A UK / European conference – 9 May 2013 – Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, UK, on creative Europe in a time of austerity. Ideas, strategies, alliances for arts and cultural organisations confronting new economic realities. It is a time of financial austerity in the UK and across the rest of Europe.  This event will provide arts and cultural organisations with a range of ideas to help them decrease their reliance on public subsidy by offering examples of initiatives, strategies, collaborative opportunities and alliances.  The event will provide attendees with a suite of possible solutions and opportunities offered to the conference by the 15 speakers over three main sessions, followed by a round table session where delegates can meet in small groups with each of the speakers.  Sometime contradictory, and often controversial, these presentations reflect on practitioner’s own experiences. Presenters and speakers include Arlene McCarthy, MEP for the North West (and Vice Chair of the European Parliament’s Economic & Monetary Affairs Committee), David Fishel from Positive Solutions consultancy (Australia), Peter Inkei, Director of the Budapest Cultural Observatory, Araf Ahmadali, Department of Art & Culture, City of Amsterdam (Netherlands), Anneke Jansen, Amsterdam Fringe Festival, Roy Cremers, Voordekunst (a crowdfunding platform for the arts in the Netherlands), Dimitris Kalavros, Away.gr and TedX Athens (Greece), Mary McCarthy, National Sculpture Factory (Ireland) and Ott Karulin, Estonian Theatre Agency (Estonia). UK speakers and presenters will include Dan Eastmond, Firestation Arts (which has just published “Fireworks: Exploding Culture”), Alison Clark-Jenkins, Arts Council England, Jim Beirne, Live Theatre, Newcastle; John Nicholls, Arts Quarter; Mark Robinson, Thinking Practice; Sarah Thelwall, MyCake, Caroline Langabeer, Julie’s Bicycle, Christoph Jankowski, UK Contact Point for the EU Culture Programme, and Keith Hackett, freelance consultant.  The event will be chaired by Geoffrey Brown from Euclid. Conference registration open.