Skip to main content
WORTH Partnership Project
News article16 December 2019European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency

WORTH AMBASSADOR INTERVIEW: EVA LEEMET

WORTH AMBASSADOR INTERVIEW: EVA LEEMET

Meet Worth ambassador Eva Leemet. She is CEO of Creative Estonia, a creative industry development center established in 2009 to help promote and develop creative entrepreneurship in all fields of the creative economy in Estonia and Europe. Holding an MBA, she is a qualified consultant in creative entrepreneurship and has been taking part in Creative Industries sector development since 2007.

Eva currently works as a CCI expert in Georgia and Moldova. January 2020, in cooperation with a Creative Caucasus, she will be opening the first web-based accelerator program in Georgia. A program established by Creative Estonia and using 8 years knowledge in the field. Eva is globally making contacts and gathering experience across the sector to help creative businesses grow and find export channels. In her interview we will delve more into detail about the challenges and some initiatives she’s taking regarding the creative industry in Estonia and Europe.

How do you feel that your work is contributing to the progression of your countries’ creative industry and that of Europe as a whole?

I have been in CCI development since 2007. Over these years we have done lots of work in Estonia and developed all CCI ecosystem with different organisations and programs. I have been part of the first creative incubation program development and also creative centre in Tallinn.

In 2009 I started in Creative Estonia and our main aim was CCI awareness rising, boosting creative entrepreneurship and building networks. After ten years Creative Estonia has become a main contact point to everyone who is looking for information about CCI in Estonia. We are running several programs for SMEs, participating EU projects to share our knowledge, building international collaborations and giving our expertise in CCI development to the Eastern Partnership Countries.

What is the most prominent challenge affecting your countries’ creative industry and how may you suggest overcoming this?

The biggest challenge is CCI funding. Most of institutions who are developing CCI have project based funding and this is not sustainable.

The same issue is CCI SMEs. I don’t have a good recipe for this. Estonia is a small country and don’t have a history in charity or private funds that have the aim of supporting the CCI sector.

Do you feel it is important to sustain aspects of creativity in your country in regard to innovation, preservation of heritage values and ancient techniques?

These are most relevant directions in CCI development. In collaboration with other economic sectors CCI will contribute to the innovation developing new products and services, new business models etc. All start-ups in Estonia, many of them unicorn, are using design as a main tool and the results are magnificent.

Less used are heritage and ancient techniques in products development but the opportunities are mapped. Let’s hope that the rich cultural heritage will find a way to the start-ups. Spillover effect has the biggest potential to show importance of CCI in global economy

What are some current events or initiatives you have taken part in and wish to promote further, what was your involvement in these?

I just finished work in Clever project where the beneficiaries were 6 universities in Israel. I was a CCI expert and mentor in creative leadership and lifelong learning.

Currently I’m working as an CCI expert in Georgia and Moldova. January 2020 in cooperation with Creative Caucasus we are opening the first web based accelerator program in Georgia. This program was established by Creative Estonia and using our 8 years knowledge in the field.

Similar fields are covered by Creative Estonia also in Creative Ports project, which aims for CCI development and internationalisation in the Baltic Sea Region. There is one of the outputs also e-learning platform. In policy level I was invited by the European Commission to be a member of working group “Dialogue with creative industries”. The main topic is Cross-sectorial cooperation for innovation.

Details

Publication date
16 December 2019
Author
European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency
News Type
Worth News