ICHEC Culture and Creative Hub

Trace - supporting the transition of SMEs toward a European circular tourism ecosystem.

MC-Credex is an experimental policy project for developing micro-credentials in the cultural and creative sectors, enhancing access to lifelong learning and skills recognition.

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Happening is a European incubator for young, committed artists and creatives.

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beCulTour - exploring regenerative and place-based approaches to cultural tourism.

CLIC - developing circular models to optimize investments in the adaptive reuse of cultural heritage.

The European Skills Agenda, introduced by the European Commission in 2020, aims to enhance sustainable competitiveness, social equity, and resilience within the EU through ambitious upskilling and reskilling objectives. With 12 actionable initiatives, the agenda emphasizes collaboration with Member States, enterprises, and social stakeholders to foster a culture of lifelong learning and democratize access to training opportunities across diverse geographical regions. As part of the EUs response to tackle current challenges, the Pact for Skills was launched in 2020 as the first flagship action of the European Skills Agenda. By 2030, the EU aims to have at least 60% of adults participating in training every year. The Pact for Skills brings together public and private organisations to upskill and reskill people of working age, so that they can thrive in the labour market and society.

According to the New European Industrial Strategy European Industrial Strategy , the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs) are among the 14 key industrial ecosystems driving growth, prosperity, and supporting the green and digital transition. As such, upskilling the European creative workforce is a crucial component of these efforts. These initiatives are organized in a bottom-up approach known as the Large-Scale Skills Partnership (LSP).

The Large-Scale Skills Partnership for the Cultural and Creative Industries (hereinafter, LSP) or

Creative Pact for Skills  is the main pillar of the coordination and cohabitation for European CCIs

sectors skills ecosystem. The ecosystem concept covers both the commercial (industry) and non-commercial cultural and creative sectors, as well as cultural and creative areas of other sectors (e g.

education).  The Haute École ICHEC - ECAM – ISFSC is a signatory for the Pact for Skills and more specifically is an active member of the Creative Pact for Skills in the entrepreneurial skills working group.

The Difference that Makes the Difference

Europe’s future depends on creative skills – the capacity to imagine alternatives, experiment with new solutions, and respond to uncertainty. Creative skills are increasingly recognised as essential for navigating complexity, adapting to transformation, and strengthening democratic governance through collective actions.

Such skills are developed, tested, and shared through the Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries (CCSI). Here cultural practice, creative collaboration, and artistic experimentation shape how societies question assumptions, confront power, exercise freedom, and imagine alternative futures.

Creative Skills Week 2026 (CSW2026) is bringing together Europe’s CCSI, policymakers, educators, and industry leaders in Brussels at a time when democracy, technological sovereignty, and social cohesion are under pressure to ask: how can we harness and target the transformative power of creative skills for wider societal challenges?

At the centre of CSW2026 is the concept of creative confidence – the capacity to turn creative thinking into action, to bring together forms of expertise conventionally kept apart. This enables individuals and organisations to thrive on collaboration and inclusivity, prototype new models of thinking and action, and develop innovative approaches to familiar challenges. By embedding creative skills into professional development strategies, we can ensure that organisations have the confidence to tackle challenges, experiment, and thrive in an era of rapid change.

While these skills are deeply rooted in cultural practice, their relevance extends far beyond the CCSI. Within the sector, they already drive innovation, shape narratives, and generate new forms of collaboration across disciplines and borders.

Across the wider economy and society, they increasingly contribute to innovation and problem-solving across sectors – from education and digital governance to health systems, human resources, and data-driven organisations.

CSW2026 moves beyond internal sector dialogue to build strategic alliances across policy and practice domains. Through high-level debates, case studies, and cross-sector showcases, the event demonstrates how creative skills operate in practice and why they represent a different perspective, one that reframes challenges, connects ecosystems, and shapes Europe’s capacity to act.

This edition also marks a key milestone for the CYANOTYPES project, co-organiser of CSW2026, featuring a showcase of its pilots – real-life implementations of the CYANOTYPES Framework – alongside the project’s policy recommendations.

Creative Skills Week 2026 is co-organised by EIT Culture and Creativity, CYANOTYPES and Creative Futures Academy, in collaboration with the Creative Pact for Skills, CREDEX and the GreenCCIrcle project.

The event is kindly co-hosted by ICHEC Brussels Management School and LUCA School of Arts, and is curated by ELIA.

