The British Council, in collaboration with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), is hosting the Creative Nation Summit 2024 from 30 September to 1 October 2024 at the Rizal Park Hotel in Manila.

It will focus on creative technology, statistics and creative placemaking to advance the Philippines’ goal of becoming Southeast Asia’s premier creative hub by 2030.

Through cross-sector collaboration between the private sector, artists, researchers and policymakers, the event will explore innovative strategies to empower the creative industry as a leading economic driver.

The summit will focus on creative technologies, placemaking and statistics — all essential for fostering sustainable and vibrant communities. These themes emerged from the two UK missions, which brought Philippine-based policymakers and national government agency officials to learn from UK experts in the public and private sectors in cities like London, Bradford, Leeds, Edinburgh and Dundee.

Andrei Nikolai Pamintuan, the British Council Philippines’ Head of Arts, emphasized the summit’s importance. “The Creative Nation Summit is a critical platform for collaboration, bringing together innovative minds from various sectors. It’s an opportunity to showcase the Filipino talent and strategize ways in which the Philippines can leverage its creative economy for sustained growth,” he explained.

UK experts to lead key sessions

For this year’s summit, the British Council is inviting two distinguished UK creative industry experts to speak at the event:

Graham Hitchen, Director of the Loughborough University Policy Unit and co-director of the Creative Research and Innovation Centre, will deliver a keynote on The Future of Work and Play: Creativity and Technology in a Changing World on 30 September, 11 a.m.

Hitchen will delve into the transformative role of creative technology in shaping the future of industries and how the Philippines can harness this power to drive growth.

For his part, Tom Kihl, managing director of The Local Content Company (The Loco) and a cultural journalist for over two decades, will explore the role of Creative Placemaking in his talk on 1 October, 1 p.m.

Drawing on his work in the UK on projects like Hackney Wick’s creative regeneration and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Kihl will discuss how placemaking can revitalize urban spaces and drive community engagement and economic development.

Both speakers will join the panel discussion on Challenges and Opportunities in CreaTech on 30 September at 3:45 p.m., which will focus on how creative technologies can spark innovation and contribute to sustainable growth in the Philippine creative economy.

The British Council continues to strengthen its ties with the DTI through initiatives supporting the Philippine Creative Industries Development Act and the country’s overall creative economy.

The Creative Nation Summit directly results from the British Council and DTI’s mission visits to the UK in 2023 as part of the organizations’ three-year Memorandum of Understanding.