InvestPR taps consultancy to drive cultural sector
Invest Puerto Rico, the island’s economic development organization, announced it has sought the assistance of Sound Diplomacy, a global music strategy consultancy, to help “strengthen Puerto Rico’s music, entertainment, and cultural footprint to enhance investment opportunities and economic transformation.”
The organizations said their mission over a 12-month period is to produce “an actionable strategy and implementation plan that delivers measurable economic and social benefits.”
They described the work as involving “cross-sector discipline collaboration that will engage the wider community in developing actionable strategies. Sound Diplomacy will build an in-depth mapping of the cultural ecosystem in Puerto Rico; develop a regulatory assessment of the local context and a comparative analysis with other similar territories; apply a survey for the different actors in the cultural sector; and carry out roundtables and interviews with selected key stakeholders. Together, these completed elements will provide a comprehensive Economic Impact Assessment, as well as a strategy and action plan for Puerto Rico to implement in the following years.”
In their media release on the matter, Sound Diplomacy was said to have already created alliances with Inversión Cultural and 71 Associates to provide local knowledge and “help shape a strategy that resonates with the needs and demands of the cultural sector in Puerto Rico. The work ultimately seeks to empower the spectrum of stakeholders, including key actors in the public and private sectors as well as academia and nonprofits, to help enable and market the cultural ecosystem.”
The organizations urged those who are a part of Puerto Rico’s cultural and creative industries, “either as an artist, a business owner or a fan, and you want to contribute in this joint effort to drive the cultural ecosystem forward,” to answer a survey at www.shorturl.at/pW368 to assist in their endeavor.
“This partnership is a great opportunity to further understand the assets of the creative economy within the island to elevate and better position Puerto Rico’s value proposition regarding the music, entertainment, and cultural industries,” said Kate Durio, CEO of the Americas for Sound Diplomacy. “We plan to gain a deep grasp of the value of music, entertainment, and cultural ecosystems – comprising music, live performance, theater, dance, and film – identify growth areas, and produce an actionable strategy and implementation plan that delivers measurable economic and social benefits.”
InvestPR stressed that the initiative is part of its focus on realizing the investment potential in key sectors on the island such as bioscience, advanced manufacturing, aerospace, research and development, as well as IT, fintech, energy, innovation and entrepreneurship.
“Puerto Rico has long been an important international entertainment center,” InvestPR Chief Executive Officer Ella Woger-Nieves said. “The quality of our creative product is rooted in the quality of our entertainment and cultural professionals and supportive infrastructure, from the behind-the-scenes (tech personnel, engineers, designers, production) to the limelight (artists and performers). As such, it’s important to better understand how to best foster and market this ecosystem to support sustainable economic development on the Island.”
The executive added: “These types of alliances are vital to driving development and strengthening the current business ecosystem through shared resources, access to information, knowledge, and global market trends. The purpose of these associations is to increase the island’s competitiveness as an investment destination.”
Sound Diplomacy also presents Music Cities Events, a series of conferences focused on the business of culture, music and the night-time economy. It also recognizes the development of music ecosystems through the annual Music Cities Awards and manages the online Music Cities Community.
For more information about the project, visit www.sounddiplomacy.com and www.investpr.org.
Good article!