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Furio BARONCELLI is a project officer for YONDERS in charge of administration, coordination and communication. Recently graduated from ICHEC Brussels Management School, Furio has specialised in cultural entrepreneurship with a particular attention to non-profits. He is active Inside the audiovisual sector and the music industry as the manager of the non-profit SUSSOL where he focuses on supporting emerging artists and fostering cultural initiatives within the Brussels music scene.

Nathalie Courville is an associate professor at the Chair in Arts Management at HEC Montréal, where she teaches communication, marketing, and arts and culture funding. She is a lecturer in the Graduate Diploma and master’s programs in Cultural Organization Management and in the prestigious master’s in international arts management. She also teaches in the master’s program in International Communication at Université de Sherbrooke, a dual-degree program offered in collaboration with UCL in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. In Europe, she shares her expertise as a cultural engineering expert and visiting professor at the IHECS Academy and ICHEC in Brussels. As a practitioner at ArtExpert and associated professor in the Chair of Arts Management at HEC-Montreal, she embodies the perfect blend of practice and teaching, offering an inspiring model for skill development and the promotion of entrepreneurship in the cultural sector.

Philippe Drouillon is a senior expert in sustainable, agile and impactful business. He is catalyst of Agile & Participatory Positive Impact Teams, Organizations & Territories | B Leader. He aims to catalyse agility, participation and positive impacts at the level of teams, organizations and territories. To do so, his areas of intervention are focused on: sustainable and positive impact business models, collective intelligence and group dynamics, participatory and agile ways of working, design thinking & lean startup, breakthrough and continuous innovation and multi-stakeholders’ cooperative practices.

Philippe is key instructor in ICHEC’s continuing education program.

Karen El Haddad holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design with a Minor in theatre from the American University of Beirut and a master’s in media and information design from LUCA School of Arts (Brussels). She has been a theatre practitioner since 2015 in Lebanon and subsequently in Belgium. Her artistic practice spans directing, dramaturgical assistance, collaborative storytelling, production coordination, and touring support, providing first-hand understanding of the creative, organisational and material conditions that structure live performance. She is co founder of Mirsat, an initiative supporting the production, circulation and visibility of performing artists from Arabic-speaking diasporic contexts in Europe.

Laurence Lievens is committed to the field of entrepreneurial education in Belgium and on the African continent. Director of Step2you since 2004, she leads this community service unit of ICHEC, dedicated to stimulating the entrepreneurial spirit among young people through innovative educational tools and teacher training. Coming from a family of teachers, Laurence has always been driven by the desire to contribute to education in connection with human development. A graduate of ICHEC in commercial and consular sciences. Her guiding principle: co-creation and connecting with others. She has designed and developed programs such as Cap’Ten, Cap’ado, and Dream+, which have reached tens of thousands of students in Belgium and abroad, and has participated in European and international projects in Burkina Faso, Benin, Cameroon, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. She is passionate about creativity, art, ethics, sustainable development, and North-South cooperation.

Prof. dr. Christian Ost is a senior expert in heritage economics. Graduated from the UC Louvain (Ph.D. in Economics), Georgetown University (Master of Arts in Economics) and the University of Geneva (European Studies). He is President of the Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation (KU Leuven) and former Dean of ICHEC. His academic expertise covers business cycle theory, and cultural economics. He has been developing the field of cultural economics since the 1980s, under the initiative of late Professor Raymond Lemaire. His involvement in cultural economics covers such topics as economic values assessment, decision-making tools, innovative sustainable business models, cultural tourism, economics of conservation of tangible and intangible heritage, urban economics, historic urban landscape, sustainable tourism, non-profit management and arts management, public cultural and tourism policies

dr. Ruba Saleh is a senior lecturer and researcher at ICHEC Brussels Management School. She is an architect and urban planner by training. Her work is dedicated to the intersection of cultural heritage, economics, and cultural entrepreneurship. Her research and European projects investigate cultural entrepreneurship and circular practices in the cultural and creative industries. She is passionate about fostering participatory and co-design processes that bring new ideas to life and developing lifelong learning trainings for cultural and creative professionals. In addition to her role as head of department and lecturer she is an experienced mentor and educator. She manages C-SHIP (Cultural Entrepreneurship) professional training program at ICHEC, where she directly mentors a new generation of cultural entrepreneurs. She is currently leading the Working Group on entrepreneurial skills of the Creative Pact for Skills and represents ICHEC in a number of European projects.