Creativity is not a luxury, but the engine of the economy – Interview with János Keresnyei

Have you ever thought of cultural and creative industries (CCIs) as the number one driver of economic growth? We tend to treat art and culture as a kind of “luxury” that a society can only afford when the “serious” economic sectors are already performing well. However, according to János Keresnyei , co-founder of the Creative Industries Cluster and head of the Cultural Innovation Competence Center (KIKK), the causal relationship is exactly the opposite: a rich, creative environment is what makes people more productive and the surrounding economy flourish.

János recently visited Bilbao at the invitation of the Basque District of Culture and Creativity (BDCC) for the CREMEL 2.0 International Bootcamp . In his interview with BDCC Magazine, we learned the most important lessons about building creative ecosystems, the situation in Hungary, and the revolution brought about by artificial intelligence (AI).

Three decades at the intersection of culture, technology and business

János Keresnyei has been working in the world of television, radio, audiovisual production and strategic consulting for over thirty years. Throughout his career, he has been guided by an important realization: creative practice becomes truly valuable when it can generate lasting change in the work of others.

“I have always been driven by the desire to understand – and help others understand – how cultural and creative professions actually work. There is no precise description or codification of how a theatre production or a film is put together, the value chains are rarely mapped, the processes only exist in the minds of practitioners. My task has been to transform creative and technological potential into lasting, transferable knowledge.”

This bridge-building brought the Pécs Creative Industries Cluster and the KIKK to life in the early 2000s. At that time, artists and business spoke completely different languages. The cluster was created so that creative SMEs could work together in a horizontal, value chain-based ecosystem and finally be seen as real economic players.

Copyright as the engine of the creative industry

Many people forget that the essence of creative industries is duality: they carry both cultural and economic value. According to János, the real engine of the sector is copyright and its exploitation .

If decision-makers only look at the sector from a cultural perspective, it leads to a support/subsidy logic (we protect culture but do not develop it). On the other hand, if it is managed purely on a market basis, it loses its cultural roots. Making copyright and intellectual property chains visible is the only way to manage, finance and scale creative work.

What is the situation in Hungary? On the way to a national cluster

Evaluating the domestic situation, the interview states that the past decade and a half has unfortunately been partly about missed opportunities: independent creative voices have thinned out in many places, and funding has become fragmented.

However, we are on the verge of a huge positive shift . Thanks to the significant support recently received , the scaling up of the creative industry cluster to a national level has begun in cooperation with Chambers and industry players . The goal is to build a sustainable, independent system based on the quadruple helix model, integrating the creative sector, the business world, public institutions and civil society.

Artificial Intelligence: A New Gutenberg Galaxy?

Creative professions are currently most vocal about the rise of AI. According to János Keresnyei, artificial intelligence is not a passing fad:

“On a historical scale, AI is to the creative industries what the printing press was to knowledge. In a way, it could also mean the end of the Gutenberg galaxy.”

Research conducted within the framework of the European project CREMEL 2.0 (6 countries, 12 sectors, 64 in-depth interviews) highlighted that professionals are not afraid of the technology itself, but of ethical and copyright issues, and of having to navigate this new environment completely alone (85% of them experiment alone).

Research shows that 52.7% of creative professionals are in a “competence trap”: they know AI at a basic level, but lack the deep knowledge for transformative application. That is why CREMEL 2.0 strives to keep creative professionals behind the wheel with open source, practice-oriented, sector-specific training.

A roadmap for the future: Faith, courage and openness

János Keresnyei's message is addressed to policymakers, creative creators, and project managers alike:

1. The belief: The creative industry is not a welfare reward, but the basis of economic success.

2. The challenge: AI will not wait for us. Copyright must be protected and adapted to this new technological environment.

3. The invitation: There is a European professional community thinking about the creative industries, but it is still too small. More face-to-face meetings and cross-border knowledge sharing are needed.

The power of the network lies in the collective knowledge of its members, not in the center.

Source and original article: BDCC - Janos Keresnyei Interview

What is your opinion? How does artificial intelligence affect your creative profession, and how do you think the creative industry could be better channeled into domestic economic development? Write it in the comments!