Inaugural BASA Arts in Business Forum, brings globally renowned Giovanni Schiuma to SA

Taking place on October 24th, the BASA Arts in Business Forum, How the Arts can Innovate your Business, is presented by Business and Arts South Africa, in association with the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS).

Professor Schiuma, the Director of the Innovation Insights Hub at the University of the Arts London, will be joined by several locally based speakers. Among these are Nando's Founder, Robbie Brozin, and Founder and Managing Director of Matchboxology, Paris Pitsillides.

"We are thrilled that Professor Schiuma has agreed to come to South Africa to share his insights on the shared value of the business and arts relationship," says Constant.

"The forum gives members of the South African business community the opportunity to hear how the arts can enhance organisational value, creation capacity and boost business performance. It's a rare chance to engage with a leading global thinker in this field."

Published in 2011, Professor Schiuma's book, The Value of Arts for Business, is regarded as a seminal text on how the arts, in the form of Arts-based Initiatives (ABIs), can transform business models.

Professor Schiuma's work challenges the traditional view of the relationship between business and the arts as being very much a one-way affair. His presentation at the BASA Arts in Business Forum will see him explain the strategic relevance and contribution that the arts can offer for the development of twenty-first century organisations.

The other speakers on the panel will reinforce Professor Schiuma's approach by bringing their particular South African expertise to the forum's main aim: to interrogate the sustainable benefits of using the arts within business to drive and develop innovation, create value and increase profitability. "This is the underpinning vision of Business and Arts South Africa and is one that all of our projects and events work towards," states Constant.

Robbie Brozin is intimately involved in the sustainable inclusion of visual art in business through his work with Nando's, the company founded in 1987. In 2012, Spier Architectural Arts in partnership with Nando's won the 'International Sponsorship' award at the BASA Awards, for Coming to the City - the 18x3m mosaic artwork created by Clive van den Berg for the wall of a Nando's restaurant in Kings Cross London.

Matchboxology's Paris Pitsillides has earned a reputation as an excellent strategic thinker in the area of creativity in business, using his experience in Fortune 500 FMCG and Southern Africa Development Sector communications campaign design. He will speak to how the arts has been utalised for growth and behavioural change in business.

Space is limited for the BASA Arts in Business Forum, in association with GIBS so early booking is recommended.

*More information and tickets can be purchased on the www.basa.co.za website under the 'Arts in Business' tab. Price: R250 per person.

About BASA (NPC):

Business and Arts South Africa is an internationally recognised development agency which incorporates the arts into, and contributes to, corporates' commercial success. With a suite of integrated programmes, Business and Arts South Africa encourages mutually beneficial partnerships between business and the arts in order to grow SHARED VALUE. Business and Arts South Africa was founded in 1997 as a joint initiative of government and the business sector, as a public/private partnership.