A report has been published by the Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre and The Centre for Intermedia and Creative Technology (CICT) at the University of Exeter. It highlights the need for investment in the creative industries in coastal towns to encourage creative businesses & individuals to flourish, grow and support all-year-round employment.
Bigwave supported the team at the University of Exeter with their research for the report earlier this year and has been referenced in it. We’ve really enjoyed being involved in this and are grateful for the opportunity to contribute and get our thoughts across.
We believe investment could encourage people into the industry and enable them to stay working locally. We’ve seen this at Bigwave where we expanded into Torquay a number of years ago and have seen more applicants apply for jobs from the area ever since. There is already great stuff going on in Torbay from the likes of South Devon College and the TDA to support this.
These are the key areas (in our opinion) that any support could really make an impact:
- Collaboration and networking opportunities for people in the creative industry (i.e. through industry-specific peer networking events)
- Encourage local businesses to engage more with further education providers to ensure learning matches practical application
- Improve signposting to funding and Government led initiatives
- Improve access to infrastructure (office/meeting spaces) – ideally through a centralised creative hub
That idea of a creative hub, which the report highlights as a concept, we think could bring all those points together. Particularly in a location like Torbay.
The release of the report was been picked up by BBC Spotlight and our Operations & Digital Director, Simon Beer and Client Marketing Director, Ronnie Halden spent some time filming with them in our Torquay office.
This is an area we really passionate about and it is great to see a report published that calls for greater investment in the industry. Over the past decade, Bigwave has been involved in a lot of projects to champion some of the points above. This includes running and attending creative industry networking events, lecturing at Universities and Colleges, mentoring students, running internships, offering work experience, and running apprenticeship programmes.
Fingers crossed it gets more people thinking about careers in the industry, and able to work and stay locally.
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