On 4 July 2025, the CYANOTYPES event “Skills for a Creative Future” took place in Stuttgart, Germany. Organised by the Stuttgart Region Economic Development Corporation (WRS), the event was part of Futuromundo, a conference dedicated to forward-looking strategies and innovation pathways in education and creativity. It offered a focused opportunity to explore the CYANOTYPES competence model in practical terms, connecting regional needs with broader European perspectives.

The event opened with a welcome by Leonard Negurita (WRS), followed by an introduction to the CYANOTYPES competence model by Soenke Zehle of the K8 Institute for Strategic Aesthetics. The presentation centred on the 25 competences structured across five agency clusters: Collective Agency, Public Agency, Data-Driven Agency, Value-Creating Agency, and Regenerative Agency. These clusters address essential skills for creativity, digital literacy, sustainability, collaboration, and systemic transformation. Special emphasis was given to the “Creative Agency Circle”, a circular learning path designed to foster critical thinking, collaborative making, and sustainable impact. The triple loop learning approach—integral to the CYANOTYPES model—was introduced as a key element for enabling deep reflection not only on actions and strategies but also on underlying assumptions and values.

In the second part of the session, Stuttgart-based Monica Menez, a photographer and director with a growing focus on AI-based creative work, and Laureen Seider from VISUELL Studio für Kommunikation offered concrete perspectives from practice. Monica Menez described her journey from traditional photography into AI-driven art, highlighting the skills and competences necessary for such a transformation—namely, openness to technological innovation, critical reflection on digital tools, and the willingness to redefine creative processes. Her experience illustrated how the use of digital technologies, as reflected in the Data-Driven Agency cluster, is becoming an essential part of contemporary artistic practice.

Laureen Seider shared her experiences of taking over and repositioning a family-run design company. She spoke about the challenges of realignment and the competences creative professionals need for the future. Central to her perspective were strategic thinking, values-based design, and entrepreneurial competence. She emphasised the importance of transformation-related skills, as framed in the Public Agency cluster, and stressed the need to align creative work with societal value, sustainability, and systemic responsibility. Her insights underlined how creative processes must be understood not only in terms of output, but also in relation to their long-term cultural and social relevance.

In the concluding discussion with the audience, participants explored how the CYANOTYPES model might be applied in different contexts—ranging from education and institutional strategy to cross-sector collaboration. The feedback showed that there is strong interest in the region in testing and further developing the model through pilot projects and learning formats.

The event successfully bridged theoretical input with real-world application and highlighted the relevance of the CYANOTYPES Framework for shaping future-oriented education, innovation, and work cultures within the cultural and creative sectors. A key takeaway: CYANOTYPES offers not just a reflective and planning tool, but also a catalyst for regional cooperation and transformative learning.