World Creative Cities Forum in Kanazawa 2010 Date 15 th, October, 2010 Venue Theater 21, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa Keynote lecture The fruit and the future prospects of Montreal International Interior Design Show Ginette Gadoury, President and Co-founder of the Montreal International Interior Design Show THE MONTREAL INTERNATIONAL INTERIOR DESIGN SHOW, THE SIDIM Based in Montréal, Les Productions Interface Design has been active in promoting design for over 20 years at local, national and international levels. The company comprises of four elements: The Montréal International Interior Design Show (also known as SIDIM) a yearly event since 1989, the Magazine Intérieurs published since 1996, the INTÉRIEURS/FERDIE design awards in its 4th edition and the Montreal City design guide called Intérieurs en ville that will be published for the third year. SIDIM is one of the most prestigious shows or messe celebrating design in North America. It features over 300 carefully selected exhibitors that represent residential, commercial and office markets. The show provides exhibitors with an ideal platform to launch new products and services, to solidify and increase their client base and to meet 20 000 potential buyers design professionals, business people and targeted consumers in the course of the 3-day event. It s important to mention that the event is composed of 2 days addressed to the trade and business leaders only and 1 day which invites the general public. The typical attendee at SIDIM is about 40 years old, has a university degree and a good paying job. 61% are men 39% are women. About half of them own their own company and three out of four people are directly involved in purchasing decisions or design recommendations. On that note, more than half of SIDIM attendees make purchases during the show and nine out of ten intend on visiting the following edition of the show. The event s 300 exhibitors must respect high standards of visual presentation and quality in designing their corporate booth or take part in one of our 8 turnkey thematic spaces. A turnkey project is one that is designed by a design professional designated by the show and built and set up by the show. The exhibitors only have to present their products. - 1 -
SIDIM addresses certain trends and preoccupations and challenges in designing interiors such ecology and in this sense, one of our projects is green building. Green building is composed of thirty or so carefully selected industry-leading exhibitors presenting innovative products and services that respond to eco design standards. Carrefour international is an exclusive contemporary showcase for countries that wish to promote their design leadership and know-how. SIDIM attendees including international buyers and journalists make it a point to visit this 20 000 square feet space. These companies will also benefit from our support to meet with potential clients. In 2010, we initiated a space for the The UNESCO Cites of design, which presented Berlin, Buenos Aires, Kobe, Montréal, Nagoya, Shenzen and Shanghai. We will present this section again next year. We also have the intention of presenting Japan design in the Carrefour International and my trip here also aims to identify the format this will take. Designers tribune is a thematic space, which is produced by La Médiathèque du Design, a non-profit organisation, operated by us and presented at SIDIM. Its mission is to reveal the talent and creativity of Quebec designers. Since the 2010 edition, designers of all categories such as architectural, industrial, interior, graphic, Web and fashion design are all invited to submit their projects in an open space. Year after year, this special project gives a boost to the design industry by unveiling to a design wise public the size and depth of local resources. Série limitée is a space that has been created for artisans located in Quebec who offer creative, high end products designed to enhance interior design projects. Strategically positioned within SIDIM, this project is meant to group the craftsmen in order to give them a good visibility and expose them to great business opportunities. This joining of artisans or craftsmen with designers and architects more than promoting their products it opens the possibility if creating new environments born from the joining of two talents, 1) that of the designer and 2) that of the craftsman (or artisan). On top of developing new business relations, of broadening the local and international market perspective and of meeting agents, buyers and distributors, those who are part of Série Limitée also have the chance to cultivate relationships with existing clients and develop some with future ones. Apart from regular exhibitors and thematic spaces SIDIM fosters many activities during the event among which are SIDIM s awards and grants ceremony. The award ceremony consists of an excellence tour called CORTEO DISEGNO ( design procession ) that stops to visit all of the winning exhibitors at their sites. This formula offers direct contact with the winner s and product and booth design in an unpretentious atmosphere of spontaneous discovery. With the help of government partners, of Tourisme Montreal and other partners, we invite international journalists to come to SIDIM and we take care of all costs related to their trip. The presence of these international journalists at SIDIM, plays an important role in the international positioning of SIDIM and of Montreal in the design industry. We have developed - 2 -
