This Technical Deep Dive (TDD) provided a platform for knowledge exchange and structured learning among development practitioners and city managers/governments on how to enable cultural and creative activities (CCA) for inclusive economic development, and how to leverage them to improve urban development and quality of life for urban residents and visitors. Cities with successful approaches to leveraging creativity are those which strive to improve their ecosystem through improving or enabling to improve: (i) institutions and regulations; (ii) infrastructure, land and urban spaces; (iii) people – skills and innovation; (iv) enterprise support; and (v) creative and cultural capital. Through the TDD, participants visited/learned from the cases of Kyoto and Tokyo – cities with rich heritage, creative activities, and offer different models of how local stakeholders have made these cities the creative cities they are today. They also learned from each other’s experiences and those of a variety of cities from Japan, South Korea (Seoul) and other regions of the world. The TDD was organized in partnership with UNESCO whose Creative Cities Network includes several Japanese cities.
