KUCHING: United Creative Cities Network (UCCN) Kuching will organise an open forum for all gastronomic and creative players in the city.
The half-day event will be held on July 13 at Community Hall Kuching South City Council (MBKS) starting from 8am until 12.30pm.
The announcement came off following the designation of Kuching as a creative city of gastronomy under UNESCO and the forum seeks to hear from a broad base of stakeholders, both to create between the local players and also to define better collaboration going forward with other creative cities around the world.
Strategic director of UCCN Kuching Creative City Karen Shepherd shared the main purpose of designating the importance of global network is to provide support and assistance to the creative economy.
“As a creative city of gastronomy, this starts with our food chain, from smallholders to stallholders, from chefs to food manufacturers.
“But it is also broader than this, as it includes our filmmakers, food bloggers, designers and festival directors. If we want to put Kuching food on a global map, to raise our standards both for our local people and all the visitors to our city, then we need to pool our incredible talents,” she said.
She then added that the creative cities in the gastronomy network, and across all the creative fields, are committed to working with each other across 11 specific areas.
“These ‘priority ideas of collaboration’ are academic/scientific, communication, creative economy, cultural identity, economic development, education, food security and food justice, policies, sustainability, tourism and traditional knowledge,” she shared.
Karen also announced that a Kuching delegation is due to attend the 14th UNESCO Creative Cities Network Annual Conference in Santos, Brazil of this month.
“This forum aims to give us the right information to approach this important knowledge-sharing platform,” she explained.
She then explained that is the reason why they want to hear from all the gastronomic and creative players in the city, as she wants to hear about their challenges in those areas and also work together to come up with some solutions.
“Only the people working hard in this sector day after day can provide the best insight into how we can proceed as a city.
“Your knowledge will help up to plan better activities for our own UCCN programmes going forward and also to stimulate opportunities for international collaboration,” said Karen.
For those who are interested in attending the forum, kindly register at https://forms.gle/8aUvhsmH9pbq6gNz8 in order for them to plan more effectively. A link for the registration is available at www.kuchingcreativecity.com. For more information, email them at uccnkuching@kuchingcreativecity.com.
