After two weeks of trying to get hold of Ravi Naidoo, who I'm told spends at least three-quarters of his time outside SA, I get a call from him a day before my deadline. He has just returned from ExperimentaDesign, an international design, architecture and contemporary culture exhibition in Portugal, where he spoke about the lessons to be learnt from SA's 15-year transition.
Ravi Naidoo - Design Indaba work
He's back in SA for only three days, then jets off to London before going to Uganda for a conference on creativity. Naidoo sounds tired but remarkably cheerful. "Ravi is energy personified," Net#work BBDO chief creative officer Mike Schalit had warned me days before the interview.Naidoo is this year's AdFocus Agency Leader of the Year. Interactive Africa may not be a traditional agency and he may not be a traditional leader, but there's no denying their effect on SA's creative scene. Two words explain everything. "Design Indaba."
For the past 14 years, says Schalit, the founder of the internationally acclaimed indaba "has flown to every part of the earth obstinately tracking down the dustiest studio and grumpiest global ego in his undying passion to spread the creative gospel".
His message is that creativity, if strategically leveraged, can be used to drive SA's economic growth and improve society. This conviction continues to drive the 44-year-old venture capitalist. "Creativity can have the most material economic impact on a country," says the Durban-born former account director at advertising agency Y&R Cape Town.
Naidoo holds an honours degree in physiology, but has no advertising-related qualification. The radical says he used his background in science to get into advertising at Y&R after learning the agency had landed a pharmaceutical account.
What attracted him to the industry was its "wonderful blend between rationality and creativity". In 1994, however, as SA was going through a transition, Naidoo decided to make one himself. He left Y&R after three years to pursue an MBA, a move he says "opened up the world" for him.
Nine months into the course, he took another risk and opened his own media and project management company, Interactive Africa. It offers an unconventional mix of services, which include strategic marketing, custom publishing, business development, lobbying, advertising and logistical management. The Cape Town-based firm is best known for handling entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth's PR during his historic 2002 venture into space.
Interactive Africa also advised the SA Football Association during its bid to host the 2010 soccer World Cup. Other clients include Vodacom and the Shuttleworth Foundation.
But it is the Design Indaba, which Naidoo founded in 1995, that is his passion and obsession. It has grown from a struggling biennial event with nine speakers, to become the world's largest multidisciplinary gathering of leading international thinkers and trendsetters. Based in Cape Town, it's been an annual event since 2001.
However, it's about far more than talking design. Once the conference is over, comes the indaba expo. This year it defied the economic downturn by attracting in excess of 260 exhibitors and more than 29 000 visitors. There's also a quarterly magazine and the award-winning 10x10 housing project - an attempt to find creative solutions to SA's ongoing shortage of low-cost housing. It is a partnership between local and international Design Indaba alumni whose task is to come up with 10 designs that would change the perception and face of low-cost housing.
Nadine Botha, editor of Design Indaba magazine, says the indaba's success is a reflection of Naidoo's personality. "He is both impassioned and a commercial pragmatist. He has realised that a vision alone is not enough and enacted the realisation of his vision through the implementation of the continuously diversifying Design Indaba brand," she says.
In 2005, Design Indaba received the Best Conference award at the Barcelona-based EIBTM awards, regarded as the Oscars of the global conference industry.
But it is the difference on the ground that the conference has had that has earned Naidoo local and international acclaim. Not only has it helped put SA's creative ability on the global map, but through Naidoo's persistence, government now recognises the sector in its Accelerated & Shared Growth Initiative for SA RAVI NAIDOO programme, which aims to accelerate SA's gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 6%.
This was after Naidoo presented a document, "Creative Industries: The Sleeper in the SA Economy," to former president Thabo Mbeki's cabinet, warning government against ignoring the potential effect of innovation-related sectors in improving South Africans' lives.
That Naidoo achieved this is not a surprise to those who know him. "Ravi is very good at rallying people around him to complete a project or get excited about something," says Kevin Aspoas, MD of The Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town.
Listening to him talk, it's clear that the man who made it on UK magazine Design Week's list of Hot 50 people who've made the biggest impact on the design scene, is not ready to pack away his sketch board. On his to-do list is growing Design Indaba's influence beyond SA's borders.
"I've been receiving invitations from cities around the world to start something like the indaba in those countries. I think I'm ready to do that now," he says. Also on his list is building a design precinct, with a gallery showcasing SA innovation.
However, Naidoo's biggest goal is for SA to reach a point where the branding, design and innovation sector exceeds mining in terms of its contribution to GDP.
Indeed. As Business Design Innovation once pointed out: "If design forms the world we live in, the international Design Indaba is a glimpse of tomorrow."
