#sheffielddigital

I've been working in the creative and digital sector in Sheffield for the last ten years. Since 2011, I’ve also been actively involved in the Creative and Digital Industries (CDI) Sector Group of Sheffield City Region LEP.

Sheffield has seen a lot of local success in the sector over the last twelve months: the growth of recent startups like The Floow and Pimoroni, and of more established firms like Rocket, ten24 and Universal Everything; new workspaces such as Sum Studios, Union St and The ROCO; the transition of DotForge to a social startup accelerator; the increasing importance of digital creativity at DocFest and the Children's Media Conference; the opening of the School for Creative Startups and the creation of the Advanced Computing Research Centre.

However, I believe it is now becoming increasingly inappropriate to consider the 'creative and digital industries' as a single sector of the economy. “Digital”’ is an environment which contains all the business models of the physical world but also makes new ones possible. “Digital” contains service businesses, engineering and manufacturing businesses, retailers, marketplaces and exporters. In addition, there are collaborative, open models of resource sharing, peer-to-peer networks, micro-subscriptions, crowdfunding, virtual currencies and so on; as well as huge opportunity and activity in non-creative areas, such as health technology, education, banking and analytics.

The creative industries are something different. They may use digital technology or they may not, but they have different business models and support needs. Yet, for the purposes of our economic development policy, we still group digital together with the creative industries and consider them as one sector. Sheffield has significant strengths in both areas, but continuing to combine the two as if their needs were similar benefits neither. In fact it may only benefit those firms that inhabit the intersection of the two domains, leaving the rest of our creative sector and the rest of our digital technology sector with little voice and little influence.

Many of my colleagues in both the creative and the digital sectors agree and are starting to drive change at the grassroots level. Just last month, Sheffield’s Culture Consortium - the body responsible for cultural strategy in the city - announced the establishment of a Creative Guild, a new trade association to represent “artists, makers and all creative enterprises”. This is great for the creative sector and will give it a new voice and energy.

At the same time, we need to establish an equivalent association for the region's digital or ‘tech’ sector, so that it can more effectively engage with local and regional policy makers, as well as bodies like Tech City UK, Tech North, Innovate UK, UKTI and other parts of the local, national and international economy.

A group of us are actively trying to make this happen. If you are interested in helping to establish this body, please get in touch - you can find me easily on the network.

I've been having a lot of conversations about making this a reality, along with Saul Cozens (@saulcozens), Mel Karanek (@melkanarek), Andy Mayer (@andymayer) and Neill Birchenall (@birchenall).

The feedback we've had has been very positive and we are now close to presenting the plan for how we make this happen. We're also going to get a twitter account and website up in the next few weeks, so we can keep everyone posted as to our progress.