strong ties with the invited journalists. They have, over time, become collaborators and ambassadors of the companies, of SIDIM and of Montreal. The presence of buyers and decision-makers from outside of Quebec at the SIDIM is essential to maintain the exhibitors interests, be they local or international. This also contributes to the international positioning of the event and makes Montreal an important rendez-vous in the design industry. The VIP guests here are buyers and important decision-makers to whom we cover all expenses to the SIDIM and sometimes only air fare as an incentive to come to the show. INTÉRIEURS MAGAZINE: a second element of our company Intérieurs magazine was created 14 years ago with a dual mission: to inform, excite and inspire Quebec interior designers, architects and industry decision makers and also to simultaneously promote their projects, achievements and creativity, both at home and abroad. We now cover graphic, industrial, interior design and architecture realized throughout the global design community. Three years ago, we reinvented ourselves with a declared objective: to join the league of established international design publications. Our partnership with the award winning graphic design firm Paprika gave us our new signature with a strong graphic and visual identity. Intérieurs is now a bilingual magazine, French and English, is published four times a year and each edition presents new products, trends, and current themes and local and international design projects are presented. Each issue of Intérieurs Magazine reaches the entire Quebec professional community of design and several other players from Canada, North America and even abroad. Today, we are broading our pool of readers from strictly design professionals to a design savey public of connoisseurs and of end users of design to have them benefit from our expertise and professional contest as well as to put them in touch with our collaborators and advertisers (we like to call this public, design lovers). THE INTÉRIEURS/FERDIE AWARDS The third element of our organization is the organizing of a Quebec wide multi-sectoral interior design and product design contest. Presented by the Magazine Intérieurs and FERDIE, a research and study fund for interior design, the awards aim at celebrating the talents of Québec designers and architects practicing in all fields of interior design, for projects realized here or abroad. Many categories are involved, including residential, kitchen, bath, office, commercial office, and so forth. The winning projects will be featured in a special edition of the Magazine Intérieurs. The 2009 edition of the contest was a huge success: there were over 150 projects submitted for consideration, over 60 categories of design, close to 40 designers and architects were awarded trophies. This year, we ve had 20% increase of participation. THE MONTREAL CITY INTÉRIEURS GUIDE - 3 -
The guide is an annual design repertoire of the Greater Montreal Area in a digest size format. It is the reference point to find Montreal s top design destinations. It proposes both the favourite spots of artistic, business and design personalities as well as some destinations chosen by Intérieurs magazine. The guide identifies places where design is a prime consideration and helps to give vital and tangible expression to Montreal s status as a UNESCO City of Design.The guide therefore puts forth the hottest restaurants, cafés, hotels, spas, salons, bar, boutiques, design studios, museums, theatres, art galleries, and public places plus places where design products are sold. CONCLUSION All of our four elements, SIDIM (the Montreal International Interior Design Show), the magazine Intérieurs, our design contest and the city design guide work together and complete each other in the promotion of design and of Montréal as a Unesco city of design. And as you have certainly remarked many partners are needed to achieve the many projects we have set out to do. In the near future we will add a fifth element which will be a design portal for professionals and the public. And finally, I hope to welcome you all soon to Montréal and to SIDIM. Thank you. Suzanne Éthier, Tokyo representative of the office of the Quebec government It is my great pleasure to be here at the Creative Cities Forum 2010 in Kanazawa. We are so privileged to have Ms. Ginette Gadoury as the keynote speaker of this forum. In Quebec she has shown great leadership and thanks to her Montreal has emerged as an international city of design. We were designated as a UNESCO City of Design. Kanazawa City has great creativity and an innovative spirit. Such efforts and contributions by Kanazawa City will be a great role model for other cities. Symposium: Industrializing Based on Culture through the Strategic Development of the Messe Pan Jin, the Deputy Secretary General of the Shanghai Creative Industries Center I would like to introduce the Shanghai creative industries. In 1998 we began the idea of creative industries, and in 2004 the first forum was held and we know that the creative industries are very - 4 -
important to the city. In 2005, my organization, the Shanghai Creative Industry Center, was set up as an NGO to support the government in integrating various resources, and to help the government to make some policy. In 2005 we had the first creative industries strategic planning in China for the development of the creative industry. And the most important thing is that at the end of 2005 we had the first session of the Shanghai International Creative Industry Week. In 2009 the city mayor finally decided to apply to the Creative Cities network. This year, during the World Expo and UNESCO s cultural diversity on May 21, the director general of UNESCO came to Shanghai and made this nomination. At the end of this year, 2010, we will have another five-year strategic planning session which will project that the creative industry will be the most important service industry in Shanghai, and we will put more energy, more resources, and