The annual creative conference Ideas Expo, which is on its fourth year running, is set for the month of June. Although the exact dates are yet to be confirmed, the organizers revealed that once again, the event will be a weeklong appreciation of creative inspiration. Since its inception, the expo has been the event to look forward to for local trends in design, technology, innovation and new ideas as it offers young budding minds a chance to interact with established local and international industry players.
“The Expo’s mandate has always been to create a platform where the creative can network and be inspired. We want to commercialize creativity and push harder for a creative economy and we want to do this by encouraging others in the industry to constantly come up with ideas that create change in the social space,” said Tumiso Mabusela, co-founder of Ideas Expo. Commenting on what new activities they will be adding to the program, Mabusela revealed that although there were few new additions, their main focus was to develop the existing activities. “This year, we want to push other existing activities such as the exhibition part of the creative week. Last year it did not attract as many people so this year we want it to have a market fee and stand out. We are calling out to all interested people who are doing amazing work; fashion designers, graphic designers, jewelry designers, sculptors, furniture markers or just anyone who might be doing good work. Partying is also part of our nature so we also want to encourage people to really make use of the social mixers which are a great place to network with key people in the industry in a more relaxed atmosphere,” he said.
Calvin Bosilong, also co-founder of Ideas Expo added that, “besides growing the exhibition part of the expo, we want to ensure that this year at least one panel discussion is focused on a specific local issue that bothers creatives.” Other than the developments, the team revealed that this year they will be introducing a new activity called creative jumpstart which is powered by the ACA Awards. “With the creative jumpstart we want to bridge the gap between what creatives in disciplines such as advertising learn in academia and how it is really like in the industry. So we are giving upcoming advertising guys to interact with CEO’s of big advertising corporations on a timed one on one in order to learn and experience on a first hand basis what the real industry is really like. There is always an outcry that there is not enough talent out there but we beg to differ; there is a lot, all we need to do is point that talent to the right doors and teach them about the advertising industry and what real briefs look like,” said Bosilong.
The 2014 Ideas Expo will include; creative jumpstart challenge, judging, conference by different local and regional speakers, exhibitions and lastly the Advertising Awards and social mixers. Speakers to the conference are yet to be announced.