European Association of Creativity & Innovation (EACI)

Note from the president

Since 1993 EACI organizes the bi-annual European Conference on Creativity & Innovation (ECCI). Since 2014 EACI provided a track at ISPIM, a conference on Innovation. It was 2011 EACI organized its own conference. It is now time for the next.

Creativity & innovation are of top priority

EACI was formed as a network by enthusiasts in 1986. At the end of the ‘80 and the beginning of the ’90 of the previous century, the focus in business was on efficiency and professionalization. A time of cutting costs and a time of Excel sheets. The need for a platform that would explore and stimulate creativity and innovation across Europa was obvious.

Around thirty years later EACI finds itself in a context in which creativity is mentioned as 3rd most important skill for Future Jobs by World Economic Forum. Innovation is a top priority of businesses. In times of digitization and climate change also governments feel the urgency to innovate. As creativity and innovation became so important, the question arises: is there still a need for EACI?

Yes! Now more than ever. We need to rise above our disciplines! Not multidisciplinary, not interdisciplinary but trans-disciplinary. We need to reunite theory and practice.

Reuniting theory and practice

Nowadays, academics need to write valorization paragraphs in their research proposals to demonstrate what their research can do for society. Practitioners need to prove that what they do is scientifically supported or else others don’t believe what they do is good. These are fixes to the wrong problem. The problem is the disconnection between researchers and practitioners. As our worlds grew apart we began to miss each others’ perspectives.

I think it is up to us to get them back together. We can do that by getting together ourselves. EACI, with Connect2Create, wants to take the next step in restoring that connection.

I hope to see you in Delft next November to participate in an event unlike any you have been to before. We will put our money where our mouth is, and put together a program that truly unites creativity and innovation practitioners & researchers. And yes, there will be parties as well.

I invite you to engage in this mission, as a researcher and/or practitioner. Let’s connect and create!

The time is now.

Willemijn Brouwer

President EACI