Jan 19 - The ERASMUS+ project Creative Industries Global Network was presented as example of good practice at the Vleva EU-funding session for the Creative Industry on January 19^th in Brussels.
This session was organized to inform interested parties in some current funding possibilities for creative industries.

Nov 3-4 - Tommie Nyström presented the CIGN project at the GrafKOM conference in Malmö (Sweden). GrafKOM gathers everyone interested in graphic communications. The members range from the largest graphic companies to smaller print shops, copy shops, CRDs, graphic schools and educators, suppliers and more. Today GrafKOM has about 100 members.
At the GrafKOM flagship event I/O everyone who wants is encouraged to tell and share experiences and ideas about what drives the industry forward.

Jul 5-10 - The CIGN project presented their findings at the International Conference for Graphic Communication Educators at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, USA.
In two presentations the CIGN partners informed the scientific community about their research on skills identification/skills gap in the first year of the project. "We received much spontaneous, extremely positive feedback and established a number of new promising contacts. The circle of support for the CIGN project grew significantly." commented Luk Bouters his presentation.

Jun 25 - The CIGN benchmarking project and specifically the outcome of the meeting held with representatives of the creative industries of Flanders on April 23rd were reflected in a Belgian professional magazine. A copy of the article (in Flemish) can be downloaded here.

Apr 23 - On April 23rd a meeting took place in Ghent (Belgium) bringing representatives from various umbrella organisations, federations, sector councils, media companies and other major players in the Creative Industries to the campus of the University College Artevelde. The main topic of the discussion was a note prepared by the UWS itemizing a number a possible future competences for the Creative Industry. Participants were asked to prioritize and share their top three. A list was then drawn up and the top four competences were than further discussed and qualified in terms of behavioural characteristics and performance indicators related to the work environment of future media professionals.
This was the first meeting of this kind in Flanders and was well received by the participants.
A report with the major findings will be drawn up and made available. Participants expressed the hope that meetings of this kind could happen on a more structural level and would include representations from other universities and relevant players in marketing and communication management.

Apr 23 - The CIGN project will give an update on its status at the Annual Conference of EGIN in Zagreb (Croatia) on 23-24 April

Apr 23 - CIGN has completed its first research report: Identification of skills gaps in cross-media production in the creative industries. This report describes the transformation of the skills portfolio as the media design and production sector evolved into the creative industries. The emergence and functioning of sector councils in Europe highlight this. These councils are a means to come to a more structural and concerted approach in assessing skills needs involving all of the relevant stakeholders. Special attention will be given to the latest and most relevant EU-policy and research papers related to media design and production. The document can be downloaded from this website.

Feb 15 - Tommie Nyström presented CIGN at a conference in Stockholm hosted by The Swedish Graphic Companies' Federation. The topic of the conference was Dialogue about the Future. Attending was people from area of education. The participants were mainly from the education sector. The conference was in the context of Sign & Print Scandinavia, the largest graphic exhibition in Sweden for over ten years.

Feb 15 - Meeting with the Swedish advisory board.
From left to right: Jessica Bjurström (The Swedish Association of Communication Agencies), Ola Karlsson (GRAFKOM) and Tommie Nyström (Linköping University)

Nov 14 - A three-day workshop focussing on didactics, methodologies and implementation of blended and e-learning courses organized by the CIGN project take place as part of the International Week at Hochschule der Medien. The workshop was well attended not only by staff members of the project partners, but also by attendees of the International Week.

Nov 14 - Luk Bouters, Tommie Nyström and Robert Sutter attending the International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation in Seville, Spain. They presented the CIGN project to representatives from politics, research and education.

Oct 14 - The project coordinator Tommie Nyström met guests from Estonia for a visit to discuss various opportunities to contribute to the project and to discuss possible ways to disseminate the results. It was Eva Leemet, CEO of Creative Estonia and Enn Kerner from Trykitehno.

According to Research Infosource Inc. Ryerson University, one of the partners in the CIGN project, is named the top undergraduate research university of the year according to the annual ranking of Canada's Top 50 Research Universities.
Research Infosource has designated three institutions as Research Universities of the Year 2014 in their respective categories: University of Toronto (Medical/Doctoral), University of Waterloo Comprehensive) and Ryerson University(Undergraduate). These institutions stood out on a balanced scorecard of research input and output/impact measures.