VIC virtual incubator for the creative industries

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Why develop a virtual incubator for the creative
industries
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative
industries
Why develop the creative industries Why
business incubation
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Business incubation brings wealth, opportunity,
employment and regeneration to local, regional
and national economies. Incubated companies move
out of incubation environments and achieve
sustainable commercial success in their own
right.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Research into best practice clearly illustrates
how effective business incubation is (Innovation
Business Incubation, benchmarking research
2002).
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
However, within the creative industries graduates
move towards self-employment in specialist
workshops. (Only 11 of graduate product
designers progressed into major design companies)
The traditional incubator environment is not
suitable because of the specialist resources and
needs of the industry yet these companies require
generic and specialist business support that is
delivered in suitable and appropriate modules
with on-line support and training.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Design graduates are reluctant to develop
business skills and entrepreneurial acumen.
(Design Initiative Report 2003)
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Further to this the UKBI Pilot Study of the
Provision of Business Incubation to the Creative
Industries October 2003 gave an indication that
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• Further to this the UKBI Pilot Study of the
  Provision of Business Incubation to the Creative
  Industries October 2003 gave an indication
  that
• Traditional areas of business support were not
  geared up to dealing with creative businesses

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• Further to this the UKBI Pilot Study of the
  Provision of Business Incubation to the Creative
  Industries October 2003 gave an indication
  that
• Traditional areas of business support were not
  geared up to dealing with creative businesses
• There are challenges with persuading talented
  entrepreneurs of the importance of commercial
  skills

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• Further to this the UKBI Pilot Study of the
  Provision of Business Incubation to the Creative
  Industries October 2003 gave an indication
  that
• Traditional areas of business support were not
  geared up to dealing with creative businesses
• There are challenges with persuading talented
  entrepreneurs of the importance of commercial
  skills
• There are challenges with clients of the worth of
  Intellectual Property

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
What is the definition of the creative
industries?
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
What is the definition of the creative
industries? those industries which have their
origin in individual creativity, skill and talent
and which have a potential for wealth and job
creation through the generation and exploitation
of intellectual property.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
What is the definition of the creative
industries? those industries which have their
origin in individual creativity, skill and talent
and which have a potential for wealth and job
creation through the generation and exploitation
of intellectual property. This includes the
following sectors Advertising, Architecture,
Crafts, Design, Designer Fashion, Film and Video,
Interactive Leisure Software, Music, Performing
Arts, Publishing, Television and Radio and in
addition the cultural heritage, tourism and
museum industries are identified as being closely
related to the creative industries.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
What is the definition of the creative
industries? The potential users of VIC will be
emerging entrepreneurs, young start-up companies,
graduates from art and design schools, enterprise
training organisations and specialised business
advisors within the development of the creative
industries.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Why?
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Why? Develops the latent entrepreneurial talent
within the creative industries.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Why? Cost effective - in many cases lower levels
of investment in creative individuals and
businesses are more likely to provide economic
returns in the short term and with less risk.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Why? Entrepreneurial learning in the cultural
industries appears at its most powerful when
entrepreneurs are doing and reflecting on
doing business within their sector contexts.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Why? The lack of creative industry specialist
knowledge is a drawback as employees/start-up
entrepreneurs need access to specific advice and
information about supply chains, networks and
processes that are not common to other sectors.
Although they have the talent and creativity to
produce innovative products, our creatives do
not have the basic business gumption, know-how or
confidence that would convince a potential
investor.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Why? Designers are reluctant to develop business
skills and entrepreneurial acumen
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• Virtual incubation for the creative industries
  will
• develop an environment that incorporates,
  business support, mentoring, networking and
  collaborative working.

