Creative Fuse Conference 2018: Thinking Nationally - Learnings, Insights & Challenges in Innovation

Thanks to the Creative Fuse team for inviting me to take part in a panel discussion on ‘Thinking Nationally: Learnings, Insights and Challenges in Innovation’ with Solomon Nwabueze (Chief Content Officer, Creative England) and Professor Eric Cross (Principal Investigator, Creative Fuse North East) at the Creative Fuse Conference on 11th July 2018.

A lack of visibility to decision-makers based in London can be a problem for the North East so it was great to hear from Solomon about all the good work Creative England are doing to find and support creative individuals and businesses in the regions. (Read the Creative England Investment Programme 2012-2017 Impact Report).

We also discussed some interesting themes relating to the importance of geography, network and population size and whether local tribalism was potentially holding the North East of England back.

I also explained a bit about the work I’ve been doing around the forthcoming North of Tyne devolution and UK Industrial Strategy and suggested adopting ‘Greater Newcastle’ as a new way of marketing, promoting and thinking about the Primary Urban Area (PUA) around Newcastle to a national and international audience.

For those of you who couldn’t be there (and even if you were), you can watch our discussion and the full livestream of Day 2 by clicking / tapping on the image below: