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Caroline Hyde of Anglia Ruskin University is setting up a new non-profit creative network called Creative Front which is launching in the next few weeks. Its’ aim is to bring together the different diverse creative networks in Cambridgeshire, support them and promote Cambridgeshire creative services regionally and nationally. There will be a website where members can post up their portfolio to advertise services, view job listings, events, tenders and business advice. Events will also be organised to bring in recognised speakers, run training workshops, etc.

It’s been a hot topic around the creative Cambridge network scene – Read my edited notes below from Caroline...

From Caroline Hyde

Business Development Manager for Creative & Cultural Industries

Research, Development and Commercial Services

Anglia Ruskin University

Creative Front has been a project that I ( Caroline Hyde) has been working on for the best part of four years and the first people that I spoke to about it were Matt Pennell, Fran Alexander (who ran CaMedia) and Paul Smith (who went on to set up CamCreative) and the idea was always to provide the resources and capacity that smaller networks aren’t able to because they are usually run by the passion of one individual with a day job with little funding to do anything.

Having been part of several creative communities in other cities I’ve lived in, I felt Cambridgeshire had such a great profile but that people within it were hardly aware – let alone those elsewhere in the world. Because Cambridge doesn’t need a creative sector for either tourism or regeneration it gets overlooked and overshadowed by hi-tech and biosciences yet makes just as valuable an economic contribution and an even bigger one to the quality of life of the area.

CF isn’t aiming to replace groups but to provide an umbrella which allows us to showcase our collective might to the outside world, promote it on a local, national and international level, take our demands to the policy makers and planners to ensure we get the right work/live environment and business support, help new businesses start up in the region, attract new companies and talent to the region, and look at how the creative ad high tech sectors can work together to drive some real creative innovation. And have some great events and meet ups.

It may sound a little dull but our first success already is that the new Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) for Greater Cambridgeshire & Greater Peterborough (the body which will replace EEDA and potentially the GCP) creative industries is now included as one of the four sectors of economic priority. This is from its near ignored existence in 2008 by all of the policy makers. This has resulted already is me being approached regarding a multi million pound bid for a creative technology facility using national government funds.

We have built the first phase of Creative Front and invited all of the existing networks to join as Special Interest Groups, maintaining their own identity. Their members are then all offered a free 12 month membership. So it costs you nothing to join and we hope that we then get to demonstrate the value of what we can do during that time. But critically – we need to know what you want it to do for you. And how you want it to work.

I’m happy to come to the meet up and answer people’s questions, or try and address them on here if it’s easier.

Many thanks,

Caroline 

Caroline Hyde

Business Development Manager for Creative & Cultural Industries

Research, Development and Commercial Services

Anglia Ruskin University

** Caroline will be at our CAMCREATIVE meeting end of February – come with questions!!!** Or come and speak to me at this Thursday’s meeting :0)

Meantime London Lager. Spice delivers a Social media campaign with a real Taxi to boot! BTW the beer is excellent! http://on.fb.me/9HwQNb

We published a set of ideas for a series of Tee shirts based around taking a letter out of the name of the game and using it as the ‘ball’