The online conference Be Creative: Call the Bank, was held on 5 May 2021. The conference was hosted by Finora Capital, with the support of the capacity-building providers of the Cultural and Creative Sectors Guarantee Facility. The financial products were made available in Estonia and Lithuania thanks to the EU’s Cultural and Creative Sectors (CCS) Guarantee Facility.

The aim of this online conference was to raise the awareness on the support provided by the EU to the cultural and creative sectors in Estonia and Lithuania and in the other member states. More precisely, the online conference aimed to present the first European financial instrument dedicated to the CCS – the Guarantee Facility of the Creative Europe programme – managed by the European Investment Fund (EIF) and implemented in Estonia by Finora Capital, and to show (tell) how it can be accessed by Estonian and Lithuanian SMEs.

During the online conference:

  • We heard from both policy makers and banks about the Guarantee Facility, its catalytic effect in support of the cultural and creative industries, and how creative SMEs can benefit from it;
  • We got an overview of the CCS market in Estonia and Lithuania, and the different funding opportunities available to support creative entrepreneurs in their journey;
  • We got to understand the challenges and opportunities specific to financing in the cultural and creative sectors – from the difficulties faced by entrepreneurs to the uncertainties experienced by finance providers – but also how those two different worlds could work together to tap into the potential that the cultural and creative industries have to offer to the economy and society.

You can check the videos for the covered topics here: