Pride Lagos Creative Enterprise Week Announces Theme for the 2019 Event
The organisers of the Pride Lagos Creative Enterprise Week (PLCEW) today announced the theme for the 2019 event as “Building a Sustainable Creative Business”.
The PLCEW is a forum to help participants take their passion for creative and cultural activities such as writing, painting, composing, filmmaking, spoken word, sculpting, photography, animation or any other field of creativity, and develop the skills and ideas needed to build businesses that are viable and can also have a positive social impact.
Explaining the rationale behind the theme, the Coordinator of the Enterprise Week Mr Chukwuemeka Anyiam-Osigwe said, “Creativity – whether making music, writing books, or moulding sculpture – is not always viewed through the lens of ‘business,’ but starting a business is, in fact, a creative process. The Pride Lagos Creative Enterprise Week will explore this intricate link between business and creativity in order to help creatives make a living from their skills.”
According to the organisers, the theme reflects their focus towards helping the present and future generations of stakeholders in the creative industry build successful small businesses. Finding the confluence of a creative idea and the right business model will allow for the bourgeoning of possibilities founded by our imaginations. It expounds their belief that ideas are not just intrinsically valuable, but also potentially profitable and socially impactful. The aim is to transform creativity into viable and sustainable business ventures, which can be pursued positively, passionately and profitably.
Creativity as a key driver of economic success
A 2015 report by UNESCO and the consulting group, EY identified the extent and scope of the creative economy worldwide. According to the report, the cultural and creative industries employ nearly 30 million people worldwide and generate US$2.25 trillion in revenue – this is greater than the GDP of India.
The large creative conglomerates do not drive this significant GDP. Instead, this global creative GDP is built on a huge number of small businesses operating in an incredibly varied set of ways.
Why ‘sustainable’?
The aim is to help participants build creative and cultural businesses that are not dependent on subsidies to survive. Too many social enterprises and other businesses in the creative and cultural industries have been built on a financial model dependent on handouts from the government or third sector bodies; this leads to short-termism. An emphasis on sustainable business planning will look towards developing projects that have long-term viability.
By emphasising sustainability, the organisers point towards ways in which the cultural and creative industries can be given longevity through, not only networking and cooperation but also connections with their localities. This local link can be realised by the cultivation of genuine social needs identified via local engagement.
Who is expected to attend?
The forum will attract individuals from the arts and humanities who want to use their skills to start their own businesses or work in a small and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs). It will also help individuals from any background that want to start a business (or work in an SME) in the cultural and creative industries. The forum will explore the creativity required for success in any new business venture, thus individuals working in non-creative industries will also benefit.
The PLCEW will take place November 4 – 9, 2019
For more information, please contact info@lagoscreativeenterpriseweek.org
