Hanoi, “the city of peace” proudly became the host for the wildly controversial peace talk between North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and United States’ Donald Trump. Holding this title for almost 20 years, we thought of the question “Should we be known of something else” in Mrs. Ghissia Hauser’s class: Collaborative projects and open innovation.
Our speaker “Thuy”, a representation from the local UNESCO chapter came to address us the problem of city planning. During the struggle for growth and future cooperation with the Hanoi People Committee, a branding professional was invited from Britain to investigate on the issue. Through his findings, a simple and achievable method is to improve the city with creativity. Stemming from the involvements of UNESCO’s support for changes and creativity hub program throughout different regions in Vietnam. At the same time, we were also honored to welcome the director of VICAS art studio, a direct project for creativity from the public sector to understand more of the situation in the industry. A proposal to join UNESCO Creative Cities Network was made.
Though, little to none financial rewards can be gained via this program, Hanoi will now be available to more and more opportunities of marketing, sharing information and learning management programs with other cities.
Afterall, the idea of a city of creativity is still a farfetched plan. A more detailed and collaborative roadmap with the local government is always a must in order for the augmentation to be realized.
However, as a Student of innovation, we will always believe in the future of a creative city which can be known with others countries.
In MPIE Program, we have chances to meet representatives from UNESCO to listen and share about Open Innovation. From their introduction of Hanoi Creative Network, we started to make a quick search on Google and we found out Creative Lab by Up.
Creative Lab by Up is a coworking space right in the heart of Hanoi – Home for the youth who are passionate about start-ups and technology.
In Vietnam, coworking space is a popular concept. However, there are few spaces with modern equipment and machinery for creative community.
Hanoi Creative Lab meets these needs. It is an open innovation place for artists, designers, enterprises and the young. In Hanoi Creative Lab, customers can exchange, share ideas, develop new products in an innovative environment.
The creative space Creative Lab by UP was opened on June 25 in Hanoi Creative City, 1 Luong Yen street, Hai Ba Trung district in Hanoi. It is the product of cooperation among UP Co-working Space, Hanoi Creative City, and University of Engineering and Technology (Vietnam National University).
Hanoi Creative Lab provides visitors with high-tech equiments such as sewing machines, 3D printing machines, electronic machines, and automation machines. Therefore, visitors can feel free to create and build their own products.
The Lab has a total of 6 main areas: Electricity, Mechanical, Prototype, Wood, Sewing Factory and other Design areas, serving for different customer segments. It is a wonderful place for your project to make a prototype, test it and receive advices from experts in Hanoi Creative Lab.
With 500m2 area, Hanoi Creative Lab is a great place to generate new ideas, create new products and develop new partners. Many groups and individuals have come here to build and develop their own project.
CÀ PHÊ THỨ BẢY – Saturday Coffee, a culture space located in Ngo Quyen district in Hanoi was opened in 2014 by cooperation of a Vietnamese famous musician – Duong Thu and Chairman of Trung Nguyen Corporation – Dang Le Nguyen Vu.
This Culture Space comes up from the desire of a “quintessential Vietnam” of Duong Thu and aspiration of a “mighty Vietnam” of Trung Nguyen Chairman. Saturday Coffee is an ideal rendezvous for coffee lovers and a special and meaningful cultural hub for artists and art lovers.
Vietnam is one of the leading coffee exporters in the world. Trung Nguyen is a famous brand of coffee in Vietnam and through many years, this Corporation has been trying to promote Vietnamese coffee over the world. Thus, coming to Saturday Coffee, it is not only drinking coffee, it offers you a way of enjoying Vietnamese coffee culture. Vietnamese coffee culture is unique and has characteristics that distinguish it from other coffees and brewing methods. The authentic Vietnamese café-style is phin coffee.
Generally the coffee is served while it is still brewing. Coarsely ground beans are put into a drip filter (called a phin) which sits on top of the cup, hot water is added to the phin, and then the coffee slowly trickles through into the cup. The filter makes one cup of exquisitely-brewed coffee and is the ideal way to enjoy coffee. While waiting for coffee drops into the cup, you can enjoy its aromatic, charming and attractive smelling. If you are rushing, you are not patient enough, you will never have chance to truly enjoy phin café. The taste of Vietnamese coffee is a unique thing that makes Vietnamese coffee different from other countries in the world. At first, it may be bitter, may be strange, but then, the bitterness becomes sweet, the strange becomes familiar. Imagine how great it is when sitting in a cozy room and enjoying a hot aromatic coffee cup in the cold of autumn and winter season.