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• Virtual incubation for the creative industries
  will
• address the problem of creatives ill-equipped
  with the skills, knowledge and access to networks
  and communities of practice that allow them to
  make their way more quickly and confidently and
  to develop their business

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• Virtual incubation for the creative industries
  will
• develop gumption and an entrepreneurial mindset

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• Virtual incubation for the creative industries
  will
• provide cost effective business training without
  the need for expensive premises

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• Virtual incubation for the creative industries
  will
• provide an underpinning infrastructure that
  would enable young businesses in the creative
  industries to thrive

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Addressing business development priorities
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Addressing business development priorities to
improve the skills and competences of people
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Addressing business development priorities to
improve the skills and competences of people
VIC directly addresses this priority by
developing very accessible and individual
guidance and business skills development and
improves the quality of the professional
entrepreneurship by using creating an environment
that simulates the ethos and business support
strategies that are found in business incubators.
It also will facilitate positive attitudes
towards technological and organisational change
that is required in todays business world.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• Addressing business development priorities
• to promote and reinforce the contribution of
  vocational training to the process of innovation
  

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• Addressing business development priorities
• to promote and reinforce the contribution of
  vocational training to the process of innovation
  
• VIC directly addresses this priority by improving
  entrepreneurial endeavours and promoting new
  media and innovation by ICT use, stimulating
  knowledge, assessment and evaluation, increasing
  entrepreneurial spirit and business gumption by
  appropriate and suitable means.

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• Addressing business development priorities
• Developing relevant and innovative e-learning
  content

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• Addressing business development priorities
• Developing relevant and innovative e-learning
  content
• VIC directly addresses this priority by
  stimulating individual knowledge and
  institutional knowledge by targeted knowledge
  transfer and providing a learning environment
  that balances generic business skills learning
  with the needs of the creative industry. This in
  turn will encourage the creative designers to see
  the relevance of traditional business skills to
  the development of the company. The innovative
  aspects of VIC is an exciting engagement that
  encourages design conscious and design aware
  people to engage with training that at the same
  time supports the growth and development of the
  company.

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Training and Innovation
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Training and Innovation The current and
existing business support related to incubation
is not specific and appropriate for the majority
of creative industries. The training and support
content can be adapted from existing products.
This documentation and monitoring material will
support the growth of business and will inculcate
best practice in an industry that is proved to
have great potential for growth but one that is
notorious for the poor or weak business
practices.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Training and Innovation The training aspects of
VIC will aim to nurture both the creative spirit
and business skills because creative enterprises
need both if they are going to thrive.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Training and Innovation Comparisons with other
industry sectors tend to be unhelpful and general
business support services often fail to
understand the differences.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Training and Innovation These tensions can lead
to a general atmosphere of discomfort where
creatives doubt the ethics and viability of
making a business out of their talent. VIC can
address these issues and at the same time
develops the analytical and theoretical skills
without detriment of more lateral thinking
abilities.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Training and Innovation Creative disciplines
direct designer makers towards the creation of
new, innovative or desirable products and
aesthetic experiences that by definition have
market value. It is vital that it also encourages
and develops their abilities to identify
opportunities and link creative ideas with
commercial realities as well as providing a
grounding in the realities of freelance working
and an understanding of how to manage and develop
their business.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Training and Innovation Therefore VIC should
introduce to vocational business training these
elements and bring together the creative
lateral thinking and analytical and theoretical
aspects. It should also complement recent
developments of pedagogical approaches to
learning Action learning and Experiential
learning/activity learning or learning by
doing. These principals can be integral to VIC
and are ideal for our creatives and in fact
preferred over traditional approaches to learning
i.e. classroom based, chalk and talk. Learners
are far more stimulated and willing to learn by
employing these approaches. .
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Training and Innovation i. Content innovation
the training and support material for VIC should
be totally relevant to the creative industries,
not only addressing the pedagogical issues, but
should be presented in a manner that will be
conducive to and engage with those coming from a
creative, artistic and design background. This
environment should be designed to be not only
friendly but culturally and aesthetically
appropriate to these highly visually aware
people. .
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Training and Innovation ii. Technical and
delivery innovation the support material and
documents for VIC should be developed using the
latest cutting-edge technology. Also the
technologies used should not only be used for the
delivery of the training and business support
products but will be integrated into the whole
management of the project. Therefore the
incubator, the trainers, those being trained and
those quality assuring and assessing, monitoring
and support material will be using the technology
that is fundamental to VIC. For example a web
platform using php should be used not only for
the communications among the companies and
associates but the same technologies will be used
for the training and to hold the support
material. Integral to the incubator should be the
use of e-bulletins, web conferencing and
significantly the use of PDAs and mobile phone
interfaces. .
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• Training and Innovation
• Training innovation
• Original approaches to training could be based
  around
• .

