Earlier this month, it was my privilege to participate in the first ever trade mission from Tampa Bay to Manchester, England.  The trade mission, organized by Arthur Porter, publisher of the Tampa Bay Business Journal and a “Mancunian,” sought to establish business and cultural relations with England’s Second City.  It capitalized on the link made between Tampa Bay and Manchester via the Glazer family’s recent purchase of the Manchester United soccer team.  This mission sought to deepen that connection and turn it into real opportunity for both communities.

From my perspective, I was interested in learning more about the Creative Industries sector in the north of England.  In many ways, the creative economy began there over 10 years ago, and is now a recognized, legitimate sector of the economy in the UK.  There is even a Cabinet level position: Minister of Creative Industries. 

The fight for legitimacy took time to reach its current state. It was pushed by groups of committed individuals, primarily within traditional power structures who recognized the power and opportunity that creative industries offered.

The UK creative industries approach is far more institutional and structured than anything we have seen in the US.  The nearest equivalent in the US may be the Michigan “Cool Cities” program which has been overlayed on the existing bureaucratic structures and enhanced with new positions and roles. 

There are significant funds available for local government (or “local authorities”) to instigate programs that may be applied to economic development.  This includes not only UK money, but significant EU funding as well.  In this capacity, it would be similar to State and Federal funding in the US.

Of note, while in a London train station I noticed a huge electronic billboard that was urging creative industry businesses to come to the southwest of England and promoting their creative industries sector as being a 1.5 billion pound a year sector. 

Organizations
For three days, I was the guest of CIDA (Creative Industries Development Agency - http://www.cida.org/) in Huddersfield, just east of Manchester.  CIDA is a completely private organization.  Anamaria Wills and her team go after these public sector contracts to provide economic development, workforce training, entrepreneurship development and skills enhancement to the region.  They have competed for and won international business as well, having recently completed a pilot project in Columbia. 

CIDS (Creative Industries Development Service - http://www.cids.co.uk) in Manchester is a different model.  CIDS is funded by the local authority to provide network development and services to the creative industries sector in the Greater Manchester area.  In some ways they are similar to Creative Tampa Bay in that they bring people together around ideas and primarily connect people. 

Both organizations were staffed by excited, committed people, who were multidisciplinary, multi-cultured and multi-generational, and who obviously loved what they were doing. 

The Importance of Research
All of the organizations and people I spoke with noted the importance of research to moving the creative industries agenda forward.  Before they were able to get significant money to develop projects, they had to benchmark the state of their creative industry sector, to provide hard numbers to the government.  This provided them with ammunition they needed to change public policy and make government realize the importance of the creative industries sector.

The research methodology was significant as well.  I met with Dr. Calvin Taylor, from Leeds University and one of the world’s foremost experts on quantifying the creative economy.  He indicated that they used very traditional, established methods to measure the sector.  That meant using Standard Industry Codes (SIC).  This is significant because many of the leading US experts, including Richard Florida, have suggested that the way to measure the sector is by occupation, not industry designation.  Dr. Taylor agreed that occupational measures are more accurate, but he noted that every other sector uses SIC codes, therefore it was incumbent on the creative sector to use the same measures as the others.  This was a familiar and established measure that bureaucrats, business and government all recognized.  And because that is where the funding comes from, Dr. Taylor noted, “You must speak their language.” 

In several reports that Dr. Taylor provided to me, the exact breakdown of the sector by SIC code is provided.  This becomes a convenient blueprint for CTB to use if we opt to benchmark our own creative industries sector, something I now believe to be of critical importance. 

The Importance of Space
One of the more significant organizations I met with was the Kirklees Media Centre (http://www.the-media-centre.co.uk/).  Kirklees is the burrough in which Huddersfield resides, similar to how Tampa resides in Hillsborough County.  The Media Centre began in 1995 when town converted a derelict building into an incubator for creative industry businesses.  The building was purchased by the not for profit organization and run as a business.  In the past few years it has become a sustainable, profitable business that now operates three buildings on the block, with a fourth scheduled to break ground in early 2006.

The Media Centre is home to 90 offices, over 100,000 sq. feet of space with workspaces ranging from 180 sq. feet to 2000 sq. feet.  It is over 90% occupied with a very low turnover.  Of note, the tenants pay market rate for their space, though they do benefit by being able to tie into the existing phone and Internet systems. 

The Media Centre employs 23 people itself to manage the building and provide services to the tenants, including programming of events and management of a community gallery space.  Community and tenant mix is extremely important to the Media Centre.  They house businesses ranging from advertising, marketing, gaming, software, media, fashion, web development, interior design and artists.  As their Executive Director Toby Hyam  told me “We do not manage a building, we manage a network.”

One building in particular has been converted into 21 live/work apartments called the “Creative Lofts” – right. These space average about 1000 square feet and provide a place where small business can get started, and also provide the owner a place to live. 

The Media Centre has become an anchor in that area of Huddersfield and has become a model that is being replicated across the UK. 

Jane Jacobs, author of The Death & Life of Great American Cities, noted that new ideas need old buildings.  This is an axiom that the UK has taken to heart.  A key strategy for them has been to provide the spaces in which creativity and creative people (not just artists!) can operate.  They have an enormous number of old buildings, including some massive mills (example above) that have been converted to office space, live/work spaces and studios. 

Relevance to CTB
In my many conversations, I sought to find out if there were any organizations similar to Creative Tampa Bay.  While some had elements of what we do, there were no direct comparisons.  This has proven to be true in Canada and Australia as well.  Some US organizations seem to have some of our structure, but I am now more convinced than ever, that we have created something very unique and exceptional here.

One conversation with the Leeds Initiative, a very innovative approach to public-private engagement, led to an epiphany for me.  The Leeds Initiative has created several networks focused on various community sectors such as transportation, culture, learning and children.  These networks in turn work on those issues and projects.  The Leeds Initiative group was thus described as a “strategic network, not a delivery agency.”  That struck me as being very applicable to CTB.  We do function as a strategic network, (a connector), that occasionally acts as a delivery agency, but for the most part, we rely on people and organizations within the network to deliver on projects. 

Overall, we continue to make connections around the world, seeking new ideas and connections that further our own development.  The answers lie in making those connections, asking questions and being willing to look beyond our own horizons for new insight and inspiration.  And remembering that we too provide insight and inspiration to others by what we do here.