Innovation and Creativity in the Hands of the Young

How can we support the Creativity and Innovative Power of the Young?

—With particular emphasis on how we design our educational systems in order to make this happen

The conference was a contribution to the European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009 from the Icelandic Presidency of the Nordic Council. We here present essential messages from this conference.

The three-day conference had 250 participants ranging from young people to industry and academia representatives as well as policy makers. There were presentations from scientists with expert knowledge on schools as a framework for developing innovation andcreativity, and from businesspeople engaged in creating the right framework for innovation in a business context.

The conference was organized with dynamic dialogue within facilitated processes and with built-in performances.

The young students and creative performers from the Nordic countries were invited and put all their talents to good use—as moderators,performers and reflective dialogue partners. And their voices were heard.