At 6.2 per cent of the economy, and growing at twice the rate of other sectors, the UK’s creative industries are proportionately the largest of any in the world. Creative firms tend to be found in clusters too- by locating close to talent pools and clients, and networking and sharing information, they can become more innovative and competitive. Until Nesta’s ‘Creative Clusters and Innovation’ project, produced in collaboration with researchers at the Universities of Birmingham and Cardiff, no-one had examined systematically where these clusters are in the Britain, or the role that they play in local and regional processes of innovation.

‘Creative Mass’ brought together practitioners, policymakers and researchers to discuss the findings of the project, and its implications for policymakers.

Sir John Chisholm, Nesta’s Chairman, welcomed the attendees, and highlighted the importance of the creative industries as a pillar of work within Nesta.

Hasan Bakhshi, Director of Creative Industries at Nesta Policy and Research, provided some background for the report, and an overview of its key findings. He also mentioned the online platform that Nesta is launching together with the report. This platform will provide policymakers, businesses and innovation actors across the country with in-depth geographical data about the presence of the creative industries in their localities, and enable them to put in place more effective initiatives to support them.

In his keynote speech, the Hon. Ed Vaizey, Minister of Culture, Communications and the Creative Industries, talked about the importance of the creative industries as a source of economic growth. He highlighted some of the government initiatives to support creative clusters, including the recently announced East London Tech City Initiative, and the Regional Economic Growth Fund. He argued that by increasing the visibility of its strong creative clusters, the UK can attract foreign investment without the generous public subsidies available overseas. He also pointed out that in order to thrive, creative clusters need access to the right skills. The Independent Review of Skills for the Video Games and Visual Effects Sectors currently being carried out by Nesta and Skillset, under the leadership of Ian Livingstone and Alex Hope seeks to ensure that the UK education system produces the talent that these sectors need to thrive.

Professor Ann Markusen, from the University of Minnesota, presented the results of her research on creative occupations in the USA. Her main point was that the creative and cultural industries have an active role to play in driving innovation in the places where they are located. Policymakers would however be well advised to ensure that any initiatives that they put in place to support them take into account place-specific issues, and avoid ‘one-size-fits-all’ approaches.

Nesta’s former CEO, Jonathan Kestenbaum, chaired a panel with the participation of Alex Hope, Managing Director of Double Negative, one of the leading Visual Effects companies in the vibrant film production and post-production cluster in Soho, Professor Markusen, and Paul Durrant, Director of Business Development the University of Abertay at Dundee, home to a strong video games cluster.

Alex Hope talked about how, in the case of Soho, the presence of a critical mass of post-production companies attracts both clients and talent. Clustering increases the scale of the projects that companies are able to take on, and their ability to draw global productions to London.

Paul Durrant focussed on the symbiotic relationship between the University of Abertay and the cluster of video games companies that surrounds it. Not only has the University led the UK in the development of courses that provide video games graduates with the skills that industry needs, but it also manages a fund for prototype development that local companies can tap on. At the same time, video games companies provide invaluable feedback and expertise to the University.

The panel discussion was followed by a vibrant Q&A session that touched on several important issues, such as the impact of emerging Asian economies on creative value chains and UK creative clusters, the need to ensure that UK creative companies are able to access international talent, and the way in which clustering can make places more resilient against the ‘boom and bust’ cycles that are pervasive in the creative industries.