
'DITCH THE POVERTY SOB STORY!'
Isan Chief Slams ‘Dry and Poor’ Image, Vows to Unleash Region's 'Outrageous' Creative Riches at ISANCF2025!
“When people from Isan talk about themselves, they almost always start with… ‘we’re a dry, poor, oppressed region.’ I just thought, enough is enough. Can we please stop talking about this?”
That’s the bombshell opening from Saksee Polsantikul, the Director of the Creative Economy Agency (CEA) in Khon Kaen. He’s the outsider with a radical plan. With no Isan roots himself, he’s been tasked with a monumental mission: to put Isan on the map and make it compete with Thailand’s tourist-magnet regions, those places overflowing with cultural heritage and picture-perfect nature that sell themselves.
“That’s the advantage of being new,” the director declares after a dramatic pause, his vision clear. “Poverty, hardship, lack of opportunity—that’s not unique to Isan. We need to get over it. Why are we still clinging to this narrative? It’s completely useless for regional branding.”
His plan is audacious. Over the next three years, the festival will be a weapon to strategically obliterate the old brand. “Our mission is to rebrand Isan as a land of outrageous wealth. We have the most land, the most people—the numbers are all on our side. This festival will use our greatest tool, ‘Creativity,’ to prove it and supercharge our economy.”
“We’re not a natural tourist market like other regions,” he admits. “So we’re doubling down on business and social impact. We’re showcasing what actually benefits the region and its creative industries.”
So, What’s the Big Idea?
The CEA, a government powerhouse, runs creative festivals across four regions: Bangkok, Chiang Mai, the South, and of course, Isan. “You’ll notice ours isn’t called a ‘Design Week,’” Saksee points out. “We’re the ‘Isan Creative Festival’ because Isan’s creativity is too massive to be squeezed into just ‘design’.”
Now in its fifth year, the festival is getting a major upgrade. “We want this to be a true launchpad for creators and businesses to make real deals and kickstart new projects. We want Isan’s festival to be the business beast of the bunch.”
The long-term goal is to make some serious noise. This year’s theme is a firestarter: “ISAN SOUL PROUD.” It’s a brilliant pun. On one hand, it’s about being “proud to show off” the dazzling, multifaceted soul of Isan. On the other, it’s a cheeky nod to “soft power.”
“Isan is a massive piece of the national soft power puzzle,” Saksee proclaims. “From our food, crafts, and fashion to our music, movies, and booming animation scene. We’re about to unleash it all under the ‘ISAN SOUL PROUD’ banner!”
“The other story we’re shouting from the rooftops is that Isan is rich with opportunity. For too long, the brand has been ‘poor, arid, and no chances.’ We’re flipping the script. It’s time to change that mindset and show the world our riches.”
What opportunities are we talking about?
“Two massive ones,” he says. “First, the opportunity of ‘space.’ It means you can make it big in Isan. Move here, start a business, thrive. Second, the opportunity to export ‘Isan DNA.’ Taking our unique culture and selling it to the world is a goldmine.”
This translates into some mind-blowing festival features:
ISAN MUNIVERSE: Mystic Meg, eat your heart out! “We looked at the data and found the ‘mystic economy’—amulets, spirituality, fortune-telling—is worth a staggering 50 BILLION BAHT,” Saksee reveals. “So we’re connecting Isan crafts to this massive market. We’ve got over 20 prototype products that merge craft with mysticism to show our artisans where the money is.”
THE LAB-KOI UNIVERSE: MOVE OVER, SOM TAM! “When you think of Isan soft power, the first bullet is Som Tam. The second was Pla Ra, which has exploded recently,” he explains. “Now, we’re firing our third bullet: Lab-Koi. We’re turning this raw meat salad into a chic, new food lifestyle. In nine days, we’ll break down why Lab-Koi is next. It’s about ingredients, wild herbs, ancient wisdom, and taste. A Lab from Yasothon is totally different from one elsewhere. This diversity is our strength. It’s a recipe for new restaurants and new trends.”
COME BACK TO ISAN, YOU’VE MADE IT!: An exhibition called “The Pavilion” will feature over 20 real-life people who left the big city, returned to Isan, and are now successful. “No big-shot tycoons here,” Saksee insists. “These are relatable people, showing the little guy that you can come home and win.”
