prins Thomas, Mos Def, Carl Cox, DJ  Harvey, Diamond Version and many others. Both projects are organized by the Lyon-based production collective Arty Farty(http://www.arty-farty.eu)

We are also happy to announce that we will also be present at the Republika festival, which will be held in Rijeka, Croatia, from July 18th – 20th (http://republika.io/).