Oops, in all the excitement I clean forgot to tell anyone about this. I’ll be one of the speakers or whathaveyou at the Moseley Creative Forum event tomorrow. I’ve no idea what I’ll be talking about, which is usually for the best, but will be on hand for chats and stuff should you want to chat and stuff.

And there are other people talking too who will me much better prepared and much more interesting I’m sure.

See also: Made in Moseley, a directory of pretentious types creative sorts in the B13 post code. I wonder, if they haven’t already, if this should be extended to B14?

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The events are aimed at supporting mid-career makers wishing to engage in discussion on ideas for new work and developing new markets. The intention is to provide an opportunity for debate, the exchange of ideas and the practical working up of plans for new work and new markets.

21st Jan sees “In Conversation with Leading Practitioners” with “In Conversation with Curators and Gallery Professionals” following on 11th Feb. No mention of cost so I’m guessing they’re free though booking is essential as numbers are limited. Full details including speakers. via D’log

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The film was put together by Creative Compass who have more stories and testimonials on their site.

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Here’s a paragraph that jumped out:

The first thing we found was that many hadn’t been asked their views before despite the fact that development agencies and local councils had been writing strategy and delivering projects on their behalf for years. Not that there haven’t been surveys and mapping documents before but no one seemed to be asking the key questions: how can businesses capitalise on the success of the music acts they help nurture and how far are we from having a defined infrastructure for an effective, functional music industry?

And this piece, coming after a look at the specific challenged facing music companies, was illuminating.

But that’s not really the key concern that emerges from our dialogue with the music industry. What they really have are the same concerns any business owner of any kind of business would have: how do I get more attention for my products? What haven’t I got a local trade association to join? How do I grow my business? How do I acquire specialist industry knowledge and access high-level business support? Why isn’t there the same level of public agency support for my sector as there is with others?

But go read the whole thing. It’s not too long and is written in English, which is nice.

– — –

In the article Dave mentions that “one of our local companies did a deal with a chain of Belgian bakeries to give away their artists’ music free with a loaf of bread.” I have it on good authority (ie Dave told me) that it’s Gotham Records. Fantastic stuff!

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Digital Central’s Music Box is complete. A three booklet series of resources and advice for the music industry it’ll be distributed to delegates at the Gigbeth conference or you can get a copy direct from DC. There are also PDFs available to download from these links:

Box 1: Making Money out of Music.
Box 2: 20 things you must know about music online.
Box 3: Music Matters – a regional profile.

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Hard to come up with a snappy title for this, but it’s a good one. Part of Digital Central’s remit is to study what’s needed in the local music industry and report back to the AWM mothership. Recently they’ve been “a bunch of music industry types what they think of the current set up here in the West Midlands based on their experience of trying to make a living here” and, as well as forming the basis for a consultancy document, have started putting the full responses online for everyone to benefit from.

So far they’ve got responses from Chris Thompson of emusu.com, Grandmaster Gareth of Misty’s Big Adventure and Ninder Johal of Nachural.

More will follow over the next week in their features section which has it’s own RSS feed. I must say it’s refreshing to see some of these experiences and ideas given a voice here. Nice one.

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This act is an example of something I’m very much in favour of – that by sharing your skills and knowledge you not only benefit the community of which you’re a part but you show yourself to be an important player in that community. Added to this, the sharing forces everyone to up their game as common sense becomes common knowledge, pushing that community above other more closed off ones. Small companies and individuals get this. If only it would peculate to the bigger orgs then maybe Birmingham could become the powerhouse it deserves to be.

Anyway, the talk was part of a Creative Alliance program of sessions and produced 7×7, a series of seven inch circular flyers where artists illustrated song lyrics. A bunch of these were on the flyer table at Plus and I picked up three by Joe Rogers, Karoline Rerrie and Ruth Radcliffe.

Considering the quality of work on display at Plus the fact that these just jumped out and said “take me now” is credit indeed.

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The Fellowship project will buy out half of my time for two years, starting with in February, to work with local music businesses and organisations, look at what they do, and help them develop new and innovative ideas that will help them make more money.

The idea is that it’s a knowledge exchange. They get new ideas from people like me who have nothing better to do than sit around and read, think about new technological developments and figure out what it all means. In return, we get first hand experience of what is commonly thought of as ‘the real world’ so we can get a feel for how these ideas might work in actual practice, rather than just in the realms of theory.

Not sure how it’s all going to shake out, but between the handful of us, we’re going to be working with about 20 different organisations, from community radio stations to punk labels, promotions companies to online music retailers.

Give than Andrew is absurdly blog-savvy you can expect this knowledge to be widely shared.

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The next Out of Hours at Light House is on Monday 3rd September, 5.30-7.30pm and is all about funding. While it takes place in Wolverhampton a lot of these organisations are West Mids-wide so this is pretty relevant to Birmingham folks. (And Light House is a lovely place to visit.)

Guests at this informal chatting session include:

Marina Ibrahim: SP/ARK

Nigel Jordan: Wolverhampton University Creative Media Technology project.

Matt Stocker: Advantage Creative Fund

Chris Adams: Creative and Knowledge Industries Business Adviser for Business Link West Midlands.

Dave Taylor: TIC

Dave Roberts: Creative Launchpad

Sarah Bell: Music for Media Project

Peter McLuskie: PLOT

They’ll all spend five minutes of so explaining what they do and who they can help and then there’ll be a chance to mingle and ask them stuff.

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The following two services are managed by the Creative Development Team at Birmingham City Council and are open to creative businesses in West Midlands Objective Two areas. This innovative programme brings together a strong regional partnership to ensure a seamless provision across the region. If you are interested in knowing more about this programme or want to submit an application, please contact your local regional partner to arrange an initial meeting:

Birmingham

Contact Shasta Rashid @ Birmingham City Council, shasta.rashid@birmingham.gov.uk; t. 0121 303 2462

[non-Birmingham contacts removed]

A brief summary of the elements of the programme are as follows:

• Up to £2500 for a feasibility study to assess the market for a new product or service. via research, video, CD Rom etc to show case portfolio of services available, in a format suitable to showcase your skills and work to develop new markets.
• Up to £5000 for creative space- set up or expansion of business premises [This is not available to businesses who have been trading for less than 12 months] These services are managed by Business Link West Midlands (Creative and Knowledge Industries Sector Manager- Lara Ratnaraja ) [The provision is supposed to emphasise the cohesiveness of the support so emphasising them as split elements is counter productive]

These services are managed by Business Link West Midlands (Creative and Knowledge Industries Sector Manager – Lara Ratnaraja)

• Core Offer – Business Review and Action Plan (one day): all Creative Industries businesses (irrespective of objective two status) are entitled to one-day with one of our dedicated Creative Industries business advisers.
• Creative City/Region offer for businesses in objective two areas including: Consultancy – Up to 50% funding available (42% net) for specialised consultancy packages i.e. website development, marketing, PR using business link accredited consultants.

More information can be accessed via birmingham.gov.uk/creative.

Tim Wilson | Creative Industries Programme Co-Ordinator | Business Link West Midlands

t: 01384 360754 | m: 07929 012292
timwilson@businesslinkwm.co.uk

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