The Munich Creative Business Week underlines Munich's role as a location for culture and creativity. This took place in 2019 from March 9th to the 17th.
As much as straightforward design, free of superfluous ballast, is perfectly natural nowadays, 100 years ago, when the "Staatliches Bauhaus" was founded in Weimar, such ideas were revolutionary. The centenary of this world-famous progressive school, whose ideas continue to be a strong influence today, is one of the major topics of the programme of the 8th Munich Creative Business Week.
The MCBW FORUM, as a meeting point and location for Germany's largest design event, is situated very centrally in the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF München) in Munich's Kunstareal (art district) with its many museums. So when MCBW visitors want to see Bauhaus design icons, all they have to do is cross over the road: diagonally opposite lies the Pinakothek der Moderne, which houses "Die Neue Sammlung", established in 1925. Considered as one of the first design museums, Die Neue Sammlung had the farsightedness to acquire contemporary Bauhaus works, so that today it possesses an exquisite collection of Bauhaus objects. An anniversary exhibition is showing 40 of the major pieces until February 2020.
In 2019 the MCBW is running under the motto of "Design connects!" and the main theme is artificial intelligence and robotics. The program with over 200 events addresses various target groups: with conferences and workshops, "CREATE BUSINESS!" provides experts the opportunity to exchange ideas and network. The purpose of the exhibitions and events of "DESIGN SCHAU!" is to awaken the broader public's desire for innovative design. The event locations are spread across Munich and its partner regions. The palette ranges from artist's studios to enterprises and universities through to museums.
The University of Television and Film Munich with its cinema auditoriums naturally encourages the link between the medium of film and the topic of design. Highlights of the MCBW DESIGNKINO will be, for instance, the documentary entitled "Vom Bauen der Zukunft – 100 Jahre Bauhaus" (Bauhaus Spirit: 100 Years of Bauhaus) and the film "Konstantin Grcic – Design is Work". For fashion enthusiasts the documentary on the British fashion designer Alexander McQueen is an absolute must.
A central concern of the MCBW, organised by bayern design GmbH, the competence centre for design of the Free State of Bavaria, is the promotion of start-ups as an investment in the future. The MCBW START UP is thus a platform for bringing together enterprises, investors and design-oriented start-ups, as well as for providing further training and information events.
For the first time in Germany, a start-up MOONSHOT will be held during the MCBW, for which start-ups that are in an early stage of development can apply. A project with economic potential and social relevance will be selected and turned into a marketable enterprise within 72 hours with the assistance of a project team of over 100 experts. The project will then be presented to investors and the general public.
Public and private initiatives in Munich have committed to promoting young talent and promising business ideas, above all the two universities of excellence – the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) – with their start-up centres, and the City of Munich, which keeps its own competence team for Munich's cultural and creative minds to provide free consulting and networking events, for example.
In a boomtown like Munich the question of space is dominant. Creative solutions are provided in temporary usages by the POPUP Academy in the Neuhauser Strasse, for example, or coworking spaces as made available by smartvillage, the MCBW location partner.
Steelcase, the office furniture manufacturer, one of the premium partners of the MCBW 2019, opened its second Learning + Innovation Center in the world in the centre of Munich in 2017. It covers an area of 14,400 m2. Here the company let its experience flow into the design of efficient work environments to create an atmosphere that encourages the 230+ employees from 21 countries to meet up and mutually inspire each other. The choice of Munich was clear. The city is an aspiring design location with a unique meld of large, internationally renowned companies, medium-sized businesses and small start-ups.
The location decision of Steelcase and events such as the Munich Creative Business Week emphasise Munich's extraordinary success as the place to be for cultural and creative industries. The city's strength – and unique attribute – lies in the broad mix of sectors ranging from the book, art, press and advertising markets to the music, design and broadcasting industries through to performing arts, architecture, and the software and games industry. Munich is Germany's leader in the film industry and in the book, art, and advertising markets. And when it comes to design and music, Munich is also right up there at the front.
Also interesting: We talked to Sabine Unger, the MCBW's director, about the up-and-coming talents of Munich design: Out of the way...that spotlight's mine