IYSEY, a British Council initiative, is a strand of IYCE. IYSEY is designed to recognise young, creative entrepreneurs under 35-years of age, showing leadership skills and proposing innovative solutions in the Nigerian Screen sector.

To enter, you must:

1. Be Nigerian
2. Be aged between 25 and 35
3. Already work in the Nigerian screen sector (as defined below)
4. Be entrepreneurial and have shown your ability in the promotion of screen in Nigeria, particularly in a commercial context
5. Through your character, drive and abilities demonstrate your potential to be a future leader of the screen industry in Nigeria
6. Have English language skills to IELTS 6 or above- ‘competent user’ or above.

Screen sector definition

In the term ‘Screen’ we include feature film, documentary, shorts, television production, and animation.

For the purpose of this award participants can be drawn from any of the following areas of the industry:

• Development, production, post-production
• Distribution and/or sales
• Exhibition –  cinema/venue and/or festival/event programming and management
• Journalism (print and broadcast) and publishing
• Marketing, internet websites/ web networks, public and media relations
• Promotion, education and retail
• Artist management
• Consultants providing specialist services in any of the areas outlined

Benefits for the Nigeria Winner

• The Nigeria winner will qualify as one of the 10 finalists competing for the global IYSEY award, and be part of a UK tour scheduled to take place in October 2008.
• The tour will include visits to London, Cardiff and Bristol to meet leaders and innovators in the UK film and TV business.

Within the tour, the finalists will:

• Actively participate in all organised IYSE meetings and events.
• Participate in the judging procedure to select the global IYSEY winner.
• Attend London Film Festival as industry delegates and take part in a variety of tailored events for screen professionals, including screenings, seminars, workshops, and networking opportunities.
• Participate in the IYSE award ceremony and film showcase.

The Global Award

A financial award (£7,500), which is to be spent on a project (in collaboration with the British Council) that builds the relationship between the winner’s country and the UK.
The project will be linked to the UK and tailored to the winner’s specific needs (the winner will be encouraged to come up with their own proposal).

How to Enter

Download application forms here. (MS Word 77kb)

Deadline for applications 28 June 2007

Please Note

Only Short listed applicants will be contacted (e-mailed/telephoned) by 10 July. They will be required to come for an interview at the British Council Lagos on Thursday 17 July.

Contact Information: olamipo.bello@ng.britishcouncil.org

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NIGERIA AT LONDON CALLING 2008

Nigeria’s Audu Maikori, CEO Chocolate City and winner of British Council’s International Young Music Entrepreneur

Award (2007) is taking a Nigerian contingent to London Calling 2008 with his prize money of £7,500 going towards payment for a stand at the event.

London Calling is the United Kingdom’s biggest trade conference and exhibition for the international music industry. The event this year will attract over 3,500 delegates from 45 countries around the world and offers enormous networking and investment opportunities for the budding Nigerian music industry. The event shall feature live music showcases in major venues of London and will attract all the major players of the music, mobile and digital media including major record companies, mobile operators, social networks, brands, technology companies from over 45 countries. The event shall feature live music showcases, conferences, networking parties and cocktails and Audu has planned a ‘Naija Style’ after party for the 21st of June 2008 in London.

Audu plans to take a contingent of about 30 companies and 10 journalists, 4 Nigerian artistes and 5 support staff from Chocolate City as well as staff from British Council Nigeria. The companies will register to participate and be responsible for their own travel.

The Creative Industries make up the fastest growing sector of the UK's economy. In economic terms they already outperform traditional sectors such as agriculture and car manufacturing. The sector employs 1.9 million people (2006) and as of 2002 generated more 'cultural products' for export (over $8.5 billion in 2002) than any other nation in the world (compared with $7.6 billion in the United States and $5.2 billion in China). In 2006, creative industries' exports totalled £14.6 billion – 4.5% of all goods and services exported.

