The Business Meeting Matosinhos, Cidade Criativa [Matosinhos, Creative City] event took place on the 16th September in Casa de Chá da Boa Nova, Leça da Palmeira.

This meeting, that counted on the presence of the Minister of Economy, António Pires de Lima, the Mayor of Matosinhos, Guilherme Pinto, and the Vice President of the City Council, Eduardo Pinheiro, among others, joined 50 of the biggest businessman of the municipality that had the opportunity to get to know with more detail the project Matosinhos, Creative City and also give their contribute for it to be possible, signing up a Carta de Compromisso [Commitment Letter].

At the beginning of 2015, Matosinhos presents its application to Creative City, in the area of design, within Unesco Creative Cities network. Created in 2004, this network pursuits the development of the international cooperation between cities that chose creativity as a strategical and differentiator factor for their growth. At the moment there are more than 40 cities around the world belonging to this network, and in the design area one can stress the cities of Buenos Aires, Berlin, Saint-Étienne, Shangai and Montreal. To make it happen the Municipality of Matosinhos is mobilizing schools, companies, cultural and sportive associations and also social solidarity institutions for the application.

The recent launched QUADRA – Incubadora de Design is, among others, one of the factors that contribute to make Matosinhos eligible to this application. ESAD and QUADRA were represented in the meeting by José Bártolo, President of the Scientific Council of the school and one of the responsible persons for ESAD IDEA – Investigação em Design e Arte, integrated in a new structure of Mercado Municipal de Matosinhos.