more budget into it along with the economic transition. We have five categories of sectors because China is does a lot mainly with manufacturing. So we are much more focused on the design. R&D and design included ten industries like industrial design, craft design, software, graphics, patterns, products, and such kind of things. In 2004, which was the first year for which we have statistics for the creative industries, they contributed 4.5% to total GDP, which reached 59.44 billion Chinese yuan, and in 2009 it reached 114.8 billion Chinese yuan and accounted for 7.7% of the total GDP. So during those five years we had an annual rate of increase around 20%. Another important thing is that we have 80 creative clusters. These clusters were renovated from old factories and now they have reached 2.68 million square meters in area and are hosting more than six thousand new enterprises from over thirty countries and regions. They cover industrial design, craft design, graphic designs, and some other kinds of design. I can give you some examples. it s a very old warehouse, and now it holds galleries and studios for artists. And another example, it was originally an autobike launch and now we call it Number 8 Bridge. It s a new creative cluster. We have many architectural design studios and design companies in this cluster. There is a large quantity of historical industrial buildings which were built in the early 1920s, and they provide a lot of adaptable workspaces for the creative economy. Shanghai is the most open and compatible city in China, it is like a hot pot that has many foreigners and many people from the other cities of China, and they prefer to stay in the city to learn more about design and creativity. So, coming back to the Shanghai International Creative Industry Week, this was the first event in China related to the creative industries. In the first year, we attracted 50,000 people to participate in the event, and from that time on creativity has been the hot word on the Baidu or Google Internet Search in China. So if you check on Baidu or Google, you can see - 5 -
that it is in the top ten search terms. And this kind of event has had the strong support of the city government. So about 20% of the sponsorship comes from the city government, and about 60 to 70% comes from the district governments. Shanghai has ten district governments, so mostly the district governments have their own budgets, So 60 or 70% comes from these district governments, and the rest from some creative companies. This is very supportive for the designers, and we have no charge for the exhibition spaces. We give them a lot of support, and a lot of media exposure. And through this kind of event, we raise the awareness of the value of creativity, and stimulate the market need and integrate different resources which already exist in different areas. We have six kinds of activities. The most important part is the Messe or the exhibitions, the second is the forum, the third is the Grand Prix contest, and the other important thing is business-matching for the designers and manufacturers. We have different venues for this event every year. One venue was the biggest abattoir for beef product manufacturing in the Far East in the 1920s. It was damaged, but we have renovated it. So every year for the last five years, we chose different venues for the exhibitions. These exhibitions are not just like a fair, it s like a much more educational, much more social public event, so we do some exhibitions related to daily lives, some souvenirs of the United Kingdom and some from the Netherlands, Japan and Italy. We also have interior furniture, fashions, crafts. there is a lot more coverage of different sectors of the creative industry. The Forum is also one of the key parts of this event. Every year we have a different topic for the Creative Forum. Some are related to the creative economy, some are about social sustainability, and some are about the transition to a creative economy, and some are related to the World Expo. So, every year we change our topic, but with much more focus on the creative economy and the creative society, and we have a program with the TV so those people who cannot attend the forum can also watch it through the TV channel. The Grand Prix is another part. We have many design contests. We have some craft contests, some industrial design contests, some photographic contests, and interior design contests. Every year we choose ten designers and we give them more media exposure. We help them to link up with businesses and manufacturers, and we support them to go abroad for international exchange. About business match-making, many people come to the event and they want to have some business, so before this event we do some market research, we know what the requirements and what the needs are of the manufacturers, and we also want to the new trends or new ways of thinking from the designers, so we bring them together to have some meetings, and we support them in signing business contracts. We had a media report. This is quite important. The government requires that the media report as much as possible. So we can see that major media, the newspapers, websites, and broadcasters and TV programs gave us a lot of media exposure. We have 1.45 million news stories and reports related to this event over the five-year period. And nowadays we have a - 6 -
