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Executive summary
The key issue for global economic recovery will be the inevitable shift of production, on a far bigger scale than before, away from the Western hemisphere, and the challenge that this will present for creative thinking and innovation. The key point of departure is the conviction that all industries will have to be creative in order to survive (‘reinventing themselves’) and that the road to recovery will be digital in every possible respect, leading to new and, in many cases, as yet unknown new business models and technologies such as Web 3.0. Based on experience with the Internet so far, we can be sure that this will be disruptive in nature, and challenging to incumbents. 

The fast rise of emerging or already emerged new economies is already a fact, together with third world innovation now already visible. The Creative Track of the WCIT 2010 wants to focus on talent and creativity to meet the challenges of continuous change and prepare for a reset of our economy. Being creative is a vital competence - almost a mentality - and does not necessarily mean being ‘artistic’. Our world has become so complex that we can no longer expect the next Leonardo da Vinci to stand up. What we see and can expect to witness more and more is that the ‘Leonardos’ of the future will consist of teams and/or networks of people. This track will present the keynote speakers who are inspirers or disruptors: individuals who have turned entire industries upside down or forced them to adapt or innovate at a dazzling speed. Or people who are obvious innovators or transformers, and who have used new technologies to create and innovate. The Creative Industry track will look at four themes and issues in which these thought leaders have played a leading role. 

• Interactive TV. TV or video will remain one of the main communication channels in the modern world. But it has already moved away from classic broadcasting to the interactive web, and will continue to do so. It will be interactive and mobile.

• Serious gaming. Gaming has already shown its impact on the media and entertainment industry. Serious gaming will have a major impact on education and training, from boardrooms to battlefields. The next generation will be the Game Generation.

• Transformative design. Organic design and cooperative design have become accepted ways of transforming society. The Tata Nano mobile is a good example of how design can follow social needs and reinvent a whole industry. 

• Travel and IT. Rich business, cultural and localised information can now be made available to travellers instantly and will transform tourism and travelling, merging the real tourist world with the virtual tourist world.

In addition to the four themes, the creative track will offer an innovation round-up by asking prominent speakers in the field of innovation to present insights and ideas from the conference in an executive summary at the end of the WCIT. A number of excellent students will be asked to do the same, with the emphasis on what they think the future holds for them.

Student track: Involving the entrepreneurs and thought leaders of tomorrow is essential if the challenges of change are to succeed across generations. The track will also offer a programme for a selected group of students who will follow their own selection from the WCIT program and report back with fresh insights, innovations and observations.

Track introduction
The role of IT in the creative industries is perhaps more dramatic than in many other industries. IT plays a decisive role in innovation, development, design, project management and trade in creative industry. Digitalisation has transformed the music industry and is putting pressure on the advertising world. Production methods have become household appliances and distribution is instantaneous and without incremental costs. Established regimes such as international laws on copyright and intellectual property face continual challenges. Newspapers are gasping for breath and today, once passive audiences are making their own TV programs. Millions of people are meeting online to play games, exchange music, share their lives and look at each others’ pictures of everything imaginable. Information is available in quantities that seem unimaginably vast and are still expanding at a dazzling speed. One thing is clear: the media have intruded into people’s lives in an unprecedented way; we live and breathe media and information. In many cases, is still unclear how money will be made in the future. The track also looks at the boundaries between science and creativity and how ‘creative people and artists’ cross those boundaries.

Another important role for IT is the connection it makes between consumers, markets and cultures. For the first time in human history, talent and ideas can reach millions of people in a flash. This demands enormous flexibility and creativity of the people working or wanting to work in the many facets of the creative industry - or in any industry, for that matter. It is this creativity and readiness to change and adapt that can help to solve the world’s major problems. In the creative industry, the ‘global village’ is a reality, but in many sectors we are still working in the old paradigm and struggling with old political mechanisms and industrial conglomerates.

It’s becoming clear that the new digital society requires a new approach. The Creative Track will focus on four themes that are exemplary for the influence of IT and new technology, thus providing examples of how this industry has had to adapt and innovate. Their relevance for the WCIT is the creative way in which solutions are found and implemented. The driving and underlying theme for this track is the obvious mathematics of the digital road to discovery: ‘if you can’t divide and share, you can’t multiply and grow’. The fastest growing companies are again the Internet-based companies, using the strength of the Internet to collect information and ideas, to transform these into products and services and to approach a global customer base. The Internet in itself has a ‘democratizing’ effect that needs further exploration, with or without governmental assistance.

