Culture Editor | Conversation Host at Bloom Org
Programme
Wed 6 July

REGISTRATION
REGISTRATION
STILLNESS SESSION

STILLNESS SESSION
WITH THE NEST SPACE
Head to the Stillness Session for a morning stretch with The Nest Space; some good energy and a gentle welcome to the So Creative Summit. No need to bring anything for the session. Coffee and tea will be served on the side.
S Official Opening
Official Opening
Don’t keep it to yourself with MARCO MORGAN

RESOURCES TALK
Don’t keep it to yourself
with MARCO MORGAN
Marco Morgan is the Social Impact: Cultural Manager at the V&A Waterfront – an organisation that has proven its commitment to creativity, sustainability and innovation through extraordinary projects. Join his talk to hear a story about shared resources and values.
Coffee Klatch
Coffee Klatch
Noun / an informal social occasion at which people drink coffee and talk
VALUE WORKSHOP

VALUE WORKSHOP
THE CREATIVE RESOURCE AUDIT
with Mariapaola McGurk
Mariapaola McGurk, MP for short, is a visual artist, researcher, lecturer and consultant. Her area of speciality lies in the creative economy and creative entrepreneurship. MP is passionate about creative entrepreneurship and its potential positive impact on youth unemployment in South Africa. She holds an honours degree in visual arts and an executive MBA from Henley Business School. In this active workshop, MP helps us sharpen the tools to function best in a creative economy.
Lunch
Lunch
Fresh & delicious – find the food truck
COMMUNICATION TALK

COMMUNICATION TALK
Monetise Your Talent Online
with LEBO LION
Lebo Lion is an award-winning digital marketer, iTunes podcasting pioneer, speaker, author, strategist and influencer whose viral Twitter threads, digital marketing expertise and courageous conversations have led to her being one of South Africa’s most sought-after speakers and business consultants. She has transformed more than 1 000 South African start-ups and SMMEs through her global Top 100 iTunes podcast, The Lebo Lion Show. Known as the Voice of Marketing in Africa, Lebo shares her no-nonsense ideas on how to build your brand and diversify your streams of income. Take notes, these tips come fast.
Coffee Klatch
Coffee Klatch
Noun / an informal social occasion at which people drink coffee and talk
TECHNOLOGY TALK

TECHNOLOGY TALK
Art for Everyone: an insight into Atmospheric Memory
with Rafael
Lozano-Hemmer
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Atmospheric Memory premiered at Manchester International Festival in 2019. He will be joining us to share some of his insights in developing Atmospheric Memory – and ensuring the work was accessible to all. For more information about the artist, visit his website www.lozano-hemmer.com
Thu 7 July

PROGRAMME
Registration
coffee & tea
coffee & tea
VALUE TALK

VALUE TALK
Artistic Integrity and the Brand
with RUSSELL ABRAHAMS & KRISTEN CLAGUE
Russell Abrahams is a Cape Town-based illustrator and the founder of illustration studio Yay Abe. His designs are colourful, playful and able to own any space. They have already been wrapped around a KFC bucket, sandwiched in a Bombay Sapphire zine, stretched across Africa’s largest billboard, and, most recently, appeared in an exciting collab with H&M.
His partner Kristen Clague is a marketer and textile artist who has turned her lockdown hobby into a successful creative business. Together, they talk about the integration of brand and artistic integrity. How do you play with the big brands and still retain your artistic values?
RESOURCES WORKSHOP

RESOURCES WORKSHOP
Something to GIVE! A VANSA workshop
with Dillion S Phiri
The business of creativity and culture is as important as the act and experience of the creation. Often left until the end, this is when the struggles and challenges appear. Entrepreneurial and business thinking is important to your practice, whether solo or team. This workshop dives into the best business practices that creative and cultural producers should merge into their daily practice.
The workshop is led by Dillion S Phiri. As the co-founder of Creative Nestlings, he has brought thousands of creatives across the continent and the world together, spotlighting key voices in the global conversation on the business of creativity. As the co-founding partner and a lead mentor/coach at J&B Hive, Dillion co-created the operational strategy and creative fund that support the growth of South African brands such as Tshepo the Jeanmaker, Bathu and Wolf & Co.
Coffee Klatch
Coffee Klatch
Noun / an informal social occasion at which people drink coffee and talk
ACCESS TALK

ACCESS TALK
Access from the Perspective of Global Opportunities
with Michelle Rocha
Michelle Rocha is the Head of Touring at Manchester International Festival (UK). She is also a board member of Quarantine, the theatre company. She was previously the Producer (music and outdoor) at West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong. She was part of the programming team at the Wales Millennium Centre for the 2012 Olympics, and has worked at the Hong Kong Dance Company, Lushington/Live Nation, the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Hong Kong International Jazz Festival. She is a Clore Fellow. If the world is calling, you need to get to this talk.
Lunch
lunch
Fresh & delicious – find the food truck
SUSTAINABILITY WORKSHOP

SUSTAINABILITY WORKSHOP
Ecosystems thinking: rethinking
project design
with Tamara SCHULZ
project design
with Tamara SCHULZ
with Tamara SCHULZ
Tamara Schulz is a generalist: she desires that all of her writing, thinking, teaching, cooking, dreaming, planting and art-making might serve to destabilise the way we think about our belonging to and within earth’s systems and more-than-human families. In this workshop, she asks what we really mean when we talk about ecosystems in creative organisations or projects. How do we refresh ideas about project outputs, growth cycles and indices for measuring success? And how do we move away from extractive, competition-based thinking towards more interdependent models?
MOVEMENT SESSION
MOVEMENT SESSION
WITH THE NEST SPACE
Reinvigorate your body and mind for the home stretch. No need to bring anything to this short energy-booster.
SUSTAINABILITY TALK

SUSTAINABILITY TALK
Sustainability has Creativity at Heart
with Thobile Chittenden
As CEO of Makers Valley Partnership, a community organisation in the east of Johannesburg, Thobile is a special interest in social and creative entrepreneurship as well as non-profit organisations. A recent TedX speaker, she is a network co-lead at the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, a global movement that advocates for alternative economies that serve people and the planet. She is a board member of City Kidz, a Joburg school, and recently participated in the Social Entrepreneurship Programme at the Gordon Institute of Business Science. Thobile talks to us about why creativity is integral to sustainability and how the sector can roll up its sleeves.
Coffee Klatch
Coffee Klatch
Noun / an informal social occasion at which people drink coffee and talk
Pitch Den
Pitch Den
You’ve got five minutes to pitch your incredible idea. Three winning pitches take R30 0000, R20 000 or R10 000 each, courtesy of Business and Arts South Africa. Sign up before lunch on 6 July for a chance to impress the panel and kickstart your dream.
Closing remarks and thanks
Closing & thanks
Networking session
Networking session
Opening with DJ Zandile Nongogo
Pitch Den Winners announced
Pitch Den winners announced
IMMERSIONS
Experience So Creative Immersions throughout the Summit:
Manifesto Maker Lab
Head into our zine zone facilitated by Alphabet Zoo to add your collab to the Manifesto for the Cultural Sector. What do we need to do to make an impact, create sustainability and transform the cultural and creative sector?
Digital Art & Short Films
Short films and extracts from The Bridges Project (ReRouting Arts Festival), Manchester International Festival, Dawid Boverhoff and Kosie Smit, African indigenous storytelling by Deidre Jantjies, Postcards from Now (Manchester International Festival) and STEAMi Talks.
INSTALLATION
Logo installation by Tamzyn Botha, made using found objects.