The Bilbao-Bizkaia region has a wide and varied creative network of quality, and we are currently experiencing a time of opportunity with respect to its enhancement, professionalization, etc. But for this opportunity to take shape, it is important that there is a common purpose among all the stakeholders involved, that work is carried out in terms of collaboration, so that the different activities and measures that take place, developed by institutions, sectoral stakeholders and the professionals themselves, are aligned, complementary to each other and learn from each other.

The main objective of this seminar is to continue cultivating a feeling of belonging and co-responsibility with respect to the coordination and sustainable development of the design and creativity ecosystem in Bilbao-Bizkaia. Listening and being heard in order to understand whether the ecosystem is growing stronger will benefit everyone. And we must do so together.

The activity combines two complementary parts. The first part focuses on looking at case studies of how work is being done elsewhere to promote design and creativity. The second is a workshop in which we listen to each other and purposefully reflect on the situation of the ecosystem and what we can do to improve its coordination and development.

> PART 1: Presentation of cases

We will learn about two complementary cases, one linked to the development of institutional plans and actions, and the other linked to proposals for coordination and impact from the design sector. 

• Designregio Kortrijk. Government agency from the Belgium city of Kortrijk (UNESCO Creative Cities Network), a border city with creativity and design thinking in its DNA, that since the Middle Ages has had a long tradition linked to the textile industry, the arts and crafts sector and industrial design. The agency was founded in 2005 to promote and develop the creative ecosystem and crossed fertilisation with other areas. Their catchphrase is “Designing better futures” and they offer personalised services of every type, directed at members of the creative sector to improve their products and services, their management or communication, and also aimed at introducing creativity and design in other areas, working from a quadruple helix logic. Some of their programmes and projects focus on the circular economy, digitalisation and the design of services.  https://www.designcities.net/city/kortrijk/ - https://designregio-kortrijk.be/
• Pact for Design. An alliance promoted by the "Multilateral of Design". Promoted by six representative organisations and networks from the world of Spanish design, with the aim of obtaining increased cohesion in the implementation of design as a key strategy of the economic, social and environmental transformation of the country. The pact proposes a common front to promote design as a key tool for innovation and competitiveness in the economic, academic and public sectors and in society in general. It seeks to join forces, to support the national ecosystem of design and to establish itself as a representative of institutional dialogue. https://pactoporeldiseno.es/

> PART 2: Proactive reflection and listening workshop

A workshop follows the incentive provided by these cases, and serves to make us consider our own context, in terms of the ecosystem on which to act together and in coordination with the different stakeholders of the design and creativity ecosystem in Bilbao-Bizkaia. In order to:

• Continue creating a climate of shared responsibility and trust, which will help us to continue getting to know each other.
• Conduct a short proactive analysis and listening workshop with the aim of identifying what there is and what works, what we need or should improve, which areas could be areas of opportunity and impact.
• Propose what we can do together, setting manageable expectations and defining priorities on which to focus together.

The workshop, which will be led by Teresa Jular, is based on a circular design logic, focusing on interdependent relationships between the different players in the ecosystem, based on their competences, capacities, limitations... It is a workshop based on collaboration, with a broad vision but grounded in the field, on specifics, on what we can do together. An attempt to get out of the logic of claiming or asking others, carrying out an exercise of addition and empathy, exchange, identifying possibilities, combining actions and resources, searching for synergies and complementarities.

> Who do we want to participate?

This is an open invitation, which seeks to reach as diverse a group of actors as possible, with different involvement and responsibilities in the coordination and sustainability of the ecosystem, both from institutional action and from the work of the sectors and their players. The more diversity, the richer the conversation and the richer the listening!