Lodz city of cultural diversity

The European Association for Creativity and Innovation (EACI) is proud that the city of Łódź, Poland will be the hosting townfor the 9th European Conference on Creativity and Innovation (ECCI-9). Transformation is the conference theme and Lodz will offer good inspiration for that.

Łódź (to be pronounced in Polish as Nike's Swoosh, but without the S and with the addition of a T; so Wootsh) is the second largest city of Poland. It has an intriguing history. Łódź, a town erected in the 19th century at a rate faster than New York's, was once the center of the Polish textile industry. Still some of the old manufactures houses show the glamour and greatness of this period. It was the melting pot of four cultures, which was the phenomenon that made establishment of a town truly unique on the European scale possible. Although located at the very heart of Poland, it was a multinational place with Poles, Jews, Germans and Russians living, working and building their "Promised Land" together.

Since 2001 The Festival of Dialogue Between Four Cultures has been held there. It establishes a link of past with the future showing a transformation of the city as a significant example of a global transformation of Poland. Being a cultural town, Łódź houses a couple of universities, academia (including the Academy for Humanisties and Economics of EACI Board member and organiser of this ECCI-9 professor Makary Stasiak), museums and the world famous Lodz film school. Well know directors like Roman Polanski, Krzysztof Kieslowski and Andrzej Wajda were educated here. But there is more: world famous pianist Arthur Rubinstein was born in Lodz as well as a Nobel Laureat for literature in 1924 - Wladyslaw Reymont.

With more than 60.000 students city life is bursting with energy. All signals show green for the transformation Poland is making. The theme of the ECCI-8 in Mainz, Germany was about cross cultural innovation, now in Lodz with the ECCI-9 we are cross cultural innovation. Being part and partner to this transformation will be thrilling!