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Training and Innovation Action learning. In an
action learning set learners are able to share
their learning in a supportive environment. An
action learning set can be with peers from the
partnership or a mixed set where they will work
with peers from different businesses and regions.
These learning methodologies can be established
via an actual learning environment, eg workshop,
seminar room etc. .
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Training and Innovation Experiential
learning/activity learning or 'learning by doing'
Learners will be involved in an active
exploration of experience related to their
creative discipline. Experience is used to test
out ideas and assumptions rather than to obtain
practice passively. Practice can be very
important but it is greatly enhanced by
reflection with assessment a key factor to
measuring success. Strategies will be in place
for learners to selectively reflect on their
experience in a critical way rather than take
experience for granted and assume that the
experience on its own is sufficient. By learning
as they conduct their work they will be committed
to the process of exploring and learning.
Trainers have an important role in devising
appropriate experiences and facilitating
reflection.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Training and Innovation The challenge within
incubation is to devise training around these
approaches within the limited time, availability
and scope. However, it is felt that a sufficient
contribution to pedagogical approaches to a
training programme can be undertaken and suitably
assessed to make it worthwhile. It is far better
to work in an innovative way, encouraging and
supporting engagement in learning than depend
upon the traditional methodologies that have been
proven not to succeed within business training in
the creative industries.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
The impact of VIC
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
The impact of VIC Short-term results of the
project
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
The impact of VIC Short-term results of the
project - possibility of offering specialised
business training and support in the field of
the creative industries for a large number of
creative businesses in regions of
post-industrial regeneration
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• The impact of VIC
• Short-term results of the project
• - possibility of offering specialised business
  training and support in the field of the
  creative industries for a large number of
  creative businesses in regions of
  post-industrial regeneration
• - substantial new learning material and new
  technological approaches which will extend the
  current provision of generic business training
  to include the specific needs of creative
  entrepreneurs

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• The impact of VIC
• Short-term results of the project
• - possibility of offering specialised business
  training and support in the field of the
  creative industries for a large number of
  creative businesses in regions of
  post-industrial regeneration
• - substantial new learning material and new
  technological approaches which will extend the
  current provision of generic business training
  to include the specific needs of creative
  entrepreneurs
• - creation of a new network of businesses and
  employees from the creative industries that will
  be involved with the development, assessment
  and dissemination of the methodologies
  incorporated into the incubator

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
The impact of VIC Long-term results of the
project
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
The impact of VIC Long-term results of the
project - development of professional business
skills and tools in the field of business
training for businesses and employees in the
creative industries
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
The impact of VIC Long-term results of the
project - development of professional business
skills and tools in the field of business
training for businesses and employees in the
creative industries - improvement of
professional knowledge of the training needs of
employees and entrepreneurs in the creative
industries
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
The impact of VIC Long-term results of the
project - development of professional business
skills and tools in the field of business
training for businesses and employees in the
creative industries - improvement of
professional knowledge of the training needs of
employees and entrepreneurs in the creative
industries - improvement of the development of
post-industrial regeneration areas by the
enhanced of training of employees and
entrepreneurs in start-up creative businesses
and therefore meeting the already recognised
potential growth of business within this
sector
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• The impact of VIC
• Long-term results of the project
• - reduction of unemployment in post-industrial
  regeneration regions because of the growth and
  development of the creative industries

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
The impact of VIC Long-term results of the
project - reduction of unemployment in
post-industrial regeneration regions because of
the growth and development of the creative
industries - established network of virtual
incubators (including the EU) with the
cross-fertilisation of ideas and collaborative
work
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
The impact of VIC Long-term results of the
project - reduction of unemployment in
post-industrial regeneration regions because of
the growth and development of the creative
industries - established network of virtual
incubators (including the EU) with the
cross-fertilisation of ideas and collaborative
work - involvement of women as new
entrepreneurs
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• The impact of VIC
• Long-term results of the project
• - reduction of unemployment in post-industrial
  regeneration regions because of the growth and
  development of the creative industries
• - established network of virtual incubators
  (including the EU) with the cross-fertilisation
  of ideas and collaborative work
• - involvement of women as new entrepreneurs
• - engagement of employees from the creative
  industries in training by the use of learning
  strategies that incorporate the use of design
  led interfaces

