Bureau of Tourism Research identified the tourism gift market to be worth over $700 million, yet it was flooded with poor quality, clichéd imported gifts and fake Indigenous souvenirs. The research also demonstrated that international tourists and domestic visitors demanded local, authentic gifts and souvenirs, yet such gifts were not easily found especially in major tourist destinations.

Creative Economy identified this as an opportunity for visual artists and designers and founded Memento Australia to set new standards in the quality and innovation of gifts and to promote local authentic mementos.

Memento Australia began as an Awards campaign with distinct criteria based on Australian designed and made, which proved to be the “formula” for a successful memento. Through strategic partnerships Memento Australia grew to include, a touring exhibition, online distribution portal and education program for product development.

In ten years, Memento Australia was able to launch over 2000 new authentic Australian tourism mementos, attract over $4.5 million worth of media value for Australian artists and creative enterprises; engage in exporting Australian products (including participation in the G’Day USA campaign in New York) and secure multiple strategic partnerships to fund its development.

The Commonwealth Bank (CBA) is the largest Australian listed company on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), and is the largest bank in the southern hemisphere with brands including Bank West, Colonial First State and CommSec.  The Commonwealth Bank Group strategic vision is “to excel at securing and enhancing the financial wellbeing of people, businesses and communities“. Both CBA’s Diversity and Inclusion Policy and their Reconciliation Action Plan are strategically aligned to this vision and CBA were aware of the need to better understand and improve the inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, businesses and communities.

The CBA engaged Creative Economy and The BlackCard to develop a Cultural Capability Framework, that aimed to increase CBA’s understanding of the cultural capability required for the organisation to enhance its relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The Cultural Capability Framework was developed using an Aboriginal Terms of Reference based on a worldview of Aboriginal philosophy, logic and knowledge combined with Creative Economy’s methodology that redefines the economy as a linkage and balance of social, cultural and economic outcomes.

The framework introduced people to a different way of thinking and being and includes a cultural continuum describing six stages in reaching cultural capability and recommendations for enhancing cultural capability at Commonwealth Bank Group. Cultural Capability is about operating fully within an Aboriginal Terms of Reference to improve ethical behaviour and improve relationships between all people.

The CBA Cultural Capability Framework informs strategies to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s inclusion in the Group’s vision, and Cultural Capability Training and Accreditation now forms part of workforce development. CBA now role model’s reconciliation with Reconciliation Australia awarding the CBA Reconciliation Plan Elevate status, its highest level.

The International Fund for Cultural Diversity (IFCD) is a multi-donor fund established under the 2005 UNESCO Convention for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. IFCD is key to the role of culture in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. Its purpose is to facilitate international cooperation for sustainable development, poverty reduction and dynamic cultural sectors in developing countries that are Parties to the 2005 Convention.

Creative Economy’s Helene George was engaged as one of six international experts in the fields of cultural policy and/or cultural industries to form the UNESCO IFCD Panel of Experts. Experts conduct transparent evaluations assessing probity and accountability of project plans, outcomes, resourcing and budgets against IFCD goals and outcomes.

Since 2010, the Expert Panel’s recommendations to IFCD has resulted in more than US $7 million in funding for nearly 100 projects in over 50 developing countries, covering a wide range of areas such as the development and implementation of cultural policies, capacity-building of cultural entrepreneurs, mapping of cultural industries and the creation of new cultural industry business models.

There is a significant gap internationally for platforms that provide young dancers with pathways in professional contemporary dance and few forums that connect acclaimed international directors, choreographers and teachers with talented young contemporary dancers. The Brisbane International Contemporary Dance Prix (BICDP) is a creatively ambitious project that was founded to address this gap in the contemporary dance world and contribute to Australia’s reputation for innovative, world class arts and culture.

The goal was to establish BICDP as a sustainable annual international initiative. To achieve this goal Creative Economy’s role has been to work with BICPD to establish a professional management framework, and most importantly, to develop a business model to ensure long term sustainability.

Successful staging of the BICDP in 2018 and 2019, has laid the foundation for it to become the most prestigious forum in the world offering talented young dancers training and professional opportunities with leading international artistic directors and choreographers in contemporary dance. Achievements since inception, include:

• 16 international partner schools and companies from Denmark, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Hong Kong, New Zealand, UK and Australia;
• 175 young dancers selected to participate;
• 100 offers made by directors to young dancers for professional opportunities and training.