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Eeshita Azad
Bangladesh is home to a lot of gifted creative people who are part of an expanding creative community. While creative professionals are not always seen to follow traditionally established career routes, they possess a limitless potential to contribute to a growing economy that includes a rising demand for creative work.
Appreciating the magnitude of this, Bengal Creative Hub aims to facilitate the growth of an optimum culture and environment which nurtures creativity and works towards professionally nourishing the creative sector.
Starting its journey a month ago, Bengal Creative Hub plans to help creative minds to network, collaborate, etc. with its diverse services.
A part of Bengal Group, it is a creative social enterprise that focuses on the growth of different creative minds of our country.
Shaha Rakesh Nishan, on behalf of the Youth Express team, interviewed Eeshita Azad, managing director of Bengal Creative Hub and director- creative planning and coordination of Bengal Group Limited. She shared her insights, vision and goals of Bengal Creative Hub.
Question (Q): Can you tell us the vision behind starting Bengal Creative Hub? Did you face any struggle initially?
Answer (A): When we look around us, we find that creative people in our country do not have enough opportunities to showcase their talent. There are issues like lack of encouragement from society, inadequate infrastructure, etc. People who live away from the capital face more problems to pursue a career in the creative industry.
We cannot solve all issues at once, but the Bengal Group family wanted to take a step to mitigate these issues, and that is where the idea of creating a social business for creative people came into action.
We are targeting people aged between 18 and 35 and trying to incorporate people from all over the country.
We faced similar kinds of hurdles that startups usually encounter. But we are lucky that we are part of an esteemed and prominent entity like Bengal Group.
As a result, we received support from people around us, and they believed in our agenda to support the creative communities of the country.
Q: Currently, what is the organisation focusing on?
A: Currently, we are working on four different facilities that we are offering to our users. First, we are helping our users to build a work profile for themselves which will help them get work through peers and networking.
Second, our users can network through our platform by connecting with other creative users.
Third, we are offering a discussion and collaboration space for our users where they can talk or start a discussion about exciting projects.
Last but not the least, we are providing our users with resources that may help them understand our platform better. We will incorporate more resources from our institutional partners in the future.
Q: You launched the online platform of Bengal Creative Hub. How has been the response so far?
A: The response was much better than we expected. As you might know, we launched the online platform through Bengal Creative Fest 2018. A large number of youths registered- three times the number of people we expected as well as several well-known dignitaries attended the fest.
Q: Bengal Creative Hub is built on a unique idea, and it is first of its kind. However, how do you plan to deal with the future competition?
A: Yes, Bengal Creative Hub currently does not have any competitors. We are providing a holistic service and facilities, which we didn't find to be existing, even in our neighbouring countries.
But, we are not a commercial organisation, and hence issues like competition from similar startups do not bother us.
Our agenda is to uplift the creative industry of this country, and as a result, we need more people and organisations to step up to improve this industry.
Q: How is the recruitment process in this industry?
A: The recruitment process of this industry is mainly through networking. In this industry, we often see that the same people keep on getting jobs and new entrants do not find the right opportunities.
This industry needs a blend of experience and new energetic minds. This is why I think there should be more certified and accredited training centres where the new ones can join and learn the basic concepts along with knowledge regarding their relevant field.
The industry can hire raw talents through these institutes.
Q: What are the plans of Bengal Creative Hub?
A: The first phase was to establish the platform and its facilities. We are still working on bolstering the attributes of each facility.
For example, we are building video tutorials to help out users better utilise the facilities we are offering. Bengal Creative Hub will be launching another facility termed 'job opportunities' after Eid-ul-fitr, where employers can hire people based on their skills and per their work profile. Besides, we are also working on building relationships and partnerships with creative institutions like Fine Arts of various universities. Another interesting idea we are keeping in mind is providing training to the creative enthusiasts. This would be entirely different from that of general training provided to the creative artists. We will be focusing on more basic, yet essential topics like ethics, morals, use of language, leadership, teamwork etc. We also have a plan to build a mobile application for the simplicity of use for our users.
The ultimate goal is to connect the creative enthusiasts and professionals of this country to the world and help them achieve more with their talents.
Q: Even though our infrastructures are improving, and so is the investment scenario in this industry, why do you think the creative industry is still not hitting the peak of growth?
A: Unfortunately, these are not enough and more needs to be done. The government needs to acknowledge the efforts and achievements of the people in the creative industry by developing policies and building a structure.
This will help build the social acceptance of creative people and raise awareness in our society regarding the possible prospects of a career in the creative field.
Also, the educational system needs to play its role in developing the creative industry. For instance, establishing liberal arts departments across all the public and private universities can help have a pool of talented and educated youths who can bolster the industry.
The writer is a final year student of BBA programme at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka. He can be reached at