By Jeremy Mayhew, Deputy Chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee, City of London Corporation
On Tuesday I was pleased to participate in a panel discussion on building the creative capital at the 2013 London Remix summit, alongside Ed Vaisey, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, Eze Vidra, Head of Campus for Google, and Richard Gibbs, Director of Business for iCity.
The strapline for the summit was ‘culture, technology, entrepreneurship’ and, listening to the speakers and participants, I was impressed by the energy, enthusiasm and ideas that you might expect to encounter in a room full of creative entrepreneurs. However, another theme that emerged was the value of relationships and community to the burgeoning creative and technology sectors – we heard both about young entrepreneurs benefitting from the support of multinationals and established companies benefitting from the creativity and agility of innovative start-ups.
Our research shows that companies in Tech City tend to be small - three quarters have fewer than ten employees, to be young - half are under five years old, and to be independent. We heard these findings reflected in Eze Vidra’s comment, during the panel session, that London is developing a reputation for being “synonymous with start-ups”, and that these companies are choosing to be here because they know that it offers them access to a pool of talent, to capital, and to a like-minded and creative community of businesses. He went on to point out that we are starting to see more game-changing ideas and companies emerging from London, so by choosing to set up here entrepreneurs can take advantage of being part of a growing cluster of similar firms with a world-class reputation.
The City of London’s financial and professional services offer a parallel example of a world-leading cluster that acts as a magnet for businesses, for talent and for innovation, creating an environment in which entrepreneurship can flourish. So we know that this model can provide a solid foundation on which London can build its globally successful digital and tech sectors.
In addition to providing a model for development, the City can be an active partner in the development of the creative capital. Today’s Remix highlighted to me the range of opportunities for partnerships between the City and the burgeoning creative and tech sectors: creative partnerships for product development, financing arrangements for growth, and mentoring relationships to share best practice and expertise, to name just a few.
It is in all of our interests to support the growth of London’s creative and tech sectors. The City of London Corporation already does a great deal of work in this area, through initiatives such as Hack the Barbican, support for Tech City, schemes such as Angels in the City, the Innovation Warehouse, and Creative Entrepreneurs, our research programme, and the networks we facilitate. We remain committed to playing our part in supporting these growing sectors, working both with the government and entrepreneurs to help to remove the barriers which have traditionally stood between these distinct sectors and the obstacles that could prevent firms in these sectors making an ever-bigger contribution to the London and UK economy. We look forward to continuing to be a constructive part of the creative capital of the future.