Support organisations for the cultural industries in Slovenia are rare, and as yet there are no agencies which specialise in the creative industries. However, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Chamber of Crafts provide umbrella support through its subordinate bodies. Numerous relevant organisations are engaged in advertising and design, eg the Slovene Designers Society, the Brumen Foundation, or MM - Media Magazine. The database lists several Slovene advertising festivals as these showcase significant graphic design and audio-visual achievements.

Some awards were initiated several years ago, most notably the Trend Award for Fashion and Visual Creativity which has been bestowed since 2001 by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry on creators of fashion, interiors, architecture, photography, graphic or product design and visual arts. To date Trend Awards have been bestowed on around 50 creators. In 2005 the prize was given to Almira Sadar (fashion design), Tomo Brejc (photography), SOTO (fashion design agency), Irwin group (visula arts) and Sadar Vuga arhitekti (architecture), in 2006 the prize-winners were Dr Andreja Vrišer (art history), Špela Lenarcic (stylist), Gregor Podnar (gallerist), Miljenko Licul (graphic design) and Studio Nuvolari-Lenard Naval Design (product design). In the years since the Award’s inception recipients of the Trend Award for Lifetime Achievement have included Majna Sevnik (dance pedagogue), Bernarda Jeklin (fashion publicist), Vesna Gaberšcik (fashion design pedagogue), Niko Kralj (product design), Saša J Maechtig (architecture) and Matjaž Vipotnik (graphic design).

Another two interesting awards are the International Young Design Entrepreneur of the Year (IYDEY) Award and the International Young Screen Entrepreneur of the Year (IYSEY) Award, both launched by British Council. The awards champion the achievements of young design entrepreneurs - people working in the fields of architecture, design promotion, graphic design, interior design, product design and digital media – or working in the field of film and television, particularly in often untapped markets. In 2007 the British Council Slovenia organised the IYDEY award for the third time in partnership with 100% Design, London’s international trade fair for furniture and interiors. The jury selected Martin Bricelj (CodeEp) as the Slovene finalist, offering him the chance to meet key innovators within the UK design industry and to visit the Design Council, the Design Museum and the Lighthouse in Glasgow. He also attended the 100% Design exhibition and networked with finalists from other participating countries in an all-expenses-paid 13-day visit. In 2006 the British Council Slovenia launched the first competition for Young Screen Entrepreneur of the Year (aged 25 to 35). A jury in Slovenia nominated Mitja Okorn as the Slovene finalist, and he joined a group of 10 outstanding young people from emerging markets in the international film industry who went to the UK on a networking trip. In 2008 nine YCE awards were launched, covering various sectors of creative industries including Music, Fashion, Performing Arts, Communications, Visual Arts and Interactive.

T-5 Project Space is a space in Ljubljana for lectures, design exhibitions, art fairs and the Pecha Kucha Night events. The Pecha Kucha Night programme features 10-15 short lectures per night during which projects and ideas are presented with each presenter being permitted 6 minutes and 40 seconds. The first Pecha Kucha Night Ljubljana was staged in April 2007. Futher events followed in June, September and October, cf http://www.pecha-kucha.org/ljubljana.

Where training and education programmes for cultural industry professionals are concerned, a special study programme for publishing is offered by the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana. The Association of Publishers and Booksellers of the Slovene Chamber of Commerce and Industry has also developed regular training activities with the aim of informing, educating, sharing experience and discussing topics from the field. A major event in this regard is the Publishing Academy, which has taken place for the past six years during the annual Book Fair in Ljubljana.

Some initiatives relating to education for the cultural industries are international in scope, see SAE Ljubljana. Occasional workshops or seminars are organised by the British Council Slovenia, and the Faculty of Social Sciences organises an annual International Conference on Corporate and Marketing Communications - the 13th CMC Conference takes place 24-26 April 2008, featuring for the first time a special session involving academic journal editors. The theme of CMC 2008 is ‘Corporate and Marketing Communications as a Strategic Resource: Response to Contemporary Use, Challenges and Criticism.’

Extensive research on the Slovene cultural industries has been carried out by the Peace Institute’s Centre for Cultural Policy Research, whose 2005 book Culture Ltd: Material Conditions of Cultural Production can be downloaded from the Internet in pdf format. This publication offers a social analysis that reaches beyond a purely economic approach, incorporating texts on cultural education programmes, investment in cultural infrastructure, and employment in culture and the wider (global) context in which cultural goods are increasingly being converted into market commodities. Aldo Milohnic and Maja Breznik also contributed to the conference/course Cultural Co-operation in South Eastern Europe. Managing Cultural Transitions: The Impact of Creative Industries, organised by Culturelink, the proceedings of which were published in The Emerging Creative Industries in South Eastern Europe, also available as a pdf download. Maja Breznik concluded that the local cultural industries do not protect the community from the global entertainment industries, but are rather their Trojan horse. Some books on the Slovene film and book publishing sectors have also been published by UMco.