Solutions
It would be too presumptuous to attempt to discuss and offer solutions across the track. Worldwide, universities, laboratories and companies are struggling to keep up with the pace of developments. The Creative Track will explore the gap in design and innovation, commonly known as the ‘Valley of Death’.The complexity of the modern world means that problems can no longer be solved from one angle only. Research alone is no longer enough. Craftsmanship needs to become a part of all processes. We need to ask the question ‘how do we make it?’ and we need to look at radical new forms of innovation and development. The basic approach for the Creative Track will be dual perspectives, opposing conflicting methods, opinions and paradigms, in the strong conviction that bridging the gap between need and talent calls for an unconventional approach, involvement of both the ‘right and left brain’ and the formulation of concepts that will mobilize the world’s finest talents to take part in creating a better, safer, and opportunity-rich world.

The creative industries encompass a vast array of different segments (concepts, products, services). Most of them have been totally reengineered as a result of the information revolution, with Web 2.0 as its most recent hallmark. Looking at this changing role and the position of the creative and cultural industries and gaming, we must ask what we can expect of these multidisciplinary industries.

Interactivity and the use of television can solve many problems in the educational area but also boost commerce by breaking down barriers and giving the end-user control. Companies, institutions, developers and users should co-create new uses and applications. Best practices can be found in the Netherlands (Big Brother) and the UK (BBC). Comments from Sony CEO Howard Stringer indicate that the company is about to take a big plunge into 3-D home entertainment. Such a development would require a push not only from electronics manufacturers, but also from content producers. However, with the use of active rather than passive 3-D technology, as well as digital broadcasting, the jump to 3-D may not be too far away. The same, but on a far larger scale, holds true for serious gaming, the emerging platform for lifelong learning and training, with a user base extending from the boardroom to the battlefield. This industry will revolutionize the traditional publishing and entertainment industries, and the educational publishing industry, in one fell swoop. Parties affected and/or involved should work on solutions that will provide growth for this industry and seek alliances between science, education and industry. The track will demonstrate the close collaboration between the Armed Forces, applied sciences and the defence industry. Amsterdam is a leading location for best practices, but the developments in the US are also still important. Design is the basis of many high-tech industries and the transforming power of design must be used to create new markets. Apple is a good example of a design-driven company. Design is also transforming traditional working methods in architecture, for example in the work of Santiago Calatrava. It is obvious that links with many of the other tracks are possible. Looking at the four themes, the following tracks would offer interesting links: Cyber Security and Safety; Sharing Space, e-Health and Mobility and e-Government. 

European component
Europe, with its diverse cultures and languages, has much to gain from the next wave in IT, new technologies and the advent of Web 3.0, the human web. Through the right IT applications in combination with widespread broadband technology, the EU can advance the inclusion of the citizens of all member states and thus further the single market from the bottom up. By intensifying its efforts in the field of IT, the EU could take the lead in serious gaming. Three European cities, Berlin, London and Amsterdam, are already hotspots for this important branch of the gaming industry.  Europe, with its very varied public and private TV industry can help advance this industry by access to interactivity across Europe. If Europe wants to stay ahead in design and innovation, it needs to give this aspect of industry a new incentive that goes beyond its present state. Innovative and design-oriented thinking, based on shared IT platforms, will enable new experiments that lead to new business. Needless to say, Europe’s vast tourism market can benefit enormously from the developments in the fields of IT and travel. Integration of these four themes in the roadmap will point the way for numerous companies and institutions and will give a major boost to high quality employment. 

Conclusion
The Creative track of the WCIT 2010 wants to focus on the mobilization of talent and creativity to meet the challenges of continual change and prepare for the digital road to recovery. It aims to reach out to those parts of the world where the challenges loom largest and where the need for change is greatest. Because of its traditional focus on markets and people’s needs, the creative industry is adequately placed to bring a new voice to old but nonetheless pressing problems. The creative industry has always worked with three major questions: ‘can we make it, what does it deliver and for whom do we do it?’. A fourth major question has come to join these: ‘is it applicable and/ or sustainable?’ The aim of the track organizers is to link global issues to new technological possibilities such as the Internet and to discuss whether new directions and new, more ‘global’ policies are possible in order to create new solutions. The themes offer opportunities to connect people ‘in need’ directly with people ‘with solutions’. Solutions invented here and now can be used ‘over there’ and increasingly, vice versa. The Nano car developed in India by Tata serves as a good example of creative thinking for people in need. Its design, aimed at the Indian market, will transform mobility and may offer solutions for urban transport problems in the West.