MBiz

16 MBiz | june 2017 W hen international students come to Winnipeg to study, they sometimes become so enamoured of the place they decide to stay on and make it their permanent home. Arturo Orellana first came from Madrid to study here 12 years ago. He has since returned to make Winnipeg his home, and he's made it his business to be the city's biggest cultural cheerleader — literally. Orellana is the brains behind Culture Card, a free downloadable app that gets you a direct line on all things cultural in Winnipeg — with discounts to boot. "I find that one of the biggest issues in Winnipeg is that no one knows what is going on, so people need to go to 50 websites or 50 social media pages to do their research," he says. "So we are trying to fix that." When Orellana completed his stint as a student in Winnipeg, he returned to Madrid. He finished his law degree and realized that it wasn't for him. "I ended up doing a project with the government of Madrid where we created a platform to welcome every international student and every tourist, to make sure they had a full connection with our city and with our culture," he says. He came back to Canada with idea of connecting Winnipeg. "I'm coming from Madrid, one of the most cultural cities in the world, the kind of society where we are always active, we are always out," he says. "When I came here, it felt like people were more into a weekly routine, but when they realized there was something cool, they make the effort to go. That helps people to inject more money into the local economy." Culture Card offers local businesses and cultural providers a free marketing platform in exchange for exclusive discounts for users. Currently, 150 providers — the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Manitoba Opera, Canadian Museum for Human Rights, theatre companies, restaurants, hotels and more — are offering significant discounts, some as high as 50 per cent. "Before, we actually had to approach them and convince them to be part of it. Now, we are adding between five and 10 providers every week, and most of them are reaching out and saying that they want to be part of this." The project has had some assistance from Futurpreneur Canada, but Orellana hopes to secure other funding. Another goal is to get the word out about smaller arts and culture groups and individuals. Orellana organized an event in April for Regan Hirose and Harold Rancano, local dancers who are seen as superstars everywhere but here. "They have been winning salsa contests all over the world in the last five years, and nobody in Winnipeg knows about them," he says. Free app connects users to arts and entertainment By Wendy King Cultural EXCHANGE CULTURE CARD Arturo Orellana is the mastermind behind the Culture Card app. Photo by Darcy Finley

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