On the 6th June, we were thrilled to host the HEVA delegation for the second half of our Creative Enterprise Skills Exchange in partnership with The Nest Collective (Kenya) and supported by The British Council.
Their five days in London began with a drinks reception at Somerset House. The delegation were introduced to our advisors, supported businesses, members of UKTI, Arts Council England, The British Council, Crafts Council and the Creative United team.
Throughout the week, the delegation explored London meeting with the creative businesses who have been supported through our programme including Fyodor Golan, Choolips and The Yard Theatre.
HEVA were reunited with Ciara McGarrity from Waffle Design and Liz Temperely from Blank Inside, who joined us on our trip to Kenya earlier this year. It was valuable for HEVA to see the positive impact their trip to Nairobi had on their businesses, and the developments made since their visit.
The delegation also had meetings with Centre for Fashion Enterprise, Makerversity and Pop-Up Africa, which provided useful insights about pop-up culture, studio space development and business modelling within the UK’s creative industry.
The exchange ended with an afternoon of talks focusing on the work HEVA do in supporting Kenya’s growing creative industry, the fashion scene in East Africa. The enthusiastic audience heard first hand from HEVA investees Mambo Pambo, Kepha Maina and Katungulu Mwenda on how they grew their fashion businesses with support from the HEVA programme.
Kawira from Mambo Pambo told us:
The amount of hard work we have seen from the creative businesses we’ve met this week has been inspiring. Seeing the progress they have made through the support of the Creative Industry Finance programme has made me feel like I am on the right track
Our skills exchange has been an incredible experience for all those involved and we are looking forward to deepening our partnership and working on future collaborations with The Nest Collective and HEVA.