Over the past few years, the North East of England has developed a
thriving digital and creative media industry that the region can be
proud of. Part of the reason for this success is down to the local hubs
that have sprung up across the region. From Boho and Digital city in
Middlesbrough, Sunderland Software City and the Ouseburn creative hub in
Newcastle, the region has provided an excellent level of support to
it’s growing and established creative and digital media businesses.
Created by One North East, the University of Teesside and
Middlesbrough Council, Digital City has the aim of generating and
sustaining a fast growing, high level economic base in the creative and
digital sector for the Teesside area.
Digital City essentially consists of two main elements, The Institute
of Digital Innovation and the Boho Zone. The Institute of Digital
Innovation is located within the Phoenix Centre. It aims to provide
support to digital academics allowing them to develop into successful
entrepreneurs.
The Boho Zone provides space for new creative and digital businesses
to “grow, network and do business”. According to their website,
“Everything
we do is geared to making North East the best place to develop your
digital media, digital technology or creative business. Whether you’re
an entrepreneur with a business idea, an established business looking to
expand, a start up, one that’s looking to relocate or an organisation
needing product development or finance, we’d love to work with you.”
Sunderland Software City
Sunderland Software city has similar aims to “Digital City” in
Teesside, with more emphasis on software development rather than the
creative digital media. There aim is to ‘…inspire and encourage the
growth of the Software Industry in the North East of England, and to
make the area an attractive location of choice for software
businesses..” They are a public-private partnership of the City of
Sunderland, the University of Sunderland, the North East Business and
Innovation Centre, One NorthEast, Codeworks Connect and the private
sector software industry.
Sunderland Software City currently operates out of a number of
buildings across the city, but are looking to create a new state of the
art environment at the heart of the city centre.
Ouseburn Creative Hub
The Ouseburn area to the West of Newcastle city centre was the cradle
of the industrial revolution in Newcastle. For a long time it has also
been the home to some of the most creative businesses in Newcastle and
was the former home to the world famous Maling Pottery. In recent more
digital and
creative businesses have been moving into the area, and a
variety of developments have sprung up to support them. Three of the
more prominent developments include The Media Exchange, Hoults Yard and
Maling Court.
“Mere Mortals” are a fine example of a world renowned digital media company that has made this are of Newcastle it’s home.
With these digital and creative media companies comes a high volume
of digital data that needs to stored, manipulated and transferred. For
this to be carried out effectively requires investment in systems and
networks that are up to the task of dealing with such high volumes of
data.
Over the next few years it is hoped that the telecoms companies will
be rolling out an extension of the fibre optic network in the region
which will allow for easier and faster transfer of files between
facilities. In the mean time it is still possible for businesses working
in the creative and digital media sector in the north east to take
advantage of cloud based services as a method of storing their data,
backing it up and transferring it to and from clients and partners.
For more details of our services and how we can help your business, contact us on 0845 862 4410 or info@eastquayit.com.