Global Ambitions: The Pingshan Neo-Culture Creativity Fair
WeiPoint’s ambitions have always been global. Our company was set up with the aim of making Birmingham, famous for its cultural diversity, open to its international community. Our goal is to make Birmingham’s history and heritage accessible to the global community in the city, using translated materials and visually engaging content. With this goal in mind, then, we are always excited by the opportunity to share our work internationally.
This year has been a difficult one for emerging businesses, particularly in creative industries. But it has also seen the creation of a number of schemes and conferences designed to support and promote the growth of the international creative trade. The Pingshan Neo-Culture Creativity Fair is one such venture. The first one was hosted at the Yanzi Lake International Convention and Exhibition Center between Saturday 5th and Monday 7th of December 2020. So far, it is the largest fair to centre on UK-based creative industries in regional Chinese cities, so it marked an important moment in the international business community that we look to foster. The Fair also included a music festival and displays of art inspired by traditional painting methods.
Work was spread out over six sections - museums and art, designs with traditional elements, emerging talents in design and media, bookshops and creative work in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao GBA (Greater Bay Area).Over seventy companies and organizations took part, with other UK-based participants including Edinburgh College of Art and Museum Context, who were looking to partner with Chinese-based companies to produce Harry Potter merchandise.
The theme of the event was ‘An Eye for Originality: Present and Future of Neo-Culture Creativity’, celebrating work by creative companies that are original and demonstrate some way of looking towards the future and adapting to it. WeiPoint was the only creative startup from the West Midlands invited to speak at the Fair, which we see as a testament to our commitment to being a truly international company. We presented our unique business objectives using our beautiful playing card decks (pictured right), and we were able to sell 50 packs! Of course, due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, we were sadly unable to attend in person, so our merchandise was kindly presented by Tina and Corey from the CBBC office in the Guangdong province.
The CBBC (China-Britian Business Council) came out of the history of trade between the United Kingdom and China. The UK was the first western country to recognise the PRC (People’s Republic of China) and one of the first to establish trade links with the new government in 1954 in the form of the ‘48 Group’, a group of British companies that traded with China. Around the same time, the UK established a body called the Sino-British Trade Council, which merged with the 48 Group in 1991 to form the China-Britain Trade Group. The group changed its name to its current one in 1997, and the current chairman, James Sassoon, Baron Sassoon, took over in 2013. It works in collaboration with the Department of International Trade to oversee trade between China and Britain.
The Fair gave both UK and China-based companies and startups a chance to showcase their creative talents and seek financial and business partnership in both countries. It represented a very positive moment in regional trade - spreading the focus of business and innovation to regional cities outside of the capital is something that our team is very passionate about. We had a fantastic experience at this Fair and it represented a wonderful opportunity for regional trade and exchange of creative ideas between the Midlands and China. We plan to continue to work with Chinese creative companies and trade organisations to promote the Midlands on a global scale. See you next year!
