The potential for growing the UK's creative economy is being analysed at a high-profile conference taking place near Swindon today.
The event, staged by South West Screen, is exploring incubation and acceleration, discussing how to develop successful investments, and examining various sources of finance such as peer to peer lending, micro finance loans, traditional venture capitalism and third sector investment.
Will Hutton, executive vice chair of The Work Foundation, opened proceedings at Badminton House. He said: “There is a great amount of market uncertainty when it comes to investment in the UK’s creative industries and yet this creative economy continues to be cited as one of the sectors of the UK most likely to generate jobs and economic growth.
"It is vital that government and private investment work together to build networks and understanding between investors, creative and cultural entrepreneurs, and those able to seriously boost the UK’s cultural and creative economy. If we do not sort the issues of investment and business development in the creative industries, we risk seriously eroding the UK’s competitive advantage in this area.”
Chaired by David Prais (partner, Pembridge Partners), the conference’s participants include Neil Hewitt (social and cultural team manager, Triodos Bank); Andrew Mullinger (co-founder, Funding Circle), Ellen O’Hara (head of business development, Cockpit Arts), Stephen Rockman (founder, Merism Capital), David Scholtz (associate director, Ariadne Capital), Duncan Reid (director, Ingenious), Andy Tait (investment readiness specialist, Pembridge Partners) and Ian Livingstone (life president, Eidos).
Caroline Norbury, chief executive of South West Screen, said: “Traditional finance models which work for other sectors often don’t suit creative businesses striving to move to the next level. We want to discuss what’s at the heart of this problem; is it access to finance, does there need to be a new commercial mind set, or does the UK lack a portfolio of approaches to growth? In hosting this conference, we are responding to the coalition government’s challenge to focus on growth, in order to better understand the opportunities that lie in creative sector investment.”
Conference highlights will be documented and shared on the South West Screen website.
