The European Cultural & Creative Industries Summit is a high profile annual event bringing together over 300 key stakeholders from the public, private and NGO sectors around Europe to agree what policy, strategy and future collaboration the EU and  national Governments need to allow the Cultural and Creative Industries sector to take advantage of the ‘Digital Shift’.

The Digital Shift: Digitisation was the technological innovation of the 20th Century. It is increasingly apparent that the digital world is a key social and economic innovator at the beginning of 21st century. This so-called ‘digital shift’ has become a reality, changing our daily lives and not just our communication habits. The process of Digitisation is both making and destroying  markets – especially in the cultural and creative industry sector – firstly within the music industry and now increasingly in the film and publishing industries as Google starts to digitize books for the first time.

How then can we protect the survival of the cultural sector in an increasingly digital market? The traditional market for cultural services and products seems to be slowly disappearing. At the same time new digital markets are not yet profitable or invented. For the future of the cultural and creative industries it will be vital to establish a digital world that is profitable and at the same time suitable for creative ideas and products. The survival of culture products in a media dominated society is therefore key. This responsibility lies not just with leading top end digital industries, but with those at the heart of the creative and cultural sector. The Digital Shift in Creative Markets needs to be a key part of the agenda for European Policy in 2009.