Felipe Buitrago at 5th Annual Culture Creative Industry Forum

On June 19, the Department of Culture within the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth & Sport hosted its first day of the 5th Annual Culture Creative Industry Forum (CCIF) at the Belair Community Center in Cay Hill. This year the goal of CCIF 2023, under the theme “The Development of the Creative Industry: The Role of the Individual in Creating Success”, is to place emphasis on what will ensure a successful development of the Culture Creative Industry in St. Maarten.

This year, the keynote speakers are Felipe Buitrago, Dr. Keith Nurse, and Dr. Erica K. Smith Ph.D.

The first keynote speaker, Mr. Felipe Buitrago, is a highly accomplished professional with an impressive track record in the Cultural & Creative Economy and the Information & Communications Technology sectors. With over 22 years of experience, Felipe has held prominent positions and made significant contributions in various areas, including policymaking, academic research, and authorship. As the former Minister of Culture of Colombia, Felipe played a pivotal role in shaping and implementing impactful public policies. Mr. Buitrago is a renowned author and has co-authored influential books such as 'The Orange Economy: An Infinite Opportunity' and 'Orange Economy: An Infinite Reality' with former President of Colombia, Ivan Duque.

Felipe starts by comparing starting a new business to learning how to skate. “You have done something cunning,” he says. “You are going to fall, the first thing you need is to make sure that there's a helping hand - somebody who can tell you it's okay to fail. Now get up and try again. We need to make sure that society and policies are there for us in order to truly let you understand that failure is not terminal. So you can learn and move on.

The second thing you're going to need is to understand you are going to be alright. When you are trying to do something as risky as creating a company, you are putting your reputation, your jeopardy, your financial resources, and your time on the line. It's going to take a very long time for you to get up and try again.

That's when you need to have some sort of financial cushions - support. This is not speaking about fully subsidizing or fully covering losses for people from the government or society. This may be having rates for special loans for entrepreneurship that reduces the damage that can be caused by taking the risk of leaving a company.

And finally, you need an environment without obstacles and facilitates people getting together - a government that understands the needs of the people, and streamlines the processes of being creative, being entrepreneurs, and getting together to design a system where there is protection and the possibility to escape as fast as you can.

The consumption and the inspiration you can derive from culture are important. This is why you need to make sure that policies engage in having different infrastructures and need society to develop different places and options for people to access. Culture is not only about having great artists with great brands, it's the artists having a diversification of opportunities.

Let's try not to be limited with how we understand our needs for the consumption of culture. We need to be traded. And I think that's something a government is never going to do. Right? That is something that has to be done very carefully. That's something that has to be done by the creativity and the need to adapt and the possibility of evolving new technologies.”

The Culture Creative Industry Forum will be continuing tomorrow, June 20th, at 8 am. Persons interested are encouraged to register online at https://forms.office.com/r/gZD0n5PHNY or come in person to the Belair Community Center. Persons who are unable of being there in person, also have the opportunity to join via the Facebook page of the Department of Culture Facebook@DOCSXM starting at 9:00 am until 5:00 pm