THE thought of using a Silicon Valley model of development for the creative industries in Jamaica led Andrea Dempster Chung and her team at Kingston Creative to establish an ecosystem for entrepreneurs in that sector.

According to Dempster Chung, the programme, called CreaTech, uses technology to drive the growth of the creative economy, spawn new business opportunities, and accelerate the export of creative products and services.

Sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to the tune of $190 million, CreaTech, which began in 2021, has a lifespan of three years.

“The objective of this 36-month partnership between Kingston Creative and IDB is to increase market access for Jamaican creative entrepreneurs by providing global market access, new digital platforms, technologies training, and capacity building to add economic and social value to cultural assets through the development of new business models,” a web page dedicated to the programme outlines.

One of the main challenges the CreaTech programme seeks to address is informality. To this end, Kingston Creative has launched a business and intellectual property (IP) registration drive under Createch, working with community-based organisations in and around the downtown Kingston area to get creative entrepreneurs to register their business operations, trademarks, and apply for copyright protection.

“This allows us to generate leads for a number of participants for our programmes — including our accelerator, our incubator, some of our training programmes — and then through those training programmes what we do is, people who participate who are not formalised, we give them the opportunity and facilitate them getting formalised,” Dominic McDowell, project manager at Kingston Creative, said last Wednesday during a Jamaica Observer Business Forum.

“And then there is the general public outreach as well, which goes out through our general marketing efforts to attract people to the drive,” he added.

Through CreaTech, Kingston Creative helps entrepreneurs who are still in the ideation stage to develop their businesses from concept to full operation. While the organisation cannot compel entrepreneurs to register their businesses after completing the incubator, it encourages them to do so in order to qualify for other benefits.

For instance, to qualify as a participant in the accelerator programme an entrepreneur would need to be in business for a year and have the entity registered.

“Similarly, when we have grant openings from the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ)-funded programmes, part of the requirement for that is that you have a registered entity. So, those who would have applied for a DBJ IGNITE grant who may not have had formal registration for their business, through the IP and business registration drive we facilitate that part of the process so that they can qualify for the grant funding,” McDowell explained.

“So it’s a carrot at the end of the stick,” Kingston Creative co-founder and Executive Director Andrea Dempster Chung chimed in.

To date, about 250 entrepreneurs have expressed an interest in registering their business. Of that number, 107 have successfully become registered entities while approximately 50 creatives are awaiting approval of their applications.

But there are always reasons for entrepreneurs to hesitate when faced with registering their business and IP, both Dempster Chung and McDowell agree.

While applying for copyright protection can be an easy process, securing a trademark may take up to nine months. Still, McDowell argued that getting a trademark carries benefits such as protecting an entrepreneur’s brand as well as leveraging that brand internationally.

Pointing out that music is one of Jamaica’s “most visible creative [assets]”, the project manager said that one of the ways in which recording artistes can leverage a trademark is through securing deals with international record companies.

When asked from what areas of the cultural and creative industry Kingston Creative is seeing an expression of interest, McDowell listed fashion, digital design, technology, gastronomy, and film.

“I don’t think there is any aspect or area of the creative industry where we don’t have someone or one person expressing an interest or has completed that process,” McDowell shared, pointing out, however, that there are still not enough applicants.

On this note he indicated that another drawback amongst creatives becoming registered is their concern for or fear of paying and filing taxes.

“Through our consultations we provide information that can help to allay those fears, as well as from time to time we’ll reach out to Companies Office [of Jamaica] or [Tax Administration Jamaica] to provide workshops that can help to address those concerns,” he told the Business Observer.

Another initiative of CreaTech is providing training and job qualifications in collaboration with HEART/ NSTA Trust. Already, through the joint training programme entrepreneurs have been exposed to courses such as Introduction to Creative Entrepreneurship, Digital Marketing, and Social Media Management.

According to CreaTech Programme Manager Karen Hutchinson, over the next six months the programme will introduce courses like Branding and Communication, and Finance and Accounting.

Highlighting a successful case study from the training, Hutchinson said that one businesswoman from Trench Town who makes fascinators and face masks had the opportunity of showcasing her products at this year’s staging of Expo Jamaica.