Although persons who attended the Creatives Go Global workshop were thrilled that the Creative and Cultural Industry was finally getting recognition from the government, they felt that the workshop, which focused primarily on marketing strategies and exporting services, did not address the challenges they are facing presently.
The three-day Creatives Go Global workshop, which concluded on Wednesday, was an initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which acted in collaboration with the Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA). The workshop was held at the Umana Yana in Kingston, Georgetown and was facilitated by Rabindra Jaggernauth, who is an Information Technology and Management Consultant from Trinidad.
Participants included filmmakers, writers, fashion designers, painters, consultants, among others.
Dianna Da Silva-Glasgow, the Director of the Department of Foreign Trade, explained that the initiative was requested by the industry and after reviewing the cultural industry’s development strategies, they invited persons to a meeting and discussed the challenges that the industry was facing. During that meeting, she revealed, persons identified that there is a need for capacity building and requested a workshop based on that. She said that the workshop was to help participants understand the business and be able to promote themselves in the business.
Meanwhile, Sherwyn Naughton, who is part of the Creative Industry Task Force formed in March of this year, revealed that the workshop was the first to be held in Guyana and focused mainly on how to export goods to Europe, the United States and Canada. He also revealed that they were expecting a maximum of 25 participants and were very surprised with the large turnout. “Most times the seminars are small and for specific sectors but for us over 40 persons registered for the event, it’s a bit overwhelming,” he said.
Naughton further stated that the response to the workshop definitely shows that there is a need for more events like those and that the Task Force is planning on doing other aspects of training in areas such as branding and packaging for people in the creative industry, along with Product Development.
SWOT
On the first day of the workshop, focus was primarily placed on assessing participants’ export readiness and they also did a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis, along with an introduction to understanding trade services. Additionally, participants were taught how develop an export plan and how to research Markets.
On the second day, the workshop focused on researching sectors and gathering Market intelligence, in addition to developing a Digital Marketing Strategy. Over three dozen participants were placed in five groups and were given two exercises on the topic mentioned. After delivering their presentations, Jaggernauth applauded their efforts, saying, “I am very impressed with the exercise you did.
Notably, on day two of the workshop, there was a lack of response by the participants on the topics that were discussed, however, on the last day there seemed to be a general understanding of what was being presented. On Wednesday, the workshop started off with an exercise where participants were required to make a proposal for a person in the group, after which they were told of the advantages of using a social media platform business-wise. There was a discussion on the benefits of being online and how a successful online presence will enhance profits through increased sales, improved savings and more efficient management.
Next, there were discussions about export related costs and the fact that strategic pricing is one of the most important factors in achieving financial success.
Additionally, representatives from the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) were invited to brief the participants about the necessary steps that they need to take once they are ready to export their goods.
However, although most participants of the workshop thought that it was “a very informative workshop”, they said that the industry is nowhere close to the advancement of the workshop.
“I think it is a very informative workshop but it is abstract and I feel that they need to do groundwork first to find out what the artisan needs and what is our problem and what we need to move forward and then work with our module. I think that the module that is being used is not a module where the artisan is right now. It may be working in other countries but maybe next five-ten years we will be ready for this,” the owner of Guyana Natural Fibre Fashion and Art Association related.
She stressed that the module that was used is for developing companies rather than the smaller ones. She revealed that although they attended several capacity building sessions in the past, the only reason she understood it was because her
consultants were attending it with her. “Most of what we have been doing here, I don’t do it,” she explained.
A bit too high
Fatu Gbedema, the owner of the online Game Changers Handicraft Store, said that it is important for anyone who has a creative business to be able to develop a plan which will help them to become export ready. “This is good information but I do feel that it is a bit too high level for most of the participants— but not me because I’m management consultant., but I’m also an artist so it’s easy for me to understand what he’s doing but for most people it’s a bit high level,” she said. She noted, however, that persons in Guyana need to elevate their standards and even though the workshop is informative, it’s for more advanced countries.
Another participant said that although he is “thrilled” that the government is “finally” placing the spotlight on the creative industry, he feels that a lot that has been discussed doesn’t relate to the country or even to his struggling business. “I thought that this was about capacity building but it’s all about export. I’m not ready to export,” the frustrated man said.
For Shannae Trotz, the workshop was very beneficial. She said that it has widened her knowledge on marketing strategies.
Echoing the sentiments of some of the participants, Jaggernauth revealed that the participants were “performing well” but a lot of them are not export ready. He stated that they were each given a checklist to assess their export readiness and most of them acknowledged that they are not ready for exporting. “This makes the workshop even more relevant ’cause they will learn what they will need to do in order for them to export”, he said. Additionally, Jaggernauth further stated that during the course of the workshop, the most important thing that the participants learned was how to develop export plans even if their target is the domestic market. They will now have an idea on that, along with marketing strategies which can also be used in the domestic market.
Another member of the Creative Industry Task Force, Ruel Johnson, stated that the workshop, which was initially supposed to be about capacity building, ended up being a capacity assessment by default. He noted that the level of development in Guyana is so varied that not everyone will have maximum benefit of what is being said in the workshop.
Their intention, he said, was to create a specific intervention when it came to the creative industry in Guyana. He also said that rather than export readiness, focus should be on a specific sector. He added that after having workshops on specific sectors, they can tell CEDA that they are ready for another workshop like this and also give them feedback about the challenges being faced in the industry with regards to development for export capacity.
He said in addition to that, they can also give solutions on how they can solve the problems. “We will have to go back to the drawing board somewhat from a capacity assessment strategy, particularly one that deals with the specific sectors, in what those sectors need. So we have to have a focus on creative writers, publishers, crafts people, etc. and then when we make those inputs on these specific sector, then we can hold a workshop like this,” he said.
