The YAIC team would like to thank everyone who attended for making it such a fantastic and inspiring event. We hope to see you all again next year!

Check out the highlights!

Colin Mercer has been Director for the project ‘Towards Creative Iceland: Building local, going global,’ Iceland’s first national creative industries mapping project, which is now nearing completion.

Mercer’s results, while still unofficial (research is ongoing), indicate very positive growth in all the creative and cultural sectors in Iceland over the last decade. After outlining the project’s aims and methods, he showed – among other things – that Iceland has the highest percentage of employees in the CCI in the EU/EEA in relation to the total labour force, with a government turnover in the sector a massive 23.6 billion Icelandic Kronur (unofficial figures) – bigger than the agricultural sector.

Breaking down the findings so far, Mercer showed how the largest or more productive of the sector Creative Industries are the audio-visual (software, gaming, TV radio) at 35%, then the Performance sector (23%, among the highest in Europe), Visual Arts and Design (13.5%) and Books (9.2%). He showed that the rise in all these sectors has been significant in the last few years and , despite the inevitable dip in 2008/2009, are already starting to show an upturn again.

The YAIC afternoon workshops featured a handpicked group of international and Icelandic creative industry people openly discussing a range of topics.

The “Creatives Connecting With Consumers workshop”, moderated by Haukur S. Magnússon, Editor of the Reykjavik Grapevine, covered many angles in terms of how to find and maintain connections with your fan base, with people like Christopher Peterka, founder of Gannaca, pointing out that old methods like meeting or calling people are still hugely valid despite the impression of online communication.

Keith Harris, Director of Performer Affairs for PPL UK and Stevie Wonder’s representative moderated the “Copyrighting Creative Content” workshop. The building of an ambitious copyright database was mooted, as was the contrastive value of crowd-sourcing for creativity. A murky and eternal industry topic at the best of times, as Harris noted — “we didn’t solve the copyright issue but we did have some good ideas”.

Peter Dreyer, Managing Director of Elevator2, moderated the “Innovation & The Internet” panel, which discussed turning the internet into a learning experience, how the next generation of Internet usage might look, and how to make sure creatives are finding an audience abroad, among other topics.

The group concluded that one of the online problems today is that you have to be both social and creative – yet without sacrificing one for the other.

“Ahead of the Game: Ethical Business is Smart Business”, moderated by Hulda Steingrímsdóttir, Environmental Consultant at Alta Consulting, looked at the key question of what the industry can do to make sure it’s being  ethical.

Threads of the discussion touched on companies needing to mostly be aware of what they should be doing – for themselves as well as business to business, and working towards a triple bottom line – economic, social and environmental – in order to develop accountability with a kind of code of conduct to encourage further transparency.

Canadian documentary filmmaker Peter Wintonick, winner of the 2006 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts and former Thinker in Residence for the Premier of South Australia, talking about cutting-edge digital strategies in film and the fusion of documentary and democracy (documocracy).

Moderated by Kolbrún Halldórsdóttir (President of the Icelandic Federation of Artists) this panel concentrated on the potential of creatives to be ‘game changers’. The panel consisted of an interesting mix: Xavier Troussard, Director for Education and Culture of the European Commission, Helen Sildna, Managing Director Tallinn Music Week and Jón Gnarr, Mayor of Reykjavik.

The conversation followed the theme of the relationship between the creative industries and bigger political frameworks. Troussard believed that the whole of society – not just the music or creative industries – can be shifted into a more entrepreneurial mindset. Gnarr – a former actor and comedian – supported the notion that artists can be policymakers without losing their creative leanings (himself being, after all, an anarchist and surrealist that has made it into politics).

Gnarr raised the interesting point that while Iceland has been made great by artists – the Viking saga authors and skalds up to Bjork and the current music scene – the sports sector seems to get more media coverage and support than the arts, despite there being a relative lack of internationally known sportspeople.

Questions and comments from the audience moved the conversation onto how to bridge the gap between minority and majority cultures within societies and other related issues. Although there were no easy answers to these difficult questions, Kolbrún summed up the conversation that a culture of collaboration needs to be sought via increased dialogue between politicians and the creative sector, and that it is as much the responsibility of the creatives as the politicos to make this happen.

It’s no secret that China is undergoing a massive social, economic and technological revolution right now. Helen Calyun Chen began her presentation with some stats and figures to show just how wired the country is becoming – and how Beijing is one of the key hotbeds for the digital arts.

She then outlined the ambitious and exciting mission of the Gehua-Bluerock Digital Arts Co. — building China’s first ever digital arts museum, which will be housed in Beijing’s China Millennium Monument and present all facets of digital art, from electronic music, games, digital film and video, design and multi-media arts.

The museum will have two parts, a physical or “hardware” environment and a virtual or “software” section and will hold exhibitions and events as well as the first Beijing International Film Festival in April 2011. In all, this will be a groundbreaking and significant project for China and for the world.

First up in the morning’s series of informational presentations was Jonas Antonsson, CEO of Gogogic, whose primary lesson was: learn to adapt. Giving examples of excellent website businesses that have failed due to an inability to adapt – including Twitter which although hugely prominent has thus far failed to monetize.