Saturday Coffee is also an interesting cultural exchange space for artists and art lovers. There are regular talk shows and workshops about art, music, movie, books and writing, architecture, cinema,… which attracts many people including scientists, writers, journalists, entrepreneurs coming for sharing and learning.
Musician Duong Thu is a big name in Vietnamese music village, who gives inspiration for many young musicians and singers in Vietnam. Under his leading, Saturday Coffee has been a favorable environment for creators and creative people, where they can connect with each other, gain more knowledge, enjoy healthy entertainment through high quality activities. People can go to Saturday Coffee to enjoy classical songs of Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin,… People can go to Saturday Coffee to share their ideas or viewpoints on matters of life.
Aside this busy life, Saturday Coffee is truly a place to connect and to be creative.
At 14, Phan Huy Ich street, we can found a small but beautiful space in Hanoi.
The last few years, there have been a lot of coffee shops and art galleries open in Hanoi’s old villas. Among them, Manzi café is one of the art-space and bar and it is located in the old villa in Hanoi city.
If you walk into the door of Manzi’s café, it seems like normal café. But if you go upstairs, you will be surprised by hundreds of masterpieces that the Vietnamese artists made. Most of them are drawing, but there are some beautiful sculptures.
Not only people can look around the artwork, but also can enjoy some kind of coffees and snacks at the gallery. This place is wonderful and creative because people who interest in Art can come to the space and share stories among them. Because the gallery is decorated in cafe form, it is easy for people not interested in art to visit and enjoy the art.
We’ve learned through the lecture ‘open innovation’ that innovation is from something exist already and we can create a innovative thing through the combination of the old one. If you can visit in the Manzi café, you will agree that how normal things can be innovative through artistic presentation. Many works of art in there were created by the trivial things around us. And I think that creativity starts with eyes looking ordinary things at new point views.
And we recommend this place for anyone who want to get inspired and understand what is innovative things in Hanoi. It is the one of creative cities in Hanoi that we found!
On December 17th, Hoan Kiem District People’s Committee (Hanoi) begin to implement the project “Hanoi Colors” with electrical cabinets on Trang Tien, Trang Thi and Hang Khay streets under the theme, called : “2 seasons of flowers in Hanoi” to welcome the upcoming 2019 Lunar New Year . Project implementation time is occurred from December 15th to December 30th, 2018.
They have more than 10 artists with many years of experience who present masterpieces on the system of electrical cabinets along the main streets of Hanoi. There are nearly 70 electric cabinets located along Trang Tien, Trang Thi and Hang Khay streets (Hoan Kiem district) that will be redecorated by kind and hard – working artists.
The purpose of drawing on electric cabinets is to create a new beauty for aged, hard and rough things, to contribute to beauty for Hanoi and raise the pround of Hanoiian.
In order to implement these paintings, artists must have long-term experience because of the fact that when we paint on electrical cabinets, the surface is not as flat as paper’s surface. Moreover, when drawing, the artist must design carefully so that the painting is suitable for each different electric cabinet. In order to complete a good painting, it takes the artist a day to finish drawing an electrical cabinet.
When foreigners looking at these pieces of art, it seems to be that the street corner become more vivid like Beaumont City of Texas.
by DAO KHANH HUYEN (No.04) AND VU THI HONG NGOC (No. 07)
Vietnam’s rapid urbanisation and significant economic growth in recent decades have brought various opportunities to develop the nation’s creative industries in urbanised centres, such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang. It also opens the doors for creative and cultural industries in Vietnam to grow and flourish. Cultural and creative hubs, which are organisations and businesses working in the arts and culture sector, are now playing the key role in the creative and cultural industries.
It is said that the operation of creative hubs like this can help promote cultural diversity.