new TV program. Three times every week we report and give exposure to the most famous designers, national and international, and also we give them exposure for their new design concepts and products. I would like to request if you have any ideas for our future cooperation. I think that if we could organize something like an office, we could have a board of Asian Creative Cities and every year we could have a newsletter or we could have half-yearly meetings and we could have reports. We could have an international web so that we could exchange our information, and we could link our different requirements and our different ideas. We could organize common exhibitions, also we could have touring exhibitions, we have a Creative Industry Week, we have the Seoul Design Fair, and we also have another Messe, maybe the one happening in Kanazawa, so we would be happy if we could work together and get to know each other very well. And we would like to have a Grand Prix competition, and also for the international exchange, we would like to exchange ideas for business, and we would like to know the new trends and new policies, and the new recreations for the different cities. we think that talent exchange is very important. Finally I want to thank you very much for your attention and offer you a warm invitation to come to Shanghai. Choi Kyung Ran, the Director of the Seoul Design Fair 2010 I have been acting in the role of director of the Seoul Design Fair 2010 which has just finished one week ago. I will show you the changes in the design trends, from technology-based to sensuality-based, the new direction of the design industry and a case study of a Messe, the Seoul Design Fair 2010. The Seoul Design Fair 2010 started on September 17 and ended last week on October 7. We compared the living lifestyle among Korea, China, and Japan. The three nations are very close geographically, but while some characteristics are held very much in common, some are apparently different. I asked three prominent architects from Korea, Japan, and China to design a communication space at home, I and everybody found this very interesting. Yamamoto who is a Japanese designer, preferred to use this flooring with some flowers. The second thing is a wall light designed by architect Yang-ho Chiang, a professor at MIT, used the Chinese traditional roof, and it looks modern in his interpretation. And here is the Korean architect, Seung Yong-sang, his designs relates actually a residential attitude of life. Korean room is always multi-functional, it depends on how people act and what they do, how people behave and use the space. Seoul Design Fair s main venue is located just next to the Han River side on the south bank, it was the venue for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Now it has been turned into the Design Olympics, - 7 -
the Seoul Design Fair, and this was the third time it has been held. Originally the Seoul Design Fair began in 2008 and continued in 2009, so this year was the third time. Design for All was the theme of this year s fair, and the key words there were economy and sharing and the education. The economy, revitalization of the design business is the first goal. And second, increasing the sympathy for design among the citizens, to let them know about the perceptions, and the meaning, and importance of design, and third, education, creative design education for all classes of the citizens improving the quality of life through design. In 2010 we changed the event s name to the Seoul Design Fair which means it had a large and extensive place for the festival. The Jamshil Olympic Stadium and four design clusters were the venue. The sports-designed stadium had its image changed to the design world. And the economic program, we had a world design industry, world design collection, and many other design brands and also the Korea-China-Japan Living Culture Exhibition. We showed many various kinds of design industries and design areas, by world-famous designers and the best designers and brands. Seoul s design market increased by 50% this year with participating designers compared to last year. And in the domestic industrial design section, the goal of this exhibition was the revitalization of business exchanges in the design and manufacturing industry. Also, they showed the new prototypes of design and new brands and got many responses from users. Here is one successful event, an International Design Competition, 103 countries participated and over 5,000 participants registered. And the Green Garden Panorama, 25 districts of Seoul collaborated with 25 design departments students to let them understand green design and the recycling of materials. And a university exhibition site, forty universities in Seoul and ten outside universities participated in the rediscovering and re-interpreting of design perspective on Seoul through its 600-year history. And there was a lot of participation in the design of playgrounds, in particular, about forty thousand kids participated through design classes. And other cultural events, there were four design clusters, so they shared through a design network and got the design trends and the design business. And what were the special features and comforts of this event that we really tried to offer to the visitors like citizens and foreigners, and we shared the meaning of design. Design is not something just for rich people or the well off or high-end, it is for our everyday life. This year we had fewer programs but more focus, because of the limitations of the budget. Compared to the previous two years, this year the budget was cut in half, but the national participation was two times bigger and the number of companies increased by 1.5, with more than 240 companies participating. And there were 8,500 more individual designers, and the total sales, especially in the Seoul Design Market, were fifty percent more than last year. So, totally there were 1.7 million visitors came during the three weeks to this venue. Finally, this fair is a business venue for the selling and buying of products of high quality, and is growing as an international fair with active participation from overseas. And there was an - 8 -
