PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The empirical potential and development is commissioned by the urban development department of the City of Winterthur, the Economic Promotion of the City and Region of Winterthur, the Office for Economic Affairs and Labor of the Canton of Zurich and the ZHAW School of Management & Law. For the first time ever information and developmental tendencies to the location Winterthur and the region as well as its partial markets of the cultural sector and creative economy are collected and analyzed. Editor of the study is the Center for Cultural Management of the ZHAW. The focus is on the spatial, employment and supply-related potential as well as the development of adequate scenarios, strategies and measures for the development of clusters of urban and regional cultural and creative industries.

In addition to the recording of statistical structural data based on the 2008 operational census, stakeholders as well as companies from the various submarkets of the cultural and creative industries in the city and region of Winterthur were surveyed by means of a quantitative online survey, six qualitative expert interviews and four focus group discussions on their working methods, experiences, opinions and assessments. A total of 99 people answered the online survey. This corresponds to a return of 12.5 percent of a total population of 789 companies, which can be seen as a good result. The results of the empirical analyzes were deepened in a cross-industry and cross-network creative workshop with 15 actors from the submarkets of design and music industry, architecture, art and performing arts. First development potentials and other ideas were tested for meaningfulness and feasibility. The project team then developed a development model, various scenarios, strategies and measures for the future development of relevant submarkets, and outlined recommendations based on a concluding SWOT analysis on potential development.

Project goals:

• Identification of the spatial, employment and supplyrelevant potentials for the development of clusters of cultural and creative industries in the city and region. of Winterthur with a view to the development of adequate strategies and measures.
• Gathering of the potential of the city and region of Winterthur, as well as the derivation of scenarios and measures which allow the relational capacity of the region to be strengthened and further developed.