Even at Knowledge Capital, we are faced with situations where it is impossible to proceed with exchanges and joint projects with international partners that have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with us.
It’s times like this when it is particularly important to strengthen ties with our partners and create collaborative projects looking ahead to a post-Covid world.
Therefore, we held an online summit, starting at 3:00PM Japan time on Tuesday, May 19 and lasting two hours, in which representatives from each institution gathered via a web-based conference system and exchanged ideas and opinions. This was called the Asia Creative & Innovation Summit.
Knowledge Capital has 16 partner institutions around the world, with eight of them located in five countries and regions in Asia. When we reached out to them, they all responded immediately with announcements to participate. In all, 11 representatives and 11 observers attended for a total of 22 participants.
*For more information about Knowledge Capital’s international partners, please see here.
The summit being held online
At the start, Mr. Takuya Nomura, General Producer of Knowledge Capital, announced the purpose of the summit. Following that, representatives from each institution provided information on countermeasures and new initiatives in the fight against Covid-19.
Knowledge Capital's international partners include government agencies and public entities as well as private companies that carry out efforts in urban development. Among these partners, some operate facilities such as science centers, commercial facilities, and institutions that provide platforms for startup support. These partners operate in a wide range of fields such as art, technology, innovation, and design.
Hearing the latest information on the various initiatives being undertaken by each of the institutions was very interesting, and I think it also served as a stimulus to the participants.
The Asia Culture Institute, based in Gwangju, South Korea, opened "Channel ACC", on which it publishes archived videos of cultural events and other content online, on April 1.
In Thailand, a public-sector Creative Economy Agency is supporting the activities of small- and medium-sized enterprises by offering free online marketing support.
In Taiwan, under the guidance of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Taiwan Design Research Institute is openly accepting submissions for design works related to Covid-19 countermeasures through its “Golden Pin Design Award”.
In the latter half of the summit, Knowledge Capital proposed the joint opening of an online channel dedicated to the live distribution of various forms of content and information relating to creativity and innovation throughout the world.
The people in charge of the channel have already begun making preparations, with the goal of opening it this summer. We will let you know the details as soon as they are finalized.
Since there were no mutual exchanges among the eight partners that participated this time, hopefully this summit that Knowledge Capital put together will serve as a catalyst for creating new and more expansive exchange networks.
Stay tuned for further updates about the preparation of the online channel as well as Knowledge Capital's international partnership projects!
