The Creative Business Cup is the destination for creative minds, innovative thinkers and future leaders. It is a global competition involving more than 60 creative entrepreneurs, brilliant keynote speakers, juries, and investors. Creative entrepreneurs, industry experts and international thought leaders come together to form a community that focuses on promoting innovation and creative business efforts. The global competition and conference concentrates on new creative and cultural businesses in the creative industries to motivate, sharpen and develop the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
The Creative Business Cup Ireland (CBC Ireland) is the national chapter of the global championship for entrepreneurs in the creative business space. spanning over 60 countries. It aims to promote innovation among entrepreneurs engaged in creativebusinesses by providing global exposure, mentoring, networking opportunities, and support structures.
Short-listed applicants will be invited to pitch their businesses and attend the CBC Ireland award ceremony and networking event in March 2024 at the new CREW Innovation & Enterprise Hub in Galway. Shortlisted applicants will receive bespoke training and mentorship from CREW’s network of industry professionals to support the development of their pitching skills and business plans before the national finals.
The CBC Ireland winner will receive additional mentoring and support from CREW and the Creative Business Academy, and access to international events and mentorship before leaving for Denmark.
The CBC Global Finals will take place in Copenhagen on June 2-3, 2024.
All expenses for the national winner to travel to Denmark in June 2024 for pitch training, networking opportunities and participation in the international finals will be covered by CREW and CBC-Ireland sponsors. This exciting trip includes networking with fellow entrepreneurs, a marketplace to showcase your business, dinner with foreign ambassadors and a chance to meet international investors and industry leaders.
CBC IRELAND NATIONAL FINALS
All CBC Ireland shortlisted businesses will receive sponsorship to attend the Irish national finals in Galway in March 2024. Teams will also be provided with a bespoke training and mentorship programme to support pitching and business plan development in advance of the national finals.
CBC GLOBAL FINALS
All finalists will be recognised at the CBC Ireland awards in March 2024. The CBC Ireland national winner will then travel to Copenhagen, Denmark to participate in the CBC Global Finals that are held on June 2-3, 2024.
All national finalists participate in networking activities, seminars, training opportunities, and individual mentorship. Five national finalists will be selected to pitch their business to an audience of international investors and industry experts. The Creative Business Investors Pitch is a dedicated session during the CBC Global Finals. The jury consists of a selection of international investors who have extensive experience investing in start-ups and creative businesses.
CBC IRELAND WINNERS WILL RECEIVE
COMPETITION PROCESS
Finalists will be selected based on the following criteria:
CREATIVITY & INNOVATION
BUSINESS EXECUTION
MARKET POTENTIAL
Have the core asset of the business based on creative competencies.
For this competition, creative industries include
Shane Kerins
Shane Kerins is a Director in Tax & Legal and is the Emerging Tech Lead for Deloitte Ireland. He has over 14 years of corporate experience including significant experience with entrepreneurs. In particular, Shane works with scaling companies, and companies in the Irish tech scene from Start-Ups to Unicorns (valuations over 1Bn); he understands the pain points and unique challenges facing companies as they grow internationally.
Roisin Buckley
Roisin Buckley is a producer and company director with Piquant Media, delivering projects across multiple sectors including education, not-for-profit, technology, hospitality and culture. With a background in broadcasting and culture, her experience in managing communications, campaigns and media productions is immeasurable. Piquant is an award winning creative studio with accolades such as IDI 2023 Award winner and 4 Shark Awards including Irish Design Agency of the Year title.
Fiona Kilkelly
Fiona is Professor of Creative Industries and Head of Knowledge Exchange, Enterprise & Commercialisation at CoSTAR National Lab, Royal Holloway University of London. CoSTAR is a £51.1m investment by the UK Government in Applied Research to ensure the UK’s screen and performance industries have the research infrastructure, and research and innovation skills to compete globally.
Fiona has worked at the nexus of innovation, technology, and the creative industries for over 25 years, working primarily in government funded innovation and R&D programmes in the creative and screen industries. The focus of her work has been to leverage potential to support business, programme and organisational development and growth.
Thierry Baujard
Thierry Baujard has 20 years of experience in international financing in the Cultural and Creative Sector. He has worked many years in film financing before broadening his perspective and investment to music and video games. He is the Managing Director of Pan–European investment Network, Media Deals, focusing on seed investment in audiovisuals, video games and music.
He has also been involved in different EU projects involving video games, digital comics/webtoons and films. He currently has a portfolio of 8 creative companies’ investment in Europe. He is an MBA graduate from Bocconi and UCLA, as well as laureate from the European Executive programme from ENA in Paris.
