THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will convene creative and innovation sector stakeholders at the 4th Slingshot conference in Cebu taking place during the Cebu Design Week next month.

DTI assistant regional head Maria Elena Arbon said they wanted to gather players in the creative sector and digital innovation during the one-day conference on Sept. 14, 2019 at the IC3 Pavilion in Cebu City.

“We will be having our digital startups and players in the creative sector,” the official told SunStar Cebu in an interview on Aug. 14.

The 2019 Cebu Design Week is slated from Sept. 8 to 15. The celebration aims to bridge the disparate creative fields and industries through events that will feature designs, arts and culture.

It is also a good opportunity for local designers to gather and collaborate.

It was in 2016 when the DTI first launched the Slingshot, an event mainly aimed at boosting the country’s innovation economy by engaging businesses to digitalize amid the ever changing business environment.

This year’s conference will have speakers from the creative and innovation industries.

This is the fourth time Cebu is holding such event, at a time when Cebu is pushing its bid to be declared a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) creative city of design.

Cebu’s bid team recently submitted its application to Unesco and hopes to get the decision before the year ends.

When asked about Cebu’s Unesco bid, Arbon was optimistic on the city’s strong creative culture, which should help put us on global recognition.

“If we get it, it should help us put on the global map,” the DTI official said. (CSL)