“Another thing is, we want to showcase the most ordinary-looking, salt-of-the-earth Isan communities to reveal their everyday way of life. We’re choosing the ‘Sawasthi Community’ and injecting it with a mega-dose of creativity and design. We’re looking at everything from their food to creating new community products, and even adapting their ancient temple murals into things like puppets. We will be pouring creativity into this community for the next 2-3 years, working with local creators and the private sector. The goal is to prove that a typical community like this, the kind you see all over Isan with its rice paddies and normal-looking life, is packed with opportunity. You don’t have to run to the big city to make it. That's why we're stepping in to help them design their own creative future.”
What’s so exciting about the Isan Creative Festival is its business platform, which looks like it can generate some serious economic value.
“We're deliberately making the Isan Creative Festival different from other Design Weeks by building a real business platform. We’re all about injecting business into the mix.”
“One of our killer moves is teaming up with the ‘ISAN MICE EXPO 2025,’ an established annual event. Normally, they invite conference buyers to do business matching in the area. This year, we held a joint meeting and decided to merge our efforts. The setup is simple but brilliant: CEA brings the sellers, and the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) brings the buyers. We are prepping our creators, like the Isan Showcase team, who have been developing amazing products. In the past at the festival, they’d just put their stuff on display, and if a buyer happened to wander by, a sale might happen. We're killing that kind of random luck. We are inviting over 200 genuine buyers to the event for hardcore matchmaking. On the seller’s side, we’ve prepped them so everyone’s on the same page, created online catalogues, and helped with every step of the sales process. We’re handling all the backend stuff for them, intensely.”
“Another slam dunk we pulled off was getting The Secret Sauce to join us. They’ve agreed to move their event to coincide with ours because it gives us a golden opportunity to tap into another 3,000 potential buyers from their customer base. We’re going to parachute our Isan creators right into their business matching event and sell our stuff directly to The Standard’s clients.”
“Everything we do is built on one principle: how do we give our creators the biggest possible shot? Getting buyers in front of creators is the absolute key, and we’re weaving that into every single program.”
What's the long-term game plan?
“Another long-term game-changer we’re launching this year is bringing in the education sector—the source of strength for the creative industry. We’re talking about faculties teaching design and innovation. In the past, we haven't really connected with Isan's academic institutions. So this year, we’ve joined forces with Khon Kaen University, the Mekong Institute (MI), TCEB, and other partner universities to launch the very first ISAN Creativity and Innovation Summit 2025. This is a major move to elevate the academic stage for design and innovation to an international level. Since our festival is already part of the World Design Week network, we’re already a global brand. This summit on creativity and innovation is here to stay, and we plan to keep building on it.”
“This is a whole new dimension we're adding. We're elevating the entire education sector, and it's all happening on July 5th - 6th at the Science Park, Khon Kaen University.”
You mentioned Isan's riches, or 'Local Assets,' earlier. Lay it on us—what have you really got?
“Let me tell you, whatever you want, Isan has it. We are not a wasteland, despite the rumors. We’re focusing on three powerhouse industries with massive potential. One: The Entertainment and Content Industry—music, performance art, Mor Lam... we're drowning in talent. Sisaket province alone has over 30 record labels and film companies. Two: The Handicraft, Art, and Design Industry. Where else can you find more weavers than in Isan? We ran an exhibition last year on the potential of natural fibers and counted the weavers across the region. The number was over 300,000. That is colossal production power. That is wealth. And that’s just weaving, not even counting other crafts. And three: The Food Industry. Isan food is second to none. It’s everywhere, in every corner of the country and across the globe. That is true, undeniable richness.”
“And we're going to put it all on blast this year.”
So you’re planning to push Isan into the mainstream of Thai society?นคือเตรียมผลักดันให้อีสานกลายเป็นกระแสหลักของสังคมไทย?
“That’s about the size of it. Is it possible to make Isan food the new Izakaya? Honestly, it's already a lifestyle for Thais. You finish work, roll up your sleeves, and sit down at an Isan restaurant. It’s no different from an Izakaya. The question is, how do we sharpen its character and turn it into a new, trendy lifestyle? An ‘Isan Pop’ to completely rebrand the region.”
