The British Council supports Kuwait in its effort on implementing the Creative Economy Roadmap.

Through the Cluster and Creative Hubs Programme, the British Council works together with the National Council for Culture Arts and Letters (NCAAL) as well as InnovationRCA part of the Royal College of Art (RCA) to further the creative economy in Kuwait. For 2021-2022, the programme, which is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) of the UK government and delivered in partnership with British Council Kuwait, specifically focuses on developing creative hubs that provide convening space, business development, networking, and capacity building opportunities within the creative sector.

 As part of this programme a series of workshops will be held and delivered by InnovationRCA to entrepreneurs and creative hub managers, empowering them with the knowledge they need to make their business grow and sustain.

 InnovationRCA is the Royal College of Art’s centre for enterprise, entrepreneurship, incubation, and business support, bringing a wide range of expertise into the mentoring programme.

 The mentoring programme

 The Cluster and Creative Hubs Programme has a three-way approach:

  • Working with entrepreneurs to develop an action plan to build creative hubs
  • Selecting and supporting the most promising action plan
  • Building creative economy policies with national governing bodies

The British Council together with the InnovationRCA works with a group of creative hubs that are selected based on their potential to develop networks of creative professionals. At least 50% of the participants in this mentoring programme are female. Throughout the three-month, the mentees develop an action plan for a creative hub that convenes and develops communities of artists and cultural enterprises. The creative hubs are supported in multiple elements, including writing their business plans, developing them through testing and experimentation and taking them to implementation.

The focus of this phase of the programme is to get the businesses investment-ready, running through the phases of road-testing and fine-tuning, and enabling entrepreneurs to validate their market and customer proposition. The most promising action plans are selected and supported by InnovationRCA and the British Council through expertise advice and levering best practices from the programmes that run in other parts of the world.

For over 10 years the British Council has run the Creative Hubs programme successfully around the world, so they bring this expertise and their global portfolio to build upon. Furthermore, the creative hubs and their managers will receive practical support from the InnovationRCA.

Policy building

Throughout the PROGRAMME, the British Council also works with policymakers and the relevant government bodies in Kuwait to develop a framework that sets the right conditions in which creative industries can thrive. The framework is centred around creative clusters, which are public sector led and funded structures that respond to demand from citizens for cultural spaces.

There is a special focus on building policies that enable entrepreneurs within the creative sector that includes disabilities and women’s needs.

 

You can find all the work British Council does across the arts in Kuwait here.

 

The British Council in partnership with the British Embassy is collaborating with Royal College of Art’s Centre for Enterprise, Entrepreneurship, Incubation and Business Support (InnovationRCA) to deliver a workshops that will empower you as an entrepreneur with the knowledge to make your business more successful and sustainable.

The Programme is targeted towards Small-Medium businesses in the creative sector. It will be a 2 workshop series with 3 workshops in each series i.e. a total of 6 workshops and participants will be eligible to receive a certificate at the end of the programme subject to the terms and conditions.

Terms and conditions:

  • All interested individuals need to apply for the workshops and selected participants will be informed.
  • Participants will be selected based on a pre-determined set of criteria to ensure that these workshops are reaching the right audience
  • Participants must attend all 6 workshops to be eligible to receive the certificate.

1. Small and Medium-sized Enterprise: An entity that employs less than 50 people and has an asset base of less than KD 500,000 with revenues of less than KD 1,500,000 is considered an SME in Kuwait.

2. Creative Industries: Any businesses with creativity at their heart – for example, advertising, architecture, art and antiques, crafts, design, designer fashion, film and video, interactive leisure software (gaming), music, performing arts, publishing, software and computer services, TV and radio.

 

The Lean Canvas Workshop - 15th February 2021

Putting together an actionable and entrepreneur-focused business plan for creatives.

Delivered by Steve Everhard from Royal College of Art - UK.

An expert in mentoring and coaching to incubated start-ups with extensive experience in a wide range of technology and media industries, especially within engineering, sales and marketing.

 

Customers & Target Markets Workshop - 16th February 2021

Identifying, locating, messaging, servicing, delighting and retaining your target customers.

By Christina Richardson from Royal College of Art - UK.

A marketer and an entrepreneur who spent much of her career managing brands worth in excess of £100 million at Nestle, Britvic and Mercedes and turned her mission into supporting start-up brands to flourish through practical training and support.

Building Successful Teams Workshop - 17th February 2021

Identifying skill gaps, hiring and retaining staff, and getting the most out of them.

By Dr Nadia Danhash and Raphael Channer from Royal College of Art - UK.

Dr Nadia - Director of InnovationRCA , is an investor and business developer who has spent over ten years at the RCA developing enterprise and entrepreneurship programmes and supporting graduate entrepreneurs.

Raphael - Head of Incubation, InnovationRCA , He leads the InnovationRCA start-up programme, mentoring and guiding the company founders and managing them through a structured programme of development as they build their businesses.

Grow Fast, Grow Global Workshop - 8th March 2021

 Digital strategies to achieve rapid sales growth at home and internationally in the creative sector.

Delivered by Sarah Carroll from Royal College of Art - UK.

She is the Founder of Grow Global and the author of ‘Grow Fast, Grow Global: 6 steps to unstoppable international growth in the digital age’ and she is a world-leading expert who over the last 10 years, she has propelled over 5,000 companies on their international digital journey and helped them to achieve up to 10x growth by translating her depth of knowledge on digital trade into simple, clear actions to follow.

 

 

Managing and Forecasting Cash-flow Workshop - 9th March 2021

A guide to getting on top of, and staying on top of, your company's finances.

Delivered by Johnny Martin from Royal College of Art - UK.

Johnny Martin is an experienced Finance Director who now passionately explains business numbers and jargon. He is the author of the highly acclaimed book Understanding Your Business Finances and his workshops have been awarded “High Impact” status by Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Successful Fundraising Workshop - 10th March 2021

How to put together and deliver a winning pitch for growth finance.

By Dr Nadia Danhash , Raphael Channer and Stephen Rockman from Royal College of Art - UK.

Dr Nadia - Director of InnovationRCA , is an investor and business developer who has spent over ten years at the RCA developing enterprise and entrepreneurship programmes and supporting graduate entrepreneurs.

Raphael - Head of Incubation, InnovationRCA , He leads the InnovationRCA start-up programme, mentoring and guiding the company founders and managing them through a structured programme of development as they build their businesses.

Stephen Rockman - Angel Investor & Entrepreneur in Residence, InnovationRCA , has been investing in, advising and mentoring startups for more than ten years and founded Merism Capital in 2010, to invest in seed and early stage impact businesses.He is a a Trustee of Shift Ventures Trust which researches, designs and builds social businesses that solve social problems. He sits on the Advisory Boards of Ada, the National College for Digital Skills and CW+.

Networking Event - 24th March 2021

The networking event aims to bring together all the workshop participants for a chance to meet each other casually, discuss ideas and build long lasting connections with each other as well as with RCA experts.

For more info about the UK experts , visit InnovationRCA
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