improvement in the quantity and quality of content through the selection. That was one of the strategies that was successful. Fumiko Ito, a jewelry artisan and Director of the Oshare Messe 2008 and 2009 I am living in Kanazawa so I would like to talk from the perspective of crafts. In 2008 and 2009, I directed the Oshare Messe, I would like to report on that, and I also would like to share with you the crafts tourism which is to visit workshops. In 2008, the theme was Kanazawa Taste: Jewelry, Mirrors, and Boxes. I had a great opportunity to work with craftsmen in Kanazawa. Talking about crafts, it is often the case that many people nowadays think that crafts are things to be placed in exhibition areas in a glass window, so they are inaccessible for many people. But we would actually like to take jewelry back, not in a glass box, but so that we can put jewelry in our hands. I would like to talk about some of those crafts, and these are a necklace and pierced earrings made with gold foil. The gold foil is put onto bamboo, so not only the skills and technology of craftsmen, but we invited two artists who are actually jewelry artists, and one person was a craftsman. As you can see, the combination of various skills was brought together and became a powerful item. Mirrors have some special characteristics, like mystery or some skepticism, or some ritual characteristics can be found in mirrors. These are very special tools for the tea ceremony, but they can also be used for jeans or tee shirts, so this is kind of the casual version. I will be showing my own work, my title for this is Kanazawa Dice, and you can see a very specific dice shape. An inlay craftsman worked together with me. What is craft? I think many people are interested in handicrafts, so we should not have a formal definition, we should not worry too much about definitions. Many people now are having new standard craft exhibitions so a user-oriented definition of craft will be just acceptable. I think this is the standpoint we are taking here. For example, people who make crafts have their own stamp or characteristics. You can take a look at crafts from their viewpoint. So you don t have to compare crafts to art or artists to craftsmen, planners or designers, or those who work on these crafts can be seen by your side. And we are thinking about their stamp or their characteristics, and also you can just take a look at crafts from your own viewpoint, from your own value system. Actually, last year we had another Messe of Kanazawa s Taste: The New Style Tea Party was produced together with Mr. Masayuki Kurokawa and textile designer Reiko Sudo and Chef Takagi of Zeniya and the confectionary manufacturer Koide Shibafune of ginger crackers. We worked together, and in collaboration we came up with this project. I came up with the - 9 -
concept of kawaii-sabi. That is one new interpretation of sabi. It is very adorable, and a tactile sensation in wabi. So this is a new interpretation of sabi. About how to utilize or use crafts, generally speaking, I think a trend is not just a product itself but doing something. As Dr. Pan Jin pointed out, the creative industries are now getting to be a part of the service industry. That is a trend that we are observing these days. So, in the past, we had a dichotomized system between manufacturers and consumers, however now people want to participate a lot in manufacturing sites and doing various things. The product mix is used in the marketing of furniture, people don t buy a new sofa every year, so furniture shops want to invite a lot of people by coming up with various ideas like food, tableware, and space, and events can be combined, but without waiting for someone to propose something, you should be able to come up with some ideas. So the consumer himself or herself can become a producer. For two years I actually worked together with craftsmen and artists in Kanazawa, I went to a lot of workshops, and it was a fun experience for me. So, by seeing the process of its making, we can evaluate the value of the object or the craft, and I got enlightened by the process and the value of the craft. So, not just the product, but should be able to actually go and participate and do things. In the 21 st Century Museum of Contemporary Art you can just touch the state of the art, and I was very fortunate to be living in this area. So I think there are both sides, very contemporary and very traditional. I think that is a special feature of Kanazawa. In Kanazawa we do have so many unknown workshops. So, in Kanazawa we have an abundance of great crafts, but we also have the depth and skill of these workshops in the city. So I think we have a mountain of treasure in these great workshops. Over the past three years I learned a lot, and I would like to say something to suggest the future course. What about establishing some research institute or research center for crafts and Creative Cities? I think one such research institute should be here in Kanazawa. I think a lot of analytical platforms have been completed in terms of design. I think the same thing can be done in the area of crafts, like a multi-disciplinary approach, like urban engineering, gastronomy, tourism, ecology, sociology, marketing, and communications, and people from various areas can get together and you can have subcommittee meetings and probably during the course of such discussion you can find a new platform for international exchange and workshops can be organized. As was already mentioned by the other speakers, collaboration with other creative cities will be much easier to do now in comparison with the past, and exchange students, talent, and resources can be exchanged. I think this kind of thing needs to be done continuously. And in her keynote speech. Ms. Gadoury said that for the past thirty years she has made a great effort in this work. - 10 -