For more details, visit www.londoncalling2008.com

To participate in London Calling, email: chocolatecitynig@yahoo.co.uk

Creative Lives is focussed on the knowledge economy and creativity, with clear links to democratic Africa and the possibility also of contributing to intercultural dialogue and understanding. The content of the programme is focussed around the creative economy and the impact of cultural and creativity on society and the sector’s ability to act as a catalyst for helping society understand the challenges it faces and develop ways to respond to these. It provides an important platform for using the arts and young new creative talent to debate issues around social exclusion, freedom of expression.
Creative lives has the following components

WAPI events

WAPI events, piloted in Nairobi and recently extended to Dar Es Salaam, are a platform that makes it possible for visual and verbal artists in the underground to showcase their art (in words and/or pictures). We take the underground to mean the upcoming, the undiscovered, those who, by design or default, are not part of the mainstream. WAPI brings undiscovered talent to the fore for the discerning public through a regular (monthly) WAPI programme. WAPI also aspires to become a talent-spotting platform – the place where tomorrows best acts and today’s best-kept secrets are identified and enjoyed.

WAPI is a platform for Poets, Fashion Designers, Emcees, Dancers, Graffiti Writers, Animators, Cartoonists / Comic Book Artists, installation Artists, Painters, Singers, Acrobats, or any other sort of visual or verbal artiste to showcase their art through monthly WAPI events.

WAPI is a chance for artistes to participate in ‘Skills Factory’ sessions which offer training on various subjects like: Use of the internet, poetry writing, stage management, etc.

It is also a chance to get selected to participate in the Creative Entrepreneur Programme.

The Creative Entrepreneur Programme seeks to train creative people entrepreneurially and enable them to earn a living from their art. This training is in two stages. The Core Stage and the Specialised Stage.

The core stage will focus on business skills generally and the specialised stage will have the participants’ separated into different route programmes depending on their specialisation.

To participate: e-mail info.nigeria@ng.britishcouncil.org

Creativity is at the root of intellectual property, and industry, or productivity, at the root of economic growth and so the creative industries – a notion still provoking much debate around the world – are one of the key components to sustainable economic development, successful economic transition and broad economic and social regeneration, everywhere.
The impact of the creative industries is quite clear: in the UK, they are the fastest growing sector of the economy. The UK also leads the rest of the world in terms of creative economies. The British Council has therefore harnessed this opportunity of being the Cultural Organisation of the leading creative economy, to start the International Young Creative Entrepreneur Programme globally.

IYCE Aims

The IYCE award programme is unique in that it rewards the talent and initiative of young creative entrepreneurs from across the creative industries. Award programmes for creative talent are common but this programme is unique because it recognises the central role of young creative entrepreneurs in the development of a competitive and sustainable creative economy.  The programme reflects an understanding of the creative economy as a tool in extending cultural engagement and supporting cultural diversity, through the development of a strong independent creative sector.

IYCE Eligibility

All finalists for the IYCE awards must be aged between 25 and 35, already work in their sector (as defined specifically for each award) and have demonstrated through their character and drive their ability to promote their creative sector within Nigeria.

For the purposes of these awards, we define that an International Young Creative Entrepreneur must possess Entrepreneurial Ability which includes a passion for their creative sector, originality of ideas, understanding of their market, risk taking and corporate as well as interpersonal skills. They are also expected to show Character and Leadership Ability through their self confidence, market awareness, international outlook, leadership ability and their ability to make a difference.

Our definition of International Young Creative Entrepreneur can be applied to both the profit and not for profit sectors.  

Strands of IYCE

In 2007 we participated in four of the IYCE awards – International Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year (IYMEY), International Young Design Entrepreneur of the Year(IYDEY), International Young Screen Entrepreneur of the Year(IYSEY) and International Young Fashion Entrepreneur of the Year(IYFEY).

The IYCE also includes awards in Publishing, Communications, Interactive media and Visual Arts

In 2004, Patience Okekwe represented Nigeria at the International Young Publisher of the Year Award (IYPY), in 2005, Nigeria’s Lanre Lawal emerged winner of the International Young Design Entrepreneur of the Year Award (IYDEY) and in 2006 Emem Ema represented Nigeria at the International Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year Award (IYMEY) in London. This year, Nigeria has made it again as one of ten countries participating in the International Young Design Entrepreneur of the Year (IYDEY), International Young Film Entrepreneur of the Year (IYFEY) and International Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year Award (IYMEY). Audu Maikori, CEO of chocolate City, a record label and artiste management company, has emerged the Global winner for IYMEY, making Nigeria the 1st country to win two of the global awards.