#BrightonFuse

Brighton Fuse: An interpretation of the research from Wired Sussex

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They funded it

#BrightonFuseThey all supported it

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We delivered it

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#BrightonFuse

www.brightonfuse.com

The full #BrightonFuse research report, the executive summary and our policy recommendations are available to download on

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#BrightonFuse

This is where it started…

Creative + Digital + IT = CDIT

Arts + Humanities + Design + Digital Technology

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“It's in Apple's DNA that technology alone is not enough — it's technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing”. Steve Jobs

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The Brighton Fuse research looks at the scale of this CDIT sector in Brighton and the impact and interplay of talent, businesses and cluster

#BrightonFuseThe Method

7,500+ businesses individually reviewed

1,495 indentified as being part of the cluster

32.4% response rate to detailed questionnaire

75+ in depth follow up interviews

Our research…

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What is the CDIT sector worth?

Universities Visitor Economy

Nighttime economy

CDIT0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

£MILLIONS

£713m

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Growth of Brighton’s CDIT sector

14.7% per annum on average

3.8% median

Vs 0.7% for overall UK economy

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4x Brighton & Hove’s overall economy

2x as fast as same sectors in rest of South East England

10x UK’s overall economy

Jobs Growth in Brighton’s CDIT sector

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“ I thought, seven years at [a London IT services company], going back to start a business in Brighton, I’ll clean up! I’ll have people begging me to work for them.

I knew there would be a lot of people doing digital stuff in Brighton but I just didn’t think the competition would be particularly hot.

And I found out very quickly within about two or three weeks that Brighton actually had some really good established businesses that were doing world-leading stuff.”

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The CDIT entrepreneurs

circa90% are ‘outsiders’

73% said lifestyle was an important reason, 30% said it was the main reason

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It’s the place, stupidBrighton is “great weekends...a city of creative people, whether its journalists, musicians or artists; the Brighton Festival, the slightly alternative and bohemian aspect to the brand”

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“Lifestyle was a part of it. I think I’d just had enough of London really. I liked the idea of being able to walk to work, a short-ride to work, and just work-life balance was really up there.

But also I’d noticed that there were more professional companies here. The perception I’d had ten, twelve years ago was that it was guy’s in their bedroom; whereas when I moved here four, five years ago there was a lot more serious companies coming up.”

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The degrees they have…

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Unfused Only focus on either creative content or technology

Fused Bring together creative content and technology

SuperfusedCreative content combined with

technology is the core of their value proposition

3 categories of CDIT business

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“Our development environment means that …if an artist changes a graphic it’s immediately reflected in the build that the developer’s doing through a conversion system, so it’s very kind of closely integrated… everyone’s mixed up...

We’ve never really wanted to pursue a ‘developers on one floor and artists on another’ model, Our projects are very creative, but that creativity is always under-pinned by technology and we have to evolve the creative vision side by side with what the tech will do.”

Juliet Tzbar, Plug-in Media

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Growth rates by fusion

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“Tech …designer …host, they’re all part of an ecosystem... if your target is to entice your consumer to do something or to give them a great user experience, or whatever it might be, any one of those technological or design things can be the hole in the boat that makes it sink. Covering the bases of all of those things, (has) helped us grow quite quickly.”

Mike Hollingbery, BozBoz

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Brighton’s Talent Economy

An opportunity…

…and a challenge

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Brighton’s Talent Economy

“We give people time to experiment together, to fiddle about”

“…We invite inspirational and motivational peers in to give talks”

“Staff are regularly given time on specifically to discuss with the team something interesting or relevant they have read”

“We have 3d printers and stuff for people to play around with”

“Our studio and the way it looks and feels helps to define who we are...”

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Are we ambitious?

Ambitious for what?

Compared to whom?

Limits on your ambition

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Its innovation Jim, but not as we know it…

CDIT businesses in Brighton are good at creating value…

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Innovation activities

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…But they are far less successful at capturing value

Only 1% of businesses registered IP during the previous 12 months

50% of businesses appear to be producing materials eligible for copyright, but only 8% have royalties as a source of revenue

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Some things are designed to create value and leave value capture to others

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Delivers significant value to the local economy

Is driven by SuperFused businesses which are:– Very fast growing – More likely to be innovating with products and services,

markets and methods – More likely to emphasise a company culture designed to

attract, nurture and grow its talent– More likely to network

Brighton’s CDIT cluster...

Is growing rapidly

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What is to be done?

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“Our new office in Manhattan is cheaper than our Brighton HQ – in the centre of Manhattan!”

“How can we seriously call ourselves a digital cluster with such cr*p broadband? Its better at home than at work.”

“we need to re-think our education system so that it meets the needs of our society and our businesses as they are now, not how they were”

Jenni Lloyd, Nixon McInnnes

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SuperFused:Brighton’s Talent Economy

Thank

s!

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#BrightonFuse