And I would like to talk about the microclimate of crafts. So, not a dichotomized thinking of production and consumption but everyone should be able to come up with a small circulatory system by himself or herself. This is simple. Why don t you nurture and develop my artists and my craftsmen? So, why don t you just pick out and identify you favorite artists or craftsmen? The value can be nurtured by the artists and the craftsmen and you, the viewers, together. So, I think that kind of thing will be possible only in the cities like Kanazawa. So, if this kind of attempt can be started in Kanazawa, it will be a great opportunity. So, that will be a big topic. We are now surrounded by the market economy and we have an abundance of products and things. We are now losing sight of the value of each item. By picking up one product item in your hand, there is the process of manufacturing, or the hand work of some people, a lot of labor and effort concentrated in just one product item which you hold in your hand. So why don t you go back to that kind of spirit? (Supplementary comments to three cities presentations) Ginette Gadoury, President and Co-founder of the Montreal International Interior Design Show In our event, we have a space for designers called Tribune des Designers, and we have a space for Limited Editions for the artisans. It seems that the artisans feel that there is an upgrade in their presence if they are in the design area instead of in the handicraft area. I think we must value the position of the artisan, of the handicraft, and it s a necessity. Imagine if handicraft would disappear? What a loss it would be in all our projects, in our lives. And so I think there are different models that have to be developed. There s not one model; there are many. And the models don t fit everyone. Certain artisans are better in their technique than they are in their creativity, and it doesn t take away anything from them. It s fantastic to have such a technique. And in this case, they would profit more by working together with other professionals who would bring in something to them and produce other products than the product that they are already making. Also, there s the model of integrating this art or art form in whole interiors, in architecture. There has to be a link, a link between the two professionals, between the two talents, and there has to be respects for each other s talents. So there are so many models that should be developed in bringing up the value of both the artisans and artists, and the designers, and the architects. Our role is to create environments that better our lives and are more creative. - 11 -
(Discussion) Yuji Akimoto, Director, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa There are many companies of craftsmanship and artisanship in Kanazawa. In what way can we actually develop them in line with current trends and modern society? Lifestyle has been changing quite significantly. In the design world, an international perspective has been introduced. The design internationalization, globalization, a Messe s globalization is important, should we think that our Messe should be both global and international? Ginette Gadoury, President and Co-founder of the Montreal International Interior Design Show I think that it s important because more and more there are fewer and fewer boundaries between countries, between the worlds of design, creativity. The life of that artist s work will live elsewhere, not just in his close environment but will travel, will go elsewhere, will be published in publications, and so will bring to another culture something else. Imagine the Asian culture and creativity that is here that would find itself in North America or in Africa or in other places. I think that it s important to think internationally. Pan Jin, the Deputy Secretary General of the Shanghai Creative Industries Center China has a very big market, and also with the transition in manufacturing, because the world wants manufactured goods from China and we want to upgrade and add more value to manufactured goods, that means we need more design in the products. We are the newcomer with the large demand of the market. That means we have many business opportunities for other cities designers to come, there are no boundaries in design, I really agree with that, so we want to attract more designers to come to Shanghai so we can learn from each other. And the government supports them a lot. Nowadays they have an incubators for young designers who may not have so much background and not so much money to expand their business in the new markets. The government has supported them so they will come and get to know the market. Choi Kyung Ran, the Director of the Seoul Design Fair 2010 In the case of Kanazawa City, there are so many various traditional skills and craft skills, but some selected works could be interpreted using a new way of using them in contemporary life. So, from that point of view, maybe selecting some work is the first step. And the second thing is presentation, how do you present it? Messe or any kind of event is a good opportunity to - 12 -