Another lesson and a good one to be reminded of: the internet never forgets. Don’t leave your mistakes online for all to see!

Simon Idoll of Hungarian Audioporn Central talked of the Mashup, tracing its history into older folk music forms and Gregorian chants. Idoll believes the mashup is the future and urged musicians to indulge freely, so long as they always give the appropriate credit where credit is due.

The final presentation was from Thomas Ermacora, founder of Clear Village and urbanist, and UK singer songwriter Imogen Heap, who are working together on collaborations to raise quality of life through inspirational sharing events and devices. Thomas began with a presentation of his Dreams on Wheels project, which promotes cycling culture throughout the world, and his Clear Village urban sustainability project.The message seemed to be to collaborate.

Imogen talked about the importance and possibilities of fan interaction – from building a biography from Twitter posts, raising money for charity through audience participation, having her songs remixed by 514 people online and even finding musicians via live auditions. “I enjoy the creative space we enjoy today,” she summed up, “which is all down to social media and interaction with the fans.”

The pair then presented their joint projects – Bubbletank, a “do-tank” for creative ideas and a way of finding new value, a pioneering live webcast project in conjunction with Richard Branson that began spontaneously and raised money for 1,000 shelters in three days for Pakistan, anda film project called Love The Earth, which collates nature footage from film makers all over the world.

“Venture capitalists should learn how to invest in the creative industries. They should gain the industry knowledge and build the business experience. They need to learn how to step out of the box. At the same time creatives need to step into the box and work with the financial community. Learn about how to build a business not just a project. It’s not a bad thing to make money, you’re creating something new and adding value to society. Aim high, build big and you will attract more funding and investment.”

Elisabet Gretarsdottir, Marketing Director for Eve Online, opened with a statistical illustration of how saturated today’s marketplace is with advertising.

• 1971 – the average person received 560 ad messages a day
• 1997 – the average person received 3,000 ad messages a day
• 2010 – the average person received 5,000 ad messages a day

Gretarsdottir talked of the importance of discarding the notion of ‘marketing’ entirely and think in terms of new concepts like “entertainment” and “value”. “We should be thinking of ways in which we can make people’s day a tiny bit better; make them smile, or think about something that’s perhaps ethical. She used the recent Dove campaign ad as an example.

The aim, she continued, is to give something people can share, to engage your audience, help people find other people instead of just yourself — give them a story to tell, something to talk about. After some key lessons drawn from role playing games, augmented reality and interactive TV, Gretarsdottir summed up that in the end this is not about you or your product, but about the entire interactive experience.

“Don’t demand attention,” she concluded, “deserve it.”

A fantastic opening talk from Anamaria Wills, CEO of the Creative Industries Development Agency, who opened by stating: “There’s a real difference between user generated content and talent…just because you can do something, it doesn’t mean you should.” Photos of Gareth Gates and Jedward wittily underline the point.

Citing Edison’s adage that “success is 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration,”  Wills – an impassioned and engaging speaker with a background in theatre – compares talent to a seed that needs to be nurtured in order to blossom. Wills underlined the need for working hard and failing, repeating the mantra: “Fail fast and fail often to succeed sooner.”

She talked about the need for artists to be creative and to collaborate in order to be successful, and urged a focus on knowing your audience and connecting with them. “You have to create the reason for your customers to come and hear your music and work out how to sustain that relationship,” she said. “Don’t be afraid to share your ideas. Two brains are better than one, always. The idea of the lone genius in the attic is gone.”

One of her central messages was: “If you don’t believe in yourself, why should anyone else believe in you?”

You Are In Control is just around the corner. Hope to see all of you there.

During day 2 of You Are In Control, a showcase will present the best of Nordic creativity. Sponsored by KreaNord, an extensive Nordic initiative aimed at improving the framework conditions of the region’s cultural and creative industries, this hour long profiling will take place during lunch on Oct. 2 with representatives from all of the Nordic countries and the various creative industries.

Representing the food industry, the chefs of Hilton Nordica will prepare a  lunch showcasing the best in Nordic cuisine.

From the music industry, a performance by the Parabolur Performance Project (IS) will ensue, fusing audio and visual for a multi-sensory audience experience.

There will also be video works from the following:

Gaming: Multiplayer game company CCP (IS)
Film: Nordic Council Film Prize Nominees (DK, FI, IS, NO & SW)
Design: Graphic artist & illustrator Katrín Ólína (IS)
Literature: Videopoet JP Sipila (FI)

And this, my friends, is just one example of many of the treats & surprises guests can expect at You Are In Control.

“I wasn’t aware of the scale of the gaming industry in Iceland. It’s great to hear. It just shows that games appeal to everyone around the world.”

Check out this interview with keynote speaker Ian Livingstone in Fréttablaðið. He will present “Life is a Game” at You Are In Control, discussing his struggles in the 1970s when he and Steve Jackson set up Games Workshop and launched Dungeons & Dragons, the rise of interactive entertainment, the history of computer games and where the industry is heading, as well as a visual story of the digital icon Lara Croft.