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Welcome
to May's Issue of the Newsletter for members of "The
Creative Networks"
'Creative Networks' at the University of Central England's Technology
Innovation Centre (tic) is
about bringing together all parties involved in sound
and screen-based media in the West Midlands. 'Creative
Networks' seeks to promote both successful business development
and collaboration. It also seeks to contribute to the establishment
of a strong, long-term, sound and screen-based Creative
Industry in the West Midlands. The tic
achieves this through increasing knowledge sharing and use of innovative
technologies, creative practice and business processes.
Regular monthly networking events are held at tic.
They offer opportunities for individuals and companies
to network, make pitches and identify the resources they
are seeking or support for the projects they are planning.
Visit our online portal www.creativenetworksonline.com
for up-to-date news, funding, business support, training
and tender opportunities.
In This Issue:
1. COMING UP -
May's Creative Networks Event @ tic
2. Event Reviewed
- April's Creative Networks Event The Do's and Don'