DTI-CITEM, CCP Brings Performing Arts and Business Together at MIPAM x CREATE PH

The joint edition of the Manila International Performing Arts Market (MIPAM) and CREATE Philippines opened to the public last 19-21 September 2019 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. MIPAM x CREATE PH is a collaborative 3-day event organized by the Department of Trade and Industry’s Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (DTI-CITEM) and the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).

The event’s primary objective is to help bridge closer the performing arts and the business sectors to better equip artists with the proper know-how to capitalize on their skills. Talents and production companies involved in the performing arts are connected with the respective parties from the business sector needed to legitimize, grow and protect the creative outputs of artists and related businesses alike.

In line with its goals, MIPAM x CREATE PH hosted three capacity-building seminars, alongside its lineup of performance showcases and participating exhibitors. Held at CCP’s Tanghalang Manuel Conde, these seminars focused on topics aimed at informing and educating members of the performing arts sector on how to properly secure and capitalize on their intellectual properties.

The first talk under the Business of Performing Arts banner was headed by Atty. BJ Palattao as he enlightened the audience with the technicalities surrounding the intellectual property (IP) rights within the arts industry. Palattao discussed the basics regarding IP rights and explained the differences among patents, trademarks, service marks and copyrights. As the business seminar was within the context of the performing arts, Palattao focused on discussing copyrights, how they come to be and how to protect oneself from copyright infringement. The talk closed with an enthusiastic Q&A session as audience members asked copyright queries one after the other within the context of their various creative backgrounds.

The second day of the event hosted two back-to-back seminars in the afternoon that followed the day’s theater, music and dance showcases. The first one, titled “The Journey of Starting a Professional Practice, Organization or Start-up Company,” was conducted by Tripleshot Media Founder & CEO Jake Allan de Guzman. “Every journey has a pattern,” according to de Guzman as he likened the process of finding or starting one’s professional practice to the template of the Hero’s Journey.

Graphic designer and entrepreneur AJ Dimarucot’s seminar followed right after wherein he gave advice on how to effectively package and sell one’s ideas and creative outputs by sharing the story of how he went from designing web pages for fun in the early 2000s to collaborating with brands like Nike and Adidas to design apparel and footwear inspired by prominent NBA players. “Be where your intended audience is,” Dimarucot explains as he talks about getting your creative content in front of the right audience. The closing Q&A session had a mix of questions directed at both Dimarucot and de Guzman as their topics overlapped in a number of areas.

All three seminars filled CCP’s Tanghalang Manuel Conde and were actively participated in by their respective audiences as the speakers shared their industry insights and discussed issues concerning the business side of the arts industry.

CREATE PH is the Philippine government’s trade platform for knowledge-sharing and business networking activities for the local creative industries. Its partnership with MIPAM for 2019 highlights the performing arts as one of the country’s premiere formats of artistic expression.