"It is a time for prophets and leaders and explorers and inventors and pioneers and for those willing to plant trees for their children to sit under."
- Walter Lippman

Last November all Hong Kong was overwhelmed by discussions, ideas and, quite simply, a motivation to create. Bodies concerned with the future of local arts and culture organised a number of activities in search of innovative ways to promote creativity. They included the Home Affairs Bureau's Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum 2004; the Hong Kong Arts Centre's Art of Commercials 2004; Fringe Club's exhibition Overlapping Desires; Hong Kong Heritage Museum's Building Hong Kong Redwhiteblue; and the Book Festival 04/05 City Reading jointly staged by the Book Festival Company Limited and the Hong Kong Arts Centre.

During the same month the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (ADC) organised a symposium on "How to Become a Creative City." Professor John Eger of San Diego State University; Professor John Howkins, an expert in personal creativity, copyright law, education and business, and Mr John Kreidler, Executive Director of Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley, presented by turns a vision on creativity development from their respective professional points of view. Provoking feedback and debate among local culture, arts and education workers, the symposium focused on exploring possibilities to develop Hong Kong into a creative city from the perspectives of economy, information technology and arts education. The ADC is now producing a publication to capture what came out of the symposium. We will keep you posted. For the moment, let's examine the inspiring messages from the three speakers.

Global Trend

In his keynote speech, Professor Howkins drew attention to the rapid development of what he called the creative industry. According to 2004 figures, half of the working population of the G7 countries was employed by the creative industry. Thanks to a growth rate twice that of conventional service industry, and four times that of manufacturing, the creativity industry has established itself as the true powerhouse of the current global economy. As stated in his book The Creative Economy, "people with ideas – people who own ideas -- have become more powerful than people who work machines and, in many cases, more powerful than the people who own machines."

To create is to make something out of nothing. While everyone has his or her share of creativity, the key is to find the right way to hatch and transform ideas into reality. However, Professor Howkins reminded us, creativity should not degenerate into merely an economic tool; it should manifest itself in all aspects of life and living, such as culture, art, industry and service. In any location, curbing creativity is tantamount to restraining its growth, he said.

Information Flow Fuels Creative Economy

To become a creative city, it is essential not only to have information and creativity but also the ability to use them properly, noted Professor Eger. With the popularisation of the Internet, computer users have instant access to global information, while instant feedback has become an important source of public opinion in an online society. In short, information has become a precious source of wealth and an efficient information network a prerequisite for strong economic growth. Thriving economic centres such as Singapore, United Arab Emirates and Silicon Valley all boast highly sophisticated information technology.

On the other hand, sustainable growth depends on being able to attract the right talents. Take a look at history and we will find many legendary figures who were not only talents in their scientific ventures but were also well versed in artistic pursuits. Einstein, for instance, was a violinist; Galileo a poet. In fact, there is no dearth of research evidence showing the positive impact of arts and culture on academic studies. In other words, arts, culture and human resources developments are twin sisters of economic growth.

According to Professor Eger, what counts far more is not just access to information and talent, but how we make the most of these resources. For a creative city, the creation of new wealth by putting these resources to good use in a co-ordinated manner is more important than simply having the technology. Efficient communication is an important element of this process, whereby views from different sectors can be solicited to facilitate a better understanding of a society's development needs on which a clear vision, priorities and strategies can then be developed to involve the widest possible participation in creative pursuits.

Creativity Requires Training

As the nerve centre of information technology, the Silicon Valley understands how important it is to take up the challenge of sustainable development. In 1997 the Cultural Initiatives programme was set up to promote cultural participation and arts education in local communities.

According to Mr Kreidler, training and promotion are essential to sustainable development. Take basketball and American football: children start receiving proper training during school; they represent not only sports but also social activities. That's how they sustain their status as popular sports.

For the same reasons, cultural training should begin early, a view apparently endorsed by the local population. According to surveys conducted in 1997 and 2002, 95 % of the residents believe in the importance of arts education. Despite their professional background, most of them, however, had minimal exposure to arts and culture during their school life. And they agreed that arts education would have a positive effect on the school performance of their children. The surveys also indicated that nearly 75 % of the Silicon Valley population spent their leisure hours in cultural activities, pointing to the need for generating more opportunities for participation.

Following the survey findings, Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley launched a Creative Education Programme and a Participatory Arts Programme. While the former stimulates creative education in public elementary schools, the latter is essentially a community-based initiative to draw local residents closer to arts and culture.

Although it is widely agreed that creativity is inseparable from economic growth, Mr Kreidler noted that most people tend to focus on the "hardware" of creativity, such as building large concert halls, museums and cinemas. They often overlook the need to co-ordinate deeper, more profound social structural changes. It is important to attract creative talents, but it is equally essential to help them make the city their base on the one hand and to train local talents on the other. Hence, arts education is essential.

In their diverse approaches, the three guest speakers invariably focused on the major issue confronting the SAR administration at this very moment: How should Hong Kong position itself in the global trend towards the knowledge-driven economy? The question Mr Kreidler posed to us is worth pondering: Is Hong Kong willing to invest time and money to enhance our competitiveness in the creative industry?

Biography of the Speakers

John Eger, Van Deerlin Endowed Professor of Communications and Director of the International Center for Communication at San Diego State University, is an internationally known author and lecturer on the subjects of creativity and innovation, telecommunications and economic development. A former Advisor to two Presidents of the United States and Director of the White House Office of Telecommunications Policy (OTP), he helped spearhead the restructuring of America's telecommunications industry and initiated the development of The Pacific Telecommunications Council, an Asian Basin secretariat on telecommunications. Recently he authored the seminal "Guidebook for Smart Communities", a "How to" for communities struggling to compete in the age of the Internet; and "The Creative Community: Linking Art, Culture, Commerce and Community", a call to action to reinvent our communities for the Creative Age.

John Howkins is a leader in the global development of creative industries, specialising in personal creativity, copyright law, education and business. He is currently Chairman of ITR Limited, the Creative Business School and the Creative Group. He is Visiting Professor of Creative Industries at Lincoln University, founder of the London Intellectual Property Advisory Centre, Director of the Charter on Intellectual Property. He is advising the United Nations on the proposed International Centre for Creative Industries. His books include "Communications in China" (1982), "The Creative Economy"(2001) and "CODE: Collaboration and Ownership in the Digital Economy" (2003).

John Kreidler currently serves as Executive Director of Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley. For the two decades prior to this assignment, he worked for The San Francisco Foundation in the post of Senior Programme Executive for the Arts and Humanities. Early in his career, he worked in Washington for the United States Office of Management and Budget, where he served as a policy and budget analyst specialising in Federal government labour programmes. He has been a frequent lecturer at the Stanford University School of Business, University of San Francisco Public Management Institute, University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business, Golden Gate University Arts Administration Programme, San Francisco State University Urban Studies Programme and San Francisco Art Institute. Last year the California Arts Council presented him an award for lifetime achievement.