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• The way forward

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• Outline
• This Pilot project will develop a virtual
  business incubator for the creative industries
  using innovative ICT including, CMS, SMS and RSS
  feeds.
• The project will provide specific business
  support and training for start-up creative
  companies. Three key modules for the project will
  be
• 1. Content development
• 2. Online environment and collaborative
  communication tools development
• 3. Training programme

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• Outline
• The content will include Virtual Business
  Support, Virtual Mentoring, Networking and
  Collaborative Working, and a training programme
  covering generic and specific support.
• The virtual incubation process could follow these
  stages ENTRY Protocol (Counselling and
  Application) - Pre-Incubation Activity -
  Incubation - Green housing (Preparation for
  independence and progress towards a stand-alone
  company) - EXIT Protocol.

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• Tangible Outcomes
• 1. Project e-Newsletter
• 2. Collaborative online communication facility
• 3. Project management handbook
• 4. Content management driven, online project
  dissemination and information sharing environment
• 5. Virtual incubator support environment
• 6. Individual guidance and counselling
• 7. New and revised incubator documents inc
  Business support content, Training material,
  Assessment tools, QA tools
• 8. Valorisation web site
• 9. End of project regional mini
  conference/workshops

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Project Activity Management The project will be
managed through a Project Steering Group that
represents the partners via the following work
packages WP1 Project Management WP2
Valorisation WP3 Review of existing surveys,
data, models, studies and literature WP4 Content
Development WP5 Environment and web tools WP6
Training programme WP7 Assessment and testing
WP8 Quality assurance
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• Thank you

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• Creativebias - www.creativebias.org
• Design Initiative - www.designinit.org.uk
• MakeMe - http//www.makemebuydesign.co.uk/
• Futures Network - www.futuresnetwork.org.uk
• ICDC - www.icdc.org.uk
• Digex - www.digex.eu.com
• ACME - www.merseysideacme.co.uk
• Digitalinc - www.digitalinc.org.uk

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• Valorisation?
• Exploitation
• Commercialisation
• Dissemination

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Valorisation The strategy will cover the
following Valorisation Plan which will lay out
a detailed schedule of activity for the lifetime
of the project such as identifying complimentary
networks for dissemination outside of immediate
partner networks a valorisation website will be
setup to co-ordinate this activity with support
materials such as an electronic presentation and
brochure being made available to all partners,
with media friendly versions available on the
website.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Valorisation Sustainability will be a key focus
of the project and to this end a Project
e-Newsletter will be produced and supported by a
comprehensive database of key contacts from
within the partnership, so ensuring a highly
targeted, high impact audience base.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Valorisation Shared responsibility and ownership
of the valorisation process will underpin its
success or failure. As a result this project
will use a collaborative communication facility
which has been used very successfully in a number
of previous Leonardo projects the coordinators
have been involved in, to create a strong sense
of ownership and knowledge sharing between the
partners from the very beginning of the project.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Valorisation Integration and interaction with
potential users is critical to the lifeblood of
the project. VirIncCreate intends to provide
structured lines of communication via mobile
technologies such as delivering project updates
in the form of SMS messages to mobile phones or
press releases to PDAs. This will allow the
project to interact with potential users on a
flexible and individual basis and by delivering
key information in a format and a time to suit
the user this the communication process an
integrated and ongoing activity within the
project.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Valorisation Commercialisation and business
planning activity will act as a key driver within
the project. All partners will engage in this
activity for the lifetime of the project with key
milestones being set within the project for
workshops where all partners will aim to present
the materials to a key target audience either
physically at the event host or virtually via the
project dissemination and information sharing
environment. This online area will act as a
virtual conference facility for the project with
web meetings, information exhibit areas and RSS
feeds linked in for direct user access.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries
Valorisation Long-term sustainability of the
project would come about by the development of an
exit document which would be presented at the end
of the project at a regional mini conference
held in the UK with all partners in attendance.
This will allow the project to move to the next
phase of development seamlessly if there is
demand for this to happen.
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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries

• Way forward
• Short term
• Evidence base - keep records of all events
  attended, documents, publications etc
• Produce a pamphlet
• Valorisation committee formed

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VIC- virtual incubator for the creative industries