This Thursday and Friday lobby of the MAAC it will become a space to strengthen ties between entrepreneurs and creative creators. For two days, the networking for cultural and creative industries called Conecta EC, presented by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage.
The Connect EC It is made up of four business roundtables that will take place, on different dates, during 2022. This first edition, which is based in Guayaquil, will be focused on the video game industry.
In this way, creators, producers, distributors and investors from the creative industries will gather in a single space. “These are the four links in the value chain of any creative industry. What we seek is to strengthen the relations between these links, so that businesses can be closed and new businesses can be started within the framework of this business roundtable that we are going to hold”, explains Luis Garcés, Undersecretary of Entrepreneurship, Arts and Innovation of Ecuador.
Anyone related to the video game industry can participate in this meeting, from developers, programmers, scriptwriters, effects specialists, illustrators, sound engineers, virtual reality developers, to musicians. “Around 250 attendees are confirmed”, affirms Garcés, who indicates that investors will participate electronically and in person, from various places in the world such as Miami, New Delhi or Spain.
Among those confirmed are Christian Andrade, representative of Epic Games (Ecuador); Sergio Ramirez, CEO at demiurge LBX (Mexico); Ivan Fernandezfounder of GameLab (Ecuador); Henry Hill, audience director and builder (Ecuador); and, Robert Miranda, founder and CEO of Plan-below (Ecuador). In addition to the participation of incubators from Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca and Loja.
The meeting will take place in the middle of an informal atmosphere, which will include the musical intervention of the Guayaquil Symphony Orchestra, that will interpret musical themes of video games. “The idea is to create this pleasant environment, so that in addition to the methodology it has these spaces where much more spontaneous, more informal dialogues can be generated, even among people who want to close deals in the middle of this environment”describes Garces.
Access to this first edition is free, registering with your data in the form available on the official website of the Ministry of Culture and Heritage (www.culturaypatrimonio.gob.ec). “There is a selection. They can register as participants or attendees or they can go to the event directly without registering, so they can see all the exhibition there is, for example, augmented reality devices; the idea is that the experience is very immersive”details the undersecretary.
For the day of the meeting, tables made up of creators, producers, distributors and investors will be set up. Each group will have 15 minutes for each round and will rotate between the tables to present your idea/project to investors and potential new partners.
After the business round, there will be a space in which the promotion mechanisms, tax incentives and financing mechanisms of the related institutions will be disseminated.
Conecta EC will be this Thursday and Friday at the museum, located in Malecon and Loja (inside the Malecón Simón Bolívar). His shift will run from 4:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
The next editions will be focused on the fashion design (scheduled for June), audiovisuals and music. “We want to do a Fashion Week”advances Garces.
The video game sector in Ecuador
Garcés indicates that they decided to start the business rounds with the video game sector due to the exponential growth it has had since the pandemic.
“There is a study by the United Nations Agency for Trade in which it is mentioned that since the pandemic, the video game sector has been the one with the greatest exponential growth of the creative industries. It has had a growth of around 600% globally in terms of market share in different countries”, Garces maintains.
“We don’t see it as a sector that has developed little, we see it as a sector that has a lot to develop in Ecuador. In the country there are video games created 100% here, we have even participated in international fairs”, Add. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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