Creative industries (CI), having a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property, form an integral part of the knowledge economy (Interreg IV C Operational Programme). Through exchanging experience and good practices, this project aims to strengthen the capacity and effectiveness of public support to unlock and support the economic potential of the creative economy. In particular, 5 policy areas are addressed within the project:1. Structure of public support for CI2. Business capacity and internationalisation of CI3. Space and creative city districts4. Funding for creative businesses5. Demand for CI products and servicesThe partnership of the project is constituted by municipalities and development agencies of 11 metropolitan cities of Europe – Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Birmingham, Helsinki, Oslo, Riga, Stockholm, Tallinn, Vilnius and Warsaw – which play a central role in the economies of their regions and countries.The project is organised into 3 components. In addition to management activities (Component 1), Component 2 contains information and dissemination activities linked to the key events and deliverables of the project (website, newsletter, press releases, publications) as well as dissemination events.Core activities are clustered into Component 3: identification and analysis of good practices that feed into the exchange of experience, which will take place in the form of joint events and partner-to-partner study visits. Some cities will integrate the learned experience into strategies that along with the individual study visit results and discussions of policy implications will be presented at a final joint event. For the benefit of cities outside project partnership, the experience gathered within the project will be summarised into a Portfolio of Good Practices.Project outputs include a consolidated mapping report of creative industries in the participating cities, 3 joint experience exchange events and 22 partner-to-partner study visits, 6 local strategies for structuring public support and 6 strategies for developing of creative city districts. Project achievements will be summarised and disseminated through project website, newsletters (5 editions), 6 press releases, 2x2000 presentation leaflets, 2000 printed and 1000 electronic copies of the Portfolio of good practices, 7 “Creative ” brochures (each ~1500 copies), and organisation of workshops, seminars and presentations in 7 events with participants from municipalities across Europe and industry representatives. The project will result in a strengthened knowledge base and capacity of 11 cities to make informed decisions and focused policies as well as design support instruments that would help boost economic activity of their creative sectors. Achievements: Project “CREATIVE METROPOLES: Public Policies and Instruments in Support of Creative Industries” is spearheaded by the culture and business development professionals of local governments of 11 European cities that play a central role in economies of their countries. The city of Riga is the project initiator and lead partner of the consortium. The three-year project targets decision-makers and executives in local governments as well as creative industry stakeholders and is expected to result in a more focused and efficient public support system for creative industries. The Subsidy Contract for ther implementation of the Project was signed on December 8, 2008, and a bit more than one year after the start of the Project it is clear that the project is on good track. All 11 project partners are active and involved in the project implementation, main research workd has been completed and project dissemination and experience exchange activities are on the agenda. Main research work and local analysis of the creative industries was started during the 2nd reporting period by the external experts contracted locally by all partners. On March 4 – 6, 2009 the Kick-off event was organized in Oslo where all project Partners as well as a number of invited guests participated. During the event not only the Project was presented to a wider audience, but also some very practical issues discussed such as preliminary findings and a draft of the methodology for local analysis of the creative industries in the Partner cities. At the very end of the 2nd reporting period the first Dissemination event was organized - an international conference "Innovation @ Creative Industries” in Berlin, June 29, 2009. The 3rd reporting period was mainly dedicated to the implementation of the main component of the project - Component 3 - Exchange of Experience dedicated to the identification and analysis of best practices. During the 3rd reporting period the mapping of the Creative Indistries was completed by the external researchers and a joint report as well as list of best practices produced. The report in .pdf is available at the Project website: http://www.creativemetropoles.eu under section "News". From October 21-23, 2009 the first Experience Exchange event took place in Warsaw. This event was dedicated to 3 out of 5 policy areas: Structure of public support for CI; Funding for creative businesses; Demand for CI products and services. In September 2009 City of Helsinki organized the 2nd dissemination event and presented the project in the international conference Creative Economy and Beyond (CEB) held in Helsinki 9.-10.9.2009.