CEBU’S first creative hub will be opening in October this year.
This was announced by Lawrence Panganiban, chairman of the Creative Entertainment of Cebu Business Month (CBM) 2022 during the recent press briefing of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry-led annual flagship project CBM 2022.
Panganiban said the inauguration of the hub is scheduled on Oct. 18, 2022. The hub sits on a 600-square meter property in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City that will house the development of Cebu’s creative entertainment industry.
“This piece of real estate will act as an incubator of this fledging industry. We will have a dormitory for our artists, workspaces, offices for rent and also workstations,” said Panganiban.
He added that this is one of the initial steps the creative entertainment industry is doing to realize the dream of building a “Hollywood” in Cebu.
Moreover, Panganiban’s committee is mounting weekly webinars and talks for the whole month of September during Friday and Saturday.
During the first week, a webinar on animation will take place in partnership with the Animation Council of the Philippines, the group that has worked with the likes of Disney, Warner Bros., Pixar and Universal Studios, among others.
In the second week, the webinar will be on video games in partnership with the Game Developers Association of the Philippines while the third week will focus on the film industry.
Works of the Creative Content Creators’ Association of the Philippines will be highlighted on the fourth week of September. Panganiban said this is the group that creates original stories and showcases the Filipino culture to the world.
Meanwhile, an Investors’ Primer: Business of Entertainment will be happening on Oct. 21.
“We will talk about the entertainment industry as business and open this brand new opportunity to the business community as a form of new investment and business for Cebu,” said Panganiban. “The industry is small but it contains great potential. We are going to build a new industry and we will share this opportunity during the Investors’ Primer.”
Last year, the CCCI committed to support the development of the creative entertainment sector so it could achieve P500 million annual revenue in the next two years and P30 billion by 2030.
“The initial target for Cebu is we want to reach 500 million per year and P30 billion by 2030,” said CCCI trustee Mario Panganiban said during the launching the Creative Entertainment Week.
He said this can be achieved with the support of the Creative Industries Development bill, Cebu City government and the support of industry partners.