On June 6th and 7th business and creativity, which were once distant cousins, will collude to inspire new ideas that will bring about economic emancipation, at the annual Ideas Expo. The expo will be executed in the form of a conference, an exhibition, The Segai Creative Awards and Creative Jumpstart which is a boot camp for emerging creatives. Exhibitors at this year’s expo are all local.
A selection of 20 emerging creative enterprises will showcase their work. The exhibition is the quintessential showcase of high quality work by Batswana creatives.
The expo will give progressive thinkers, practitioners and entrepreneurs of commercial creativity a platform to gather and find creative answers to commercial questions. It is a place for people in the creative industry to trade ideas, debate opinions, conceive projects, celebrate work, tell their tales and generally just get lit up.
“We began very modestly in 2010 with no portfolio, experience or sponsorship capital. All we had was our creativity. We set ourselves the task of learning and mastering the craft,” said Calvin Bosilong, co-founder of Ideas Expo. He remembered how he and his business partner, Tumiso Mabufela, worked hard and sometimes made mistakes which they learnt a lot from, to make the initiative what it is today. He however admitted that lady luck has been on their side as they eventually managed to woo sponsors and partners who supported and helped them to grow the event.
“Fortunately, the corporate world warmed up to the initiative and they have been very supportive lately,” he said.
The Ideas Expo team has finally realized their dream which was to break the boundary that exists between different creative industries and the corporate world in Botswana. Through the expo, they create an environment where both industries can co-create and collaborate for commercial purposes. In a sense it is the intersection of creativity and business. Done in partnership with the Association of Communication Agencies, The Segai Awards are advertising awards that celebrate and reward creative excellence in all aspects of brand communication and are scheduled for the last day of the Expo. The awards are dedicated to recognizing, rewarding and fostering creative excellence.
Bosilong also revealed that the two day event will feature a high impact program of robust discussions, presentations and stimulating content that will surely leave participants educated and enthused. He is very confident that they have selected speakers who are highly pedigreed individuals that have built companies from struggling start up’s to successful brands. It will be a great ensemble of thought leaders who are mostly entrepreneurs and have instigated ideas that brought social and economic change.
“With talent development initiatives like the Creative Jumpstart, we hope to attract talent which is the lifeblood of our industry. In the process we will bridge the gap between academia and practice. We are inspired to be instigators and catalysts of a new creative economy as we fervently believe creativity is the new diamond, that’s forever,” said Bosilong.
