Mercado de Indústrias Culturais do Sul – MICSUL [Cultural Industries Market of the South]music, audiovisual, performing arts, publishing, games and design
MICSUL aims to promote business rounds, seminars, artistic activities and shows with a view to create platforms of promotion of the exchange of creative and cultural knowledge, products and services, as well as to facilitate meetings and the circulation between producers, artists and enterprises in the creative economy sector, thus empowering the social, cultural and commercial sectors of the regions involved.
MICSUL is an institutional measure by the Ministry of Culture of Brazil with regional scope in South America. MICSUL is the largest cultural sector market platform in South America, geared toward small and medium-sized cultural entrepreneurs in the following sectors: music, audiovisual, performing arts, publishing, games and design. The Market, which takes place every two years in one of the participant countries, is structured around several spaces for business transactions, construction of partnerships and networks as well as academic agendas about subjects related to culture and the creative industry. The program involves business rounds, pitch sessions, fashion shows, music and performing arts showcases, discussion forums and institutional booths. It is an intergovernmental initiative by national culture organisms of the 12 South American countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela), which also counts with the support of UNASUL and MERCOSUL.
Its first edition, in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in 2014, gathered around 800 South American entrepreneurs from six creative sectors (music, audiovisual, performing arts, publishing, games and design). Brazil participated with a total delegation of 199 entrepreneurs, of which 112 integrated the platform of market business rounds. The second edition of the biannual market is set to take place in Bogota, Colombia, from October 17 to 20 in 2016.
As the result of a policy focused on the external market, this measure aims at boosting the international circulation of cultural goods and agents from South America, encouraging the action of market agents toward setting up partnership networks and further meetings. As such, sectors with greater internationalization potential build scale, contract fruitful business partnerships, and expand their experience gamut by taking part in fairs, festivals, seminars, talks or international congresses. The major challenge is to ensure the expansion of the MICSUL Program in order to solidify its potential as a space of formation and expansion of business among South American countries. With that, it is possible to deepen the South-South cooperation policy and the incentives to cultural exchange in South America.
The resources come from the budget of Ministry. The value to be invested is about 300,000.00 USD.
MICSUL was deemed an important space to create links and exchange experiences, and it opens up the possibility of creation of associative networks. The notable experience and goodwill of the participants shone through the associative schemes. The installations of MICSUL 2014 were positively reviewed. 55% of the participants had no experience on business rounds, but 90% of the participants held business meetings outside of the rounds space and 57% of the participants considered the system of scheduling of the business rounds "good" or "very good". The variable with the lowest positive reviews was the buyers' levels. Participants declared the need for training regarding the legal framework regulation international trade of cultural assets.