Under the motto "The innovative culture industry. Climate Neutral. Democratic. Participatory", the CultureInvest! Congress DIGITAL on 26 and 27 November 2020 set a trend for innovative conference formats in the cultural sector. Europe's cultural summit of the year showed how a sustainable knowledge transfer and unique networking opportunities for the European cultural market can be created virtually. More than 740 speakers, moderators and participants discussed the latest impulses and trends in the cultural market and used the European network with a 12-hour live stream of the three main forums in the innovative talk show format from the Nikolaisaal Potsdam and a lecture volume of 60 hours in a total of 15 parallel, digital expert forums. The congress was opened by patroness Dr. Manja Schüle, Minister for Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg and a keynote speech by Dr. Robert Habeck, Federal Chairman of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen. Since the speakers and participants could do without a total of 167,174 km journey by the digitization of the congress, nearly 40 t CO² were saved, which corresponds to 48 trees.
Due to the pandemic developments, the Causales Gesellschaft für Kulturmarketing und Kultursponsoring, as organizer of the CultureInvest! Congress, in consultation with the main sponsors, the Ministry of Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg and the State Capital Potsdam, curated an innovative, digital event concept for the cultural summit of the year within a very short time as an alternative to the planned analogous congress.
An innovative tool for digital congresses made both the analogous discussions of the main forums and the entire presentations of the expert forums digitally accessible and at the same time enabled an intensive, virtual exchange of content. In addition, personal networking via (video-) chat was also made digitally tangible.
The main forum with its lively debates as well as the emotional highlight of the congress, the presentation of the European Cultural Brand Award, were streamed live and without an audience from the Nikolaisaal in Potsdam free of charge. The stream was offered on the innovative digital platform together with the live lectures of the expert forums from the offices of the speakers.
On site in the Nikolaisaal, Dr. Robert Habeck inspired the audience with a flaming keynote under the motto "For a culture-friendly climate and a climate-friendly culture". In addition, discussants such as Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber (former director of Potsdam's climate impact research), Dr. Christian Ehler (Member of the European Parliament), Dr. Sabine Schormann (director of documenta), Prof. Dr. Ulrike Guérot (author and political scientist) and Shermin Langhoff (artistic director of Maxim Gorki Theater) provided inspiring impulses for more sustainability, democracy and participation in the European cultural market.
As the speakers and participants were able to do without a total of 167,174 km of travel by digitalizing the congress, almost 40 t CO² were saved, which corresponds to 48 trees.
The digital transformation of the 12th CultureInvest! Congress and the 15th European Cultural Brand Award was made possible by the Ministry of Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg and the state capital Potsdam. In addition, 50 other partners supported the unique congress format. These include the Nikolaisaal Potsdam, the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft, SAP, RSM, Bayer Kultur, Arnold Group, Mihai, Deutsche Welle, ARTE Magazin, innogy Stiftung für Energie und Gesellschaft gGmbH, Monheimer Kulturwerke, Kulturpersonal, public plan, Verlag der Tagesspiegel and Ticketmaster. The congress is curated by Causales - Gesellschaft für Kulturmarketing und Kultursponsoring, which is also the initiator and organizer. Registration for the 13th CultureInvest! Congress 2021 with the presentation of the 16th Kulturmarken Awards from November 10 - 12, 2021 in the state capital Dresden is now possible at www.cultural-brands.com.