present some selective work. Sometimes online works, but sometimes, especially with tangible things, people want to see and touch things. We really need to present them on site, as for example at a Messe. So a Messe will not only be one-way, we should really try to make it work in both directions. Messe, or any kind of event, I think I d like to say it s a good opportunity to get exposure for ideas and have confidence to extend one s business to the world overseas. During the Seoul Design Fair I found some very good examples of good opportunities for global business. One example, one brand new company just opened their business but they had a very good idea. They adopted the ondol system, you know the ondol system, it s the heating system from the traditional house in Korea. That concept, they just caught the concept and put that idea into a modern sofa for daily living life. They just had the confidence to open their global business. There were many cases where this kind of Messe or fair could provide good opportunities for new brands concepts, and also some rising stars, young designers, could have a chance to meet not only those selling but those manufacturing products, and they might be able to become big stars or big designers. Fumiko Ito, a jewelry artisan and Director of the Oshare Messe 2008 and 2009 In the 20 th century there was an accumulation in clusters of people, energy, and many items including money and we reached an extreme, and it has almost reached the breaking point. So we are thinking about what will happen from now on. After such a convergence of energy and everything else, maybe we should be looking at smaller areas, not large clusters. That is a change in this 21 st century. 180,000, or 1.7 million, visitors for the Messe, of course that is amazing, but it might not be the thing we should always pursue from now on. Maybe there are only twenty-eight visitors, but if they are forming a loose community, and then they are actually networking among their entities in different parts of the world, that would generate new strength and new value for the 21 st century. So rather than talking about a vigorous effort for globalization only, maybe we can apply some different dimensions for the value creation of art, design, and crafts. Maybe instead of having a demarcation, we should put them together so there are no boundaries. They are not large manufacturers, so if they are exposed to a large demand all at once they will have frustrations and problems. The French and Italian people came and they said, Yes, they are really good, but we cannot deal with them because of the small quantity of production. We have to create some new mechanism, perhaps in that case we might become international, but internationalization per se is not the goal. Yuji Akimoto, Director, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa We should draw a line between exchange where people encounter each other and mass production. The market itself is rather small, and the total size of the pie is small, and in that market you try to find somebody who understands the value of your product. Of course, if it is an international market, perhaps it is easier, rather than sticking to the domestic market, and the creativity of those craftsmen and artisans can be stimulated and enhanced. - 13 -
Today something important has been suggested by several speakers: educational and social contributions through the Messe, so events themselves can make that contribution. Are you positive about enlarging and also increasing the accessibility of the Messe? Choi Kyung Ran, the Director of the Seoul Design Fair 2010 We also, at the Seoul Design Fair, have to face that question, because at the first stage we really tried to get many people to come to this Messe or fair, and they could understand the importance of design and the perception of design in their everyday livers. After three years, we concluded that we have accomplished that certain level of understanding among our citizens. So, for the second step, we are really trying to focus on professionals or certain categories of the fair certain classes of users, I mean the class of the audience. We are trying to focus on certain categories for the fair that could be the content, you know some focused areas, so it would be more professional and it would be upgraded. This is coming soon. Ginette Gadoury, President and Co-founder of the Montreal International Interior Design Show When we make a Messe, we have to really decide what our target is, what our objective is, and who we want to participate in that event. An event must have its own personality, its own objectives. Pan Jin, the Deputy Secretary General of the Shanghai Creative Industries Center I quite agree with her because we are also facing the same questions. After five years we have educated the market, let the consumers know the value of design, but for the next five years, in which direction will we go? We have been thinking that educating the market is still very important. For trade shows, it s just like business and business. For the government, how to educate the people is still very important for Shanghai. And the other way, we are interested in industrial design because of course we have so many manufacturers here and we are facing a lot of problems with the financial crisis. So we may much more focused with design linked to manufacturers. And we will establish at the national level what we call the National Design Center, and we would like to establish a partnership with other design cities, other design centers, to attract more designers to work with our manufacturers. Fumiko Ito, a jewelry artisan and Director of the Oshare Messe 2008 and 2009 In the Messe, there are many important kinds of goals, economy as a trade show, or having the opportunity for citizen participation and education, social contribution, enlightening or cultural implications. These are all important. However, Dr. Kazuyo Sejima is a commissioner of the Venice Biennale who is also a director of the 21 st Century Museum and her theme is People Meeting Architecture. Then, what will happen? Dr. Sejima says, Just leave it as it - 14 -
