The creative sector’s potential to deliver significant growth to developing and transitional economies has been increasingly recognised and debated in recent years. Today, national governments, together with international agencies, are considering how best to share expertise across these developments and ensure that the economic success of the creative sector is reflected in patterns of economic growth and job creation in the developing world. The British Council is at the heart of this debate.
This seminar, the third in the Nurturing the creative economy programme of British Council Seminars, is being held in Cardiff, the capital of Wales, and provides examples of policies, public and private sector initiatives from the UK and countries as diverse as China, India, Colombia and South Africa. It examines the issues faced by developing and transitional economies and looks at a wide range of strategies and examples, providing a great opportunity to share experiences across the developing world. The three main strands are:
• innovation and new business models
• business support and access to finances
• networks and new ways of trading
The programme will include discussions, presentations, visits and workshops.The focus of the week is on practical examples, and includes participant presentations, talks by international and UK experts, and visits to local businesses, demonstrating the contribution of the Welsh creative industries to social regeneration and economic growth.
This seminar builds on the first and second Nurturing the creative economy seminars and the structure reflects suggestions made by participants of those seminars. There will be more time for participants’ presentations, informal debate and discussion, plus some inspiring visits to local enterprises, all in the context of the exciting city of Cardiff with the Welsh Assembly, Millennium Stadium, leisure district of Cardiff Bay and the Wales Millennium Centre.
Our final sessions will be spent in discussion and in the preparation of a consensus statement. We’ll analyse again the arguments that we’ve heard and reconsider the issues that have been raised, and from this, we hope to distil a sense of where next for the creative economy in developing and transitional countries. We will prepare a statement about the issues that creative businesses, national governments and international agencies need to reflect upon if the creative economy is to be successfully nurtured and fully play its part in the economic prosperity of developing and transitional countries.
The seminar is open to participants from developing and transitional economies:
• Ministers, advisers or senior civil servants from Departments of Culture, Economic Development, Trade, Education, Finance and Foreign Affairs or from agencies responsible for economic development, the World Trade Organisation, the World Bank or regional development banks
• Senior figures from within the creative sector – both creative entrepreneurs and creative individuals that have a significant influence in the public or private sector, senior academics working within the creative sector or lecturing in economics, law, sociology or culture that have a significant influence on decision-makers
• More junior high flyers/fast trackers within these areas who may soon be in a position to make use of the knowledge.
Participants will be selected to reflect a balance between government agencies and the private sector and to provide a breadth of vision and experience to allow a very high quality of debate.
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