Community Mar 27, 2019

MCBW: meeting of Bavaria’s creative sector in Munich

The Bavarian creative sector spent nine days in Munich in the course of the Munich Creative Business Week. Topics like artificial intelligence and digital transformation dominated the agenda and numerous opportunities for networking and to further develop their own businesses were on offer for creative start-ups in particular.

As an important international creative business location, Bavaria is a melting pot for innovation and forward-looking entrepreneurial networking between design and business. This was demonstrated once again by the Munich Creative Business Week (MCBW), which took place this year from 9 to 17 March in Munich. The organisers and sponsors of MCBW are bayern design GmbH, the Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy and the regional capital of Munich. The event’s objective: to turn all aspects of design into an understandable, up-close experience using exhibitions, vernissages, events and campaigns at more than 150 locations in Munich and Bavaria. The “Design connects” motto set the direction because design connects people to each other, people with technology and the analogue with the digital.
 

Start-up platform to promote design-oriented start-ups


So it comes as no surprise that MCBW 2019 focused on digital and forward-looking technologies, especially as part of the “MCBW start-up” programme. As design also connects visions: “the promotion of start-ups and innovative business ideas is a direct investment in the future: design methods are used to generate ideas and successfully implement a product or service in a customer-focused way,” says the organiser Which is why the “MCMW Start Up” platform initiated by bayern design supports exchange between design-oriented start-ups, young and experienced designers as well as experts from the economy.
 

"Moonshot": from start-up to global player in 72 hours


Partner enterprises passed their knowledge onto rising entrepreneurs from the creative sector during start-up workshops, coaching sessions and talks under the overarching event title “Tools for Founders”. Aspects such as brand development, design strategies, team building, intellectual property and crowdfunding were addressed, among others. But all start-ups who have already outgrown the information phase were also offered a unique opportunity during the MCBW: the “Moonshot” involved dozens of experts developing a start-up from the idea into a global player in just 72 hours – with the combined power of strategy consultation, CSR consulting, risk management, industrial design, marketing and tax and legal advice.

MCBW Moonshot: Experts from different disciplines develop a start-up from an idea into a global player (Source: MCBW/Hillinger-Perfahl)

And innovation topics were of course also booming away from the start-up scene during the MCBW. The Munich company TAWNY showed, for example, how design can help equip things, for example robots, with emotional intelligence at the interface to artificial intelligence. Elsewhere, Munich architects and designers discussed smart cities and digital transformation in the urban environment. That these topics are in the spotlight and being successfully driven forward in Bavaria in particular, is down to initiatives like bayernkreativ, which is supported by the Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy. bayernkreativ brings creative professionals together with specialists from the economy, organises workshops and offers individual advice. Added to this, there are tailored services, like the team of experts Kultur- und Kreativwirtschaft in Munich or the Kultur- und Kreativwirtschaft symposia in Nuremberg.


They all contribute to the fact that the creative economy in Bavaria finds a fertile breeding ground for their ideas and is able to drive their approaches to technical and digital change forward in an economically successful environment.