The future of creative industries: highlights from the Telling Stories Festival

On May 23, the Telling Stories Festival was held at the Digital Business Space. A major city-wide event organised by the Faculty of Creative Industries gathered experts, students, representatives of cultural institutions, media and business. The festival provided a platform for discussing current developments in the creative industries — from design, fashion and film to media, music, technology and contemporary art.

The programme brought together various divisions of the HSE Institute for Creative Industries Development: HSE ART AND DESIGN SCHOOL, the Institute for Creative Industries Development, the School of Communications, the Institute of Media, the Institute of Film and the Institute of Hospitality. The festival itself became a space for discussing how the creative industries are changing today and which skills are becoming essential for the next generation of professionals.

The Telling Stories festival featured more than 130 speakers, including representatives of major companies, cultural institutions, educational platforms and independent projects. Through lectures, public talks and discussions, participants explored how professions are being transformed by technology, the role of emotional intelligence in the creative industries, new models of brand communication, working with artificial intelligence, authorship and the future of visual culture.

Among the speakers there were Gavriil Gordeev (Okko), Kirill Krok (Vakhtangov Theatre), Maxim Shostakovich (Bolshoi Theatre), Anton Sevidov (Tesla Boy), representatives of Black Star, Afisha, BALAGAN and Limex Turkey, as well as international experts Felipe Taborda (Brazil), Liu Xiaoxia (China), Clément Derocq (France) and Anastasia Novaya (Italy).

Media Partners

We would like to thank the festival's media partners for their support and interest in the project: TASS, Snob, Moskvichka, Kommersant Weekend, Editorial Opinion, Bolshoy Gorod, Vedy, Moskvich Mag, Interior+Design, Design Mate and Novy Russky.

Thanks to its partners, the festival received broad media coverage and attracted the attention of professionals, students, experts and everyone interested in the development of the creative industries.

A special part of the festival programme was the awards ceremony for the winners of HSE CREATIVE OPEN, an international competition organised by HSE ART AND DESIGN SCHOOL. The competition unites outstanding ideas and projects in design, contemporary art, fashion, digital media and visual culture, supports emerging creators and introduces new talent to the professional community.

The tenth anniversary season of HSE CREATIVE OPEN featured 22 categories. A total of 2,748 projects were submitted, with 25 selected as winners.

The partners of HSE CREATIVE OPEN 2026 included representatives of international educational institutions, cultural platforms, media organisations and creative-sector companies, including Istituto Marangoni, Moskvichka, Interior+Design, 2×2, The Seasons Project, Donors Forum, Rocket Science Label, MICE Excellence, the Internet Development Institute (IRI), YARKO and others.

The festival has come to an end, but the conversation about the future of culture, design, media and technology continues — through new projects, research and collaborations.