You got creativity?

• Enter Malaysia’s Creative Business Cup and get sent to Denmark
• Aim of global competition is to strengthen business competencies of creative entrepreneurs

FOR all of you in the creative content space, take note of the Creative Business Cup of Malaysia, a new competition to find an existing company that will represent Malaysia in the Creative Business Cup that will be hosted by Denmark.
 
The Danish Government created this competition in 2010 to spark creativity in the country and to show its support for such activities. This year it has been expanded to become an international entrepreneurship competition and is a featured event of Global Entrepreneurship Week, an initiative supported by the Kauffman Foundation.
 
But it will not pay for country winners to compete in Copenhagen for the cup. The respective country hosts will have to raise the money for the winners to go over.
 
In Malaysia, that responsibility falls on the shoulders of Dhakshinamoorthy ‘Dash’ Balakrishnan of StartupMalaysia.org which is the country host.
 
Dash describes StartupMalaysia.org as an accelerator that aims to inspire the next generation of high-growth entrepreneurs. In the case of Creative Business Cup, he will settle for existing creative content companies which have Internet-related technology in the multimedia and animation space.
 
“This is for existing companies and the judges will look for a full-blown business plan and at what the companies have done so far,” he adds.
 
Those interested to participate have to submit a three-minute video on their creative ventures to [email protected] by Aug 30. The video should answer the following:

• What's the problem/ opportunity your business is addressing?
• What is your product/service?
• What's your competitive advantage?
• Who is your target market?
• How are you making money?

Ten companies will be selected by the judges (yet to be finalized at this stage) to make a live pitch on Sept 27. The winner will then be shuttled off to Copenhagen from Nov 12 to 14 to compete with other country winners.
 
The overall winner will also will be rewarded with a world-class acceleration program providing them with entrepreneurial know-how focusing on early stage business development (total value if around US$50,000) says Dash, who will be a judge for the event when it is held in Copenhagen.
 
According to the official website (http://www.creativebusinesscup.com/), the Creative Business Cup aims to strengthen the business competencies of creative entrepreneurs.
 
Dash is hoping to get the support of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) to fund the Malaysian winner and also to run an accelerator program for creative content companies. He got off to a good start with MITI’s deputy minister Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir (pic, right, seen here with Dash) officiating at the even held at Urban Village, Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur.
 
Urban Village is a creative hub that provides facilities for creative entrepreneurs and professional freelancers to operate their businesses by providing them with basic necessities such as work space, consultation and exposure.
 
Besides MITI, Dash is also in talks with the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) which has long been a strong champion in promoting the creative content industry.
 
StartupMalaysia.org is behind the Silicon Valley Comes to Malaysia program and recently sent five Malaysian entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley for a one-month accelerator program.
 
This was done in partnership with MDEC and other sponsors such as Microsoft Malaysia, Nokia and The Global Innovation Science and Technology organization supported by the US State Department.
 
And if readers are wondering, if Carlsberg is also a partner/sponsor in Denmark, the answer is, ‘Yes.’