The first brainstorming of the European Atlantic

The first European Conference on Youth Creativity came to Lugo to analyze new ideas and solutions where creativity, European youth and the digital society were the protagonists of future proposals.

AYCH Official from Vida Lactea on Vimeo. Video made by Mari Trini Giner.

On April 12 and 13, the city of Lugo, (Galicia, Spain) hosted the first European Youth Creativity Conference, entitled "ATLANTIC BRAINSTORMING: Creativity and Jobs", which attracted young people and experts from four countries (Spain, France, Portugal and United Kingdom) to address different initiatives in the field of entrepreneurship and creativity.

"ATLANTIC BRAINSTORMING: Creativity and Jobs" was the first open and global meeting of the three that will take place in other European Atlantic cities and, they are part of the Atlantic Youth Creative Hubs project, which brings together the different areas of experience of the 14 contributing partners. Atlantic Brainstorming is a vehicle and a space for free exchange and creation, where young people from several European Atlantic countries share and co-produce their own projects for the future. The creative sector goes from being a niche for employment to a source of social and cultural wealth at the international level. The second event of AYCH, Atlantic Youth Creative Hubs will be next year in Gijón.

This initiative is part of the Interreg - Atlantic Area project and offered all attendees an interactive learning opportunity where they could enjoy discussion tables, workshops and spaces for companies and creators. There was also time to analyze one of the most worrying environmental problems of our time: the plastic pollution of the Atlantic Ocean.

Oenone Thomas, Coordinator of the Atlantic Youth Creative Hubs; Sira López, Environmental Manager of the Cies Work Camp - National Park of Atlantic Illas spoke about this issue, as well as Isabel García from Retoque Retro. They represent, a group of artists that collect garbage from beaches and, separate it by types of objects, (for example: ear swabs, toothbrushes, tampons, razor blades...). They count the exact number of objects they have and use them to create artistic works and mount exhibitions.

Some of the workshops were:

- “Exploring the sound through a digital format” with Richard Doak from Space.

- “Intelligent Audiovisual Creators” with Iago de Sant, film director.

- “2D / 3D” with Ben Mundy, Fab Lab Manager of the Plymouth College of Art.

- “Creation of prototypes of ideas for the reduction of plastics in the Atlantic Ocean” with Florent Orsoni and Anais Jacquard from L'Ecole de Design de Nantes.

- “Fashion and Design” with Graça Guedes, University of Minho, Department of Textile Engineering of Santo Tirso.

- “Electronic and programming” with Ben Wheeler of PCA, Plymouth College of Art.

- “Youtuber successfully” with Raúl Ordóñez, coworker in Lug2, Vida Láctea.

- “Design: We give life to 1 product” with Eva Pommier & Marie Huygen from Angoulême.

- “From the design to the prototype” with Denis Sanciaud Quentin Urbain from Angoulême.

- ”Canvas business model” with Nick Graham from Pacific Stream.

I participated in this initiative because I am a beneficiary of IVY program, Interreg Volunteer Youth, an option of the new European Solidarity Corps. I'm with an Atlantic Youth Creative Hubs partner in Spain, Vida Láctea, which is a youth creative company. I started two weeks before the event. My duties were mainly internal communication with partners and external media, management of social networks, creation of content and photographs with videos, writing of the press release and contact with local media. During the event, as well as taking photographs and recording, some of the debates, I was an anchor, compere, presenting the speakers to the public and asking them questions. The public could also ask the speakers.

I discovered more about audiovisual projects in the north of Spain like “Microsoños” (in English it means “Micro Dreams”). The founder has an open form where anyone, no matter from what part of the world, can send him a dream they have had and he tries to unite all the dreams and makes videos about them. In review, the event successfully built up a space where young people could explain their projects and ideas in, relation with culture and business.

This project was co-financed by ERDF (European Regional Development Fund), which is committed to cooperation projects in the fields of: innovation, competitiveness, resource efficiency, territorial risk management, biodiversity, natural and cultural assets.

Partners are:

Devon County Council United Kingdom new.devon.gov.uk

Plymouth College of Art United Kingdom plymouthart.ac.uk

Plymouth City Council United Kingdom plymouth.gov.uk

Plymouth Culture United Kingdom plymouthculture.co.uk

Pacificstream United Kingdom pacificstreamenterprise.co.uk

Brest Métropole France brest.fr

Space United Kingdom spacepsm.org

Ayuntamiento de Gijón Spain gijon.es

Ashton Community Trust United Kingdom ashtoncentre.com

Grand Angoulême France grandangouleme.fr

Vida Láctea Spain vidalactea.com