Peter Wennink | Symposium: De creatieve economie

The symposium 

Former President & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ASML Peter Wennink’s report on the Netherlands’ long-term earning capacity forms the basis of the national growth strategy and the coalition agreement. Wennink identifies four areas in which the Netherlands must invest: digitalisation and AI, security and resilience, energy and climate technology and life sciences and biotechnology. The creative industries are absent.

While the Innovation Platform and the Top Sectors policy still regarded the sector as a driver of innovation, it has disappeared from today’s economic debate. Yet the challenges Wennink addresses, from the energy transition to digital sovereignty, demand the imagination and systemic solutions of designers more than ever.

During DDW26 we will bridge the gap between the ‘hard’ economic growth strategy and the innovative power of the creative economy. This raises one central question for the sector itself: do we dare to commit explicitly to the Netherlands’ national growth ambitions?

The programme

• Anna van Nunen (director Eurosonic Noorderslag) and Willem van Zeeland (director Dutch Design Foundation) will open with an overview of the sector: where do the creative industries stand and what do the figures tell us?

• Peter Wennink will then discuss the Netherlands’ growth strategy and the role the creative sector could play within it.

• Responding to his analysis will be Jeroen Bartelse (Director TivoliVredenburg and Chair of Kunsten ’92) on culture as an economic driver, Anne Ligtenberg (Designer and Programme Director at Design Development Eindhoven) on designing for societal transitions and Mark van Iterson (Chair BNO) on design entrepreneurship and business models.

• Together with Wennink and the audience, we will define more clearly what is needed to embed the creative economy structurally within growth policy.

Moderator: Monique van Dusseldorp.

The symposium will be followed by a networking lunch at the Next Nature Museum at 12.30 hours. Afterwards, you can visit the Dutch Design Week exhibitions individually or in a group.