Nigeria, Dec 16: On Dec 8-9, Westown Hotel at the heart of Nigeria’s and Africa’s fastest growing city of Lagos hosted this year’s edition of British Council Creative Industries Expo. The well-attended event featured top-level speakers and moderators from Nigeria, UK and South Africa.

Those who spoke at the event include British Council director Arts Ojoma Ochai;National Endowment for Science Technology & the Arts, UK Emma Clarence; Ford Foundation Paul Nwulu,; Studio TILT, UK Oliver Marlow; PinPoint Media CEO Chris Ihidero; Afrinolly CEO Chike Maduegbuna; Impact Hub, South Africa founder Leslie Donna Williams; CCHub co-founder Femi Longe; Goethe Institute director Marc-Andre Schmactel; Tech Cabal co-founder Seyi Taylor; Enterprise Creative CEO Nkiru Asika; Kenya; Andrea Burns, ROCO UK.

Speakers shared their experiences, expertise, vision and strategies for building collaborative work practices and gave examples of the diverse forms of collaboration taking place both in Nigeria and around the world. Members of the highly participatory audience also shared their experiences and thoughts on alliance.

Participants discussed extensively on the subjects of trust, values, having clear parameters or agreements and the need to develop a mind-set that is open to partnership.

Inspired with the presentations, four young entrepreneurs gave short testimonials tagged #MyCollaborationStory, telling how collaboration had helped them to achieve growth in their businesses, and as well as individuals.

Owners of idea hubs also moderated an action planning session to identify and decide on the key steps needed to develop more collaboration within the creative sector. This action plan will be available on the British Council website in due course.

A major highlight of the Expo was the Entrepreneurs Pitching Contest which featured 8 shortlisted entrepreneurs who pitched to the audience and were evaluated by a panel of three Judges - Impact Hub, South Africa Leslie Donna Williams; Bogobiri House and iDesign Tola Akerele and Passion Incubator co-founder Olufunbi Falayi.

At the end, two runners-up were David Ugoagbara of Priceleakers.com, an online marketplace for building materials, Ayodele Elegba of Comicpanel.org, an online hub for comics and related industries and the winner was Sulaiman Teslim Olalekan of [url]Shopinfo.com.ng[/url], an application that helps shoppers source goods in local shops, check stock availability and compare prices.

The top 3 will receive desk space, advisory services, mentoring and incubation from the Enterprise Creative HotHouse, Passion Incubator, Wennovation Hub and IDEA Hub. They will also receive seed funding – NGN300,000 (approximately US$1,600) to Shopinfo.com.ng and NGN100,000 (US$559.44) to the two runners-up courtesy of CBO Capital, a Lagos-based financial advisory firm.

"We are pleased to have encouraged entrepreneurial activity through the Creative Industries Expo. The creative industry is exciting and important for a number of reasons particularly because it provides a viable alternative for income generation for Nigeria's youth and also affords opportunities for collaborative initiatives across sectors of digital technology, visual arts, commerce and more,” said CBO Capital executive director Bex Nwawudu.

Nsibidi Institute director Ore Disu added "It (the expo) was truly a noteworthy event marked by many passionate entrepreneurs proposing solutions to real problems and gaps in Nigeria and Africa at large. The energy in the room was palpable and will hopefully carry on beyond the event. Collaboration is key particularly in the current climate we are in – whether it comes in the form of a hub or simply the diverse exchanges that happen as people move beyond the confines of a singular project, skill-set or business focus. Yes there are issues of trust, ownership and more, but if managed well, the trade-offs far outweigh the risks."