Good turnout at our Cultural Soup

The Cultural Council of North East Iceland hosted a Creative Exchange called ‘Cultural Soup’  in cooperation with Akureyri Cultural and Marketing Office. The event took place at Hotel KEA, Akureyri on Thursday 17 November.

The main topics were networking through a creative momentum project and crowdfunding through Karolina Fund. The importance of networking was the recurring theme throughout the event.

a creative momentum project was introduced with emphasis on networking opportunities and the new MyCreativeEdge website. Guest were encouraged to check out the website and make their profiles. Also they were encouraged to monitor events, with more Creative Exchanges coming up and Creative Hotspots.

Anna Olafsdottir – Filmmaker at NyArk Media – who participated in Digital DNA Creative Hotspot shared her experience and the events of her trip to Northern Ireland. The highlights of the events were the networking opportunities and that creatives in the peripheral regions have more possibilities to carry out interesting projects, as well as the fact that collaboration is a great way to make things happen.

Hjordis Erna – Project Manager at Karolina Fund – told the story of the fund, how it came to existence and why. The fund started with a brilliant idea and determination but no funds and has grown into a successful crowdfunding platform that aims to help small entities to fund their projects. She introduced the website and what kind of projects they help fund. Projects have to be creative, innovative and add something to the world as she said. How they are presented is the key to success and they offer guidance through the whole process.

Maria Dyrfjörd from Cuddle-Me Clothes, a small family business that creates infant clothes, said if she would be starting over again she would always use this way of funding. She said they got great guidance from the fund that helped in making a successul project. They did have to put a lot of effort in it, all promotion material was well produced and they used their network to promote it, as well as using ways the fund suggested.

Musician Hilda Örvars was also quite happy that she chose this way of funding her Christmas album. She thought the process was a learning experience as well as being encouraging. All the material for the crowdfunding was well produced and presented. After using this way of funding she has established a network with other musicians in North East Iceland who have also experience of successful crowdfunding through Karolina Fund.