Based on a report conducted recently by the British Council, cultural and creative hubs in Hanoi are divided into several categories. The first category is art hubs where people can find exhibitions, art talks, and even art courses. Some of the famous names in this category are The heritage space, Manzi, Nha san collective. The second one is music hubs which offer music shows and cultural events such as Hanoi Rock city, Cama Atk to name just a few. The third one is Multi-media hubs whichgather film-makers, photographers, videographers, and graphic designers. Hanoi Doclab and TDP Movies are top players. Next is co-working spaces such as Hatch co-working space, Hub.it. These are a shared workplace, often an office, where start-ups work together and join networking events. Craft hubs which promote the Vietnamese craft products and give an authentic insight into the craftwork to the local and foreign guests, top players in this category are Hanoi design center, Zo project. There are, a part from five categories mentioned above, lots of other hubs in Hanoi that you can drop by, such as Chula – a showroom of contemporary fashion with music performance and film screenings, Workroom four – an art, fashion, and design studio and classes blended in exhibitions, and cultural events, and much more.
Despite the fast growth and emergence of creative hubs in Hanoi, there are still some challenges to the sustainability of their existence. Many hubs live are found in constant threat of closure due to capricious landlords and lack of support from local authorities. A further challenge for hub development was the limited management and business skills of hub owners. To better preserve this burgeoning hub movement, here should be a need for greater financial support and investment in creative hubs, as well as more opportunities for networking and ideas exchange events.
It is important for the country to develop not only economy, but also the culture, which is an important part of any country. This is also said by UNESCO, which launched a unique project called «Creative cities» “To promote innovation and creativity as key factors for sustainable and inclusive urban development”. With this program, the cities included in this list have the opportunity to exchange cultural experiences and achievements, as well as increase their attractiveness for tourists.
Although Hanoi is not yet included in this network, nevertheless UNESCO believes that the capital of Vietnam is the cultural center of the country and can become a creative city of design. I completely agree with this and wanted to talk a little about the creative side of Hanoi.
Creative hubs are an important place for musicians, photographers, artist, designers and other creative people. In Hanoi, they have many opportunities to satisfy their needs. Here they can find music hubs, co-working spaces, art hubs and other interesting places.
One of the most remarkable places is Heritage Space. According to the organizer, « it is space for creativity, enjoyment and aims at new values in Arts & Cultural scene in Vietnam». There is a library that can be used as a room for study, presentations or seminars. In addition visitors can attend large well-equipped gallery where they can hold exhibitions and master classes.
Musicians also have much opportunities to demonstrate their talents. There are a lot of music cafes, such as Hanoi Rock City or Bar 84. Also, every weekend, starting from Friday, a pedestrian zone is formed around Hoan Kiem lake, where you can meet many musicians who delight passersby with their music.
It is very important for startups to have a place where they can work comfortably. Fortunately, Hanoi is the creative city, so there are many coworking spaces that are ready to offer their services for a reasonable fee. Some of such places are Hub.it, Hatch Co-working Space etc.
Although I described the meager part of the opportunities available to creative people in Hanoi, I assure you that you can find here many other places – studios, showrooms, craft hubs. If you consider yourself a creative person, then you simply must visit this city.
In a world where every limit is being broken, tradition is being challenged, creativity is an invaluable asset that we need to cherish, nurture and preserve. Creativity will be the only thing that will differentiate human and machine in the upcoming decade. However, our daily repetitive schedule tends to kill our creativity with its own steady and boring rhythm. During a lesson with Mr. Patrice in the Master Program of Innovation, I was surprised to realize that my daily life was following an old path, which made me lose interest in trying new things. For example, I go to work, to school and back home on the same route every day. I am bored with this but ironically, I am too lazy to change. This afraid-to-change mindset is actually a warning signal to creativity.
In this article, I would like to introduce 5 easy ways to nurture and maintain creativity in our daily life.
Talk to a kid
Kids are very imaginative and curious. They can think of something you have never thought of. Next time, when you encounter a problem, try asking a kid. Listening to their responses, you might be surprised by their different way of thinking. Even in case this does not work out with your problem, you can still have a good laugh.
Make something on your own
The best way to nurture creativity is through art. You should take up some form of art such as painting, filming, photography, which will wake up your artistic instinct, thus boost your creativity. Remember that Steve Jobs learned calligraphy at his young age, which seems to have nothing related to the innovation of Macbook.
Go somewhere you’ve never been
You can go and explore new places apart from your holiday. For example, you can try the nearby museums, parks, or simply just change your daily route to school/office. When exposed to a new environment or circumstances, your brain will be stimulated to feel, to observe and to be creative.
