About us
Platform, Initiator, Mediator
CREATIVE.NRW is the network of creatives in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). On behalf of the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry for Economic Affairs, Innovation, Climate action, and Energy, we work as a competence centre and consultancy for freelancers, companies, institutions, and municipalities.
To build bridges between the creative industry and other economic sectors, we share information and knowledge, and connect people and businesses. Together with strong partners all over NRW, our aim is to emphasise and further enhance the economic and social relevance of creatives, and to secure fair and promising working conditions.
The creative industry is more than just an economic factor to us. It is an innovation driver for other sectors, and a major resource for sustainable urban development and solving societal challenges in general.
This is how we contribute to the success story that is NRW’s creative economy, on both a national and an international level.
Team
We bring together various backgrounds and interdisciplinary skillsets. As advocates for the capacities and accomplishments of the creative economy, we rely on our professional experiences in the cultural and creative industry, as well as in strategy, consulting, and communications. Our goal is to raise appreciation for the creative industries among politics and economy and to establish their reputation as driving force for the economy and socio-political solutions.
CREATIVE.NRW – Kompetenzzentrum Kreativwirtschaft is a service provided by the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry for Economic Affairs, Innovation, Climate Action, and Energy, carried out by BOROS.
Carolin Paulus
Project director
Carolin Paulus has been a permanent team member since 2009, and in 2015 she took over the project lead of CREATIVE.NRW. Born in Bochum, she studied political science in Cologne, then worked in the field of public relations in Nigeria, among other places, and is responsible for strategic planning, conception and communication at the Berlin office of Boros.
Ines Rainer
Project lead
Ines Rainer worked as an editor at a Cologne-based television production company and implemented various formats for WDR. In 2012, she co-founded the association Foodsharing and was active on its board until 2014, when she co-initiated the start-up The Good Food. Since 2017, she has been supporting the CREATIVE.NRW team, where she is mainly responsible for events and managing the CREATIVE.Spaces. Together with Lars Terlinden, Ines has formed the new dual leadership of CREATIVE.NRW since August 2022.
Lars Terlinden
Project lead
Lars Terlinden has been active since 2016 as a pilot, ambassador, and a provider of space for players in the cultural and creative industries, mainly on behalf of Wirtschaftsförderung Düsseldorf. Previously, he worked as a journalist, public affairs consultant, marketing manager, bookseller, event organizer, campaign manager, research fellow and globetrotter, among other things. He joined the CREATIVE.NRW team in August 2022, forming a new dual leadership team with Ines Rainer to push creative core competencies such as cross innovation, sustainability and co-creation. His favorite color is making.
Tobias Thomas
Project manager
Tobias Thomas has worked in a wide variety of pop cultural fields as a project manager, author, journalist, organizer, curator, DJ and producer. At the music magazine SPEX, Thomas was an editor from 2000 to 2007, for the music festival c/o pop he was program director until 2013. For another seven years, he worked for the Kompakt label as artist and event manager. Since 2021 Tobias is a graduate of the training programme "Transformation Management Sustainable Culture" of the Aktionsnetzwerk Nachhaltigkeit. For CREATIVE.NRW he is responsible for communication and website maintenance.
Guido Halfmann
Editor
Guido Halfmann has been working as a concept developer, writer and author for agencies, cultural institutions and magazines for more than 25 years.