Vienna’s cash-for-creativity initiative entices entrepreneurs
VIENNA: While others in Vienna took time off this summer, Yuji Mizobuchi and Simone Springer toiled in their studio, which overflowed with boxes, tools and shoes of all shapes and sizes.
The Austrian-Japanese duo, who met at a London shoemaking college in 1999, are running “rosa mosa,” a funky footwear and accessories company, from the artsy 5th District of Vienna.
Mizobuchi, 32, and Springer, 35, are part of a growing group of energetic entrepreneurs benefiting from a Vienna funding initiative to attract, keep and develop business-savvy creative talent to a city known more for Mozart and museums than modern trends.
Since May 2004, the initiative, “departure,” has doled out \7.2 million, or $9.9 million in grants to Vienna-based companies in creative industries like fashion, design, music and multimedia.
“Were trying to contribute to the reinvention of Vienna,” the departure founder, Norbert Kettner, said in an interview.
Kettner, who described the program as the first of its kind in continental Europe, said he wanted Vienna to attract talent from Eastern Europe and elsewhere to turn the city once again into the forward-looking center for creativity and innovation that it was about 100 years ago.
“Vienna was a birthplace of Modernism at the turn of the last century,” he said, noting that creative talent was important to more than the improvement of the city atmosphere.
“Its really about reinventing the modern economy of cities,” said Kettner, who became Viennas top tourism official Sept. 1. A similar program in London, known as Creative London, is led by the mayors agency for economic development.
According to Viennas Chamber of Commerce, more than 100,000 people - not counting an unknown number of freelancers - work in the citys creative sector.
The departure initiative claims that more than 520 jobs have been created or secured since the program began.
“We focus on talent who want something,” Kettner said. “We want the people who want something,” he said, adding that there ad been a fourfold return on every euro invested by departure.
“The pop culture generation - theyre very undogmatic, they simply approach life, and thats what we want to promote and support.”
But getting a grant is competitive. Applicants have to prove that their projects reflect international trends, are competitive globally and would promote the citys economic growth. Those chosen dont get all the money at once, and financing can be revoked for a variety of reasons.
Grants vary in size and companies can receive funding for several departure programs. However, total funding per company cannot exceed \200,000 in three years. The paperwork, including a detailed business plan, often takes weeks to compile before it is reviewed by an independent panel.
Mizobuchi and Springer, who are using their \84,000 grant to work on six new collections over three years, say it was time well spent. While they say they could have managed without the extra cash, they say it has allowed them to delegate duties.
“It speeds up growth, because of course if many people are working in parallel on different things, more happens,” Springer said.
Springer and Mizobuchi moved to Salzburg from London in 2001, before relocating to Vienna in 2004. Their collections, which have been shown in Paris and Milan, are medium- to high-priced niche products made by artisans at a footwear manufacturer near Vienna.
Peter Jдger, the 38-year-old chief executive of AUTLOOK Filmsales, an agency that markets Austrian films around the world, says getting his business off the ground would have been “a very close call” without departure. He received approval for an \85,417 grant in 2005.
“For me its very clear - we couldnt have grown and stayed true to our philosophy without departure,” said Jдger, a Belgian national, adding that the grant had enabled him to hire staff.
Departure is also helping traditional companies reposition themselves to become more modern. One example is Mьhlbauer, a Vienna milliner that opened in 1903. The company is using a \73,470 departure grant to help rejuvenate its image, according to Klaus Mьhlbauer, 39, who took over the family business in 2001.
Among other things, Mьhlbauer is using the money to tap into new markets, including the United States. Mьhlbauer products are now available across the Atlantic at upscale stores like Bergdorf Goodman in New York.
“There are great things from Vienna that are still being overshadowed by Mozart and Strauss,” Mьhlbauer said.
