The Big Debate: Develop solutions online to city’s problems, says Charles Leadbeater

Nov 3 2009 by Anna Blackaby, Birmingham Post

Other speakers included Toby Barnes, of Digbeth-based digital agency Mudlark, and David Harris, executive creative director of direct marketing agency Wunderman.

Mr Barnes said people who were not afraid to take risks, even if they failed, were essential to develop the creative sector. “We need less media studies students and more people who want to experiment – it’s about individuals who can experiment,” he said

The event, organised by Birmingham City University, the Birmingham Post and NEC Group, invited interaction by challenging each table to produce action points to be compiled into recommendations to be handed to government on how the sector can be best supported.

One point to emerge was the need to bring creative companies and innovative thinkers together with people with managerial and financial expertise.

David Edmonds, managing director of the Advantage Creative Fund, said: “We need to find people who creative ideas and find new ways of linking them with managerial and financial talent.

“We musn’t put creative businesses in some kind of silo. Not only have they got to come up with the bright ideas, they have also got to take them to market.”

Some of the debate centred on copyright following Lord Mandelson’s announcement that the government was looking at punishing persistent illegal filesharers by blocking their internet connections. The government’s plans divided the audience, many of whom believed its drive was pointless and would damage the creative economy.

But Thomas Dillon, chairman of the Creative Advantage Fund, said the mentality that file-sharing was essential for the creative economy was “old hat”.

“It’s a very old business model that’s more than ten years old.”