On 15th September, we presented the first in the series of Invest in Creative Regional Spotlight events, and for this instalment, the West Midlands took centre stage. Co-hosted by 1 Mill Street and the Creative Futures Incubator, we brought together a virtual and in-person audience to celebrate the thriving creative sector in the region.
The West Midlands has an impressive creative and cultural sector, with major strength in games production, content creation, design and collaboration across many leading sectors, and with over £4bn GVA added from the creative economy, the region is a hot spot for innovation. For this event, we welcomed a host of investors with their finger on the pulse when it comes to creative innovators, alongside industry experts and innovators taking part in the West Midlands Creative Scale Up programme, who together, offered insights on why now is the time to invest in the region.
We had a fantastic panel explore the local area and tell us a little bit more about what opportunities they are seeing, what more can be done to boost investment in the sector, and spotlight a few of the businesses the are investing in.
Our panel included:
Alex Toft, Head of Minerva Business Angels
Ammo Talwar MBE, CEO, Punch Records
Stacy O’Connor, Digital Creative Industry Lead, Coventry & Warwickshire LEP
Philip Oliver, CEO & Co-Founder at Panivox, Director, Game Dragons
Moderated by: Roderick Beer, Managing Director, UK Business Angels Association
We also heard from serial entrepreneur and founder of 1 Mill Street, Nigel Shanahan to give us a little glimpse of the creativity that flows through the Mill Street’s co-working space daily, which is just a drop in the bucket when it comes to the local talent.
West Midlands Creative Scale Up Programme lead, Fiona Latter also gave us an overview of what incredible businesses they have been working with through the programme, including AR VR company, Atmos VR who successfully secured 1£m in investment after joining.
If you’d like to hear more about the thriving creative sector in the West Midlands, check out the recording above, which was filmed as part of our hybrid event offering by Bluebell Films.