What's the overall schedule for the Design Weeks?
“Bangkok Design Week is in February, Pakk Taii Design Week in Songkhla is in August, and Chiang Mai Design Week is in December. For the Isan Creative Festival, we’ve locked in late June to early July. I think this timing is perfect for us. We can help the city more because everyone else is fighting for the high season. Nobody dares to take on the rainy season. We intentionally want to be the event that stimulates the city during the monsoon, even though it comes with its own management challenges.”
But you have the KUPPER ART FES 2025, which is indoors, safe from the rain.
“That’s right. We’ve been running this with ‘KULTX’ for two years now. We want it to be a real art fair for buying and selling art that’s genuinely from Isan, organized by Isan people, for Isan people. We’ve lined up a huge number of buyers. Since the Kupper Art Fest runs at the same time as the ISAN MICE EXPO 2025, we’re expecting massive sales. On the seller side, we hope KULTX will step up from just being an organizer to becoming a real art trader, with a professional system for managing art sales, a proper backend. For example, since art purchases can be used for tax deductions, they need to be ready to issue receipts and handle the paperwork. We want total professionalism, and the CEA is pushing KULTX to get there.”
Can you tell us about the sales figures from last year's event?
“Last year, we had 80 artists from over 30 studios participate, with more than 350 pieces of art. The estimated sales value was over 3 million baht. This year, KULTX reports that even more artists are joining, from about 60-plus studios. Naturally, that means more artwork will be on display, so the sales value is expected to double.”
Those sales figures are fascinating. It shows there's a huge, untapped demand for art in Isan. The group of people buying luxury goods in the region is still very large.
“It should be seen as an investment. Especially now with the government's policy promoting it, you can get a tax deduction of up to one hundred thousand baht. The KULTX team is looking into this and will be talking about it during the event, which should create an even bigger incentive.”
Do you think Thai creative work can go global?
“We're already on our way. Isan food is all over the world. Right now, the Studio Soeng team is on a shoot in Japan.”
Is there a chance that the creative economy could become a long-term national policy, like China's 'Made in China' which they pursued until it became the success it is today?
“Right now, Soft Power is a flagship policy of the current government. They are pushing for the THACCA (Thailand Creative Culture Agency) Act to create a dedicated body to drive the soft power industry. First off is the push for Upskilling and Reskilling, promoting courses that benefit people in the creative industries. Second is the fund. Think about it: a farmer whose crops are damaged by a natural disaster gets compensation, but musicians and people in the film industry got no support or relief during the COVID crisis. If there’s a fund, they will be looked after systematically. Third is professional certification standards for the creative industries. In France, you need a professional certificate just to bake bread! This is what the government is trying to do, backed by law. Another thing the government is doing is integrating laws to allow THACCA to clear certain obstacles for the creative industries.”
“I can say for sure that there's a definite opportunity for the creative and soft power industries to become a continuously pursued policy, because soft power is a core policy of this government.”
I ask because I’m afraid it might just be a political party's policy that can't create real change.
“Well, it should be heartening for people in the creative industry that an Act is on its way. This policy can be a powerful spearhead to lead the economy effectively.”
The upcoming event—9 days, 4 main areas, over 200 activities—sounds like it will be packed with exciting things to follow about Isan.
“Actually, there are other venues too that joined through our Open Call—some are coffee shops, some are galleries, all hosting events in their own spaces. You could say we’re turning the entire city of Khon Kaen into a creative city during the festival, with networks from every province in Isan joining in.”
This explosion of Isan’s creative richness is incredibly fascinating. The act of throwing out ideas through over 200 activities, gathering minds from all 20 provinces, and piling every major opportunity onto one stage—this method is no different from poking a red ant nest. To get the good stuff from the nest to eat, you might have to wait for the swarm to scatter first. So, in the following year, we should expect to see a full menu made from the ant eggs harvested this year. We’ll just have to wait patiently for the deliciousness that the culinary masters at the Creative Economy Agency will serve up.
But let’s not just stand by. This year, we should all get in there and help poke that red ant nest. Who knows, we might even catch a few queen ants to roast and eat with fresh kradon leaves.
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