is. I think a platform of encounters of people are very important. However, the objective should not be too specified, probably cross-sectionally people in different fields should be able to meet. Such kinds of opportunity should be provided in the Messe. I think that is one way for the Messe to proceed. Yuji Akimoto, Director, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa I would just like to ask my final question and very short comments would be appreciated. In this Messe, well, the Messe is actually contributing to industrializing based on culture, and what about the economic impact? Could you please make your comments? Pan Jin, the Deputy Secretary General of the Shanghai Creative Industries Center The creative industry is very important to the city s economy, and I have mentioned that we have a 20% annual rate of increase for this. And after this World Expo, our senior officials are very impressed by the way our creative ideas in the many ways to combine things together and have people living a high-quality lifestyle. In Shanghai now we are facing a lot of transitions, we are moving out a lot of the manufacturing to other cities, only in the city we have so many people, so we d like to use more manpower to add value in order to promote economic development, or for sustainability, because Shanghai has limited space and limited resources, so one of our biggest resources is manpower. We would like to use more manpower in the economy, and we think that the creative industry is a very unique way of dealing with social, cultural, civic development and economy, technology, and education. It can bring them all together. Choi Kyung Ran, the Director of the Seoul Design Fair 2010 I have been visiting the Milan Furniture Fair every year for over eight years. Every year it is really amazing, because every year there is an increasing number of visitors to the fair. The visitors means not only those visiting the fair, but also the city. 400,000 people every year travel there just for this fair, and that is the biggest event they have in the city. It means travel, shopping accommodation, and many things. The city has revitalized the economy through the Messe. That s the most successful Messe that I have seen. Talking about the Seoul Design Fair, we try to get three rabbits. the Seoul Design Fair is to let many people enjoy Seoul s city life, the city life surrounding it, not of course overseas visitors, but a hundred thousand people visited during the last three weeks. We had a very strong economic value and impact, for instance, in the Seoul Design Market, two times the number of participants and designers were involved in the Seoul Design Market, and the profits from sales increased by three times compared with last year. There are more and more participants and, and higher and higher profits. - 15 -
Fumiko Ito, a jewelry artisan and Director of the Oshare Messe 2008 and 2009 Economic advancement is one issue, but how much happiness has been generated by economic advancement? That is one important issue to consider. On the people s life on the one hand, and also the economy on the other, how are they to be associated together so that we can have an enhancement of happiness? I think we should have that sort of research institute, so that human beings and happiness can be one important subject. Ginette Gadoury, President and Co-founder of the Montreal International Interior Design Show I will talk about the economic impact on our exhibitors. We ve been talking about on the city and the big economic return, our show has existed for twenty-four years. Each time, each year, when the exhibitors renew their involvement, it is because they have economic returns, and that is companies, it is also artisans, it s also designers. Designers find partners, designers find visibility in the media, international companies that come to exhibit find local partners. And I think that it s important for them, the economic return that they would get, from their presence there year after year. Yuji Akimoto, Director, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa Thank you very much for your input and ideas, it is difficult to summarize all the discussion and the comments made. I think that we have just received very good food for thought based on your discussion. Taking advantage of this opportunity, we would like to establish a new relationship with these four people who participated in this meeting on the stage and we would like to continue our relationship with you over a long time. That is what I hope. I should have shared with you the agenda, together with the panelists. We would like to summarize the conclusion of the forum, and we actually came up with this Kanazawa Agenda for cooperation among creative cities through the Messe. Kanazawa Agenda for cooperation among creative cities through the Messe We the participants of the World Creative Cities Forum 2010 in Kanazawa, October 15, through presentation and discussion in a symposium do hereby declare that we will act together towards our common goals as set forth below: In order to promote creative culture industries, creative cities will be holding Messe or fairs and exhibitions introducing art, related culture and high-level mechanical skills. In order to enhance people s attention and attraction to the cities, we will promote collaborative activities among the companies, citizens and municipal governments of the cities. - 16 -
To that end, we the participants all agree on the importance of the following points and will make every effort to promote Messe and cooperation among creative cities: 1. We will promote creative Messe by making use of the distinctive aspects of the cities such as art, culture, and creative handicrafts. 2. We will promote the exchange of information through IT, media, and human resources. October 15, All participants of the World Creative Cities Forum 2010 in Kanazawa. Based on this agenda we would like to move forward. ( Applause ). - 17 -