Do something that scares you
When you can overcome any of your fear, this achievement will make you feel more confident in yourself. This allows you to be more creative in your thinking and actions.
Starting random conversations with strangers is also a way to learn because everyone has their unique perspectives – different ways to see things.
Read more and step away from electronics.
Books are worlds beyond barriers of reality, allowing us to roam on creative space. There, we can connect existing knowledge with our dreams. Instead of hugging phones and computers, we should spend time reading and reflecting on ourselves.
One of the best decisions I made last year was to enroll in this Master Program of Innovation by University of Nantes, currently being offered at FTU campus. The Program brought me a wind of change in the mindset. Previously, I have always believed that creativity, let alone innovative ideas, has not been and will not be my thing. However, this started to change since my first subject: “Creativity and Design management” facilitated by Mr. Patrice BONNEAU and followed by many other useful and interesting subjects providing tools and guidance to help me turn my ideas into reality.
“Creativity is a process, not an event”. As the saying goes, if you want be more creative and innovative, you have to spend time and efforts to practice. In this article, I would love to share with you some of the tools and techniques that I gained throughout Program to practice and improve creativity.
Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a method for generating ideas to solve a design problem. It usually involves a group, under the direction of a facilitator. The strength of brainstorming is the potential participants have in drawing associations between their ideas in a free-thinking environment, thereby broadening the solution space.
One of the effective brainstorming methods introduced by Mr. Stéphane JAOUEN that I found extremely useful is Ishikawa diagram method. This method is a 6-step method to find out the root cause of a problem from which we can come up with a well-rounded solution.
Mind-mapping
This method must sound much more very familiar to you compared to the abovementioned. It is a highly effective way of getting information in and out of your brain, a creative and logical means of note-taking and note-making that literally “maps out” your ideas. Mind-mapping is an extremely useful visual thinking tool to structure information to help analyze and create new ideas.
One example of mind-mapping for the MPIE program:
The six thinking hats
Often, the best decisions come from changing the way that you think about problems, and examining them from different viewpoints. “Six Thinking Hats” can help you to look at problems from different perspectives, but one at a time, to avoid confusion from too many angles crowding your thinking. It forces you to move outside your habitual thinking style, and to look at things from a number of different perspectives. This allows you to get a more rounded view of your situation.
Each “Thinking Hat” is a different style of thinking. These are briefly explained below:
Managing Blue – what is the subject? what are we thinking about? what is the goal? look at the big picture.
Information White – considering purely what information is available, what are the facts?
Emotions Red – intuitive or instinctive, reactions or statements of emotional feeling (but not any justification).
Discernment Black – logic applied to identifying reasons to be cautious and conservative. Practical, realistic.
Optimistic response Yellow – logic applied to identifying benefits, seeking harmony. Sees the brighter, sunny side of situations.
Creativity Green – statements of provocation and investigation, seeing where a thought goes. Thinks creatively, outside the box.
SWOT analysis
To understand well yourself and the surrounding environment means you already win the half way. This SWOT analysis helps you to do this. What makes SWOT particularly powerful is that, with a little thought, it can help you uncover opportunities that you are well-placed to exploit with your strengths. And by understanding the weaknesses of your business, you can manage and eliminate threats that would otherwise catch you unawares.
I believe that the tools and techniques introduced in this article will be very useful for you to brainstorm, structure, shape and reflect your ideas in a clear and logical way. Should you spend time to practice with the tools, your creative mind will be fostered and improved gradually.
My project name is ‘English activities for Kids’ which is a business that provide English activities for young kids to develop English and soft skills.
At first when our team decided our project, we just had an idea but not an exact plan for operation. As we progressed each lecture, our project were more and more specified. Since there were a lot of feed backs from lecturers and class mates, the project was able to be more specific and organized.
For example, one lecturer, Nicolas ANTHEAUME, director of IAE Nantes, that I remember is about operating&monitoring class. Since we provide educational class per month, the sales of each month should be different and it is related to schools vacation and holidays. And we made the operation plan, expected sales and costs, break even point as below.
One of operation plan of project ‘English activities for Kids’
Being able to manage budget is also the key point for success, and operation plan is very important for running project or business. Based on the business plan, we’re planning to do ‘Pilot test’ to get some feed backs about our projects. Through the pilot test, It could be our new opportunity to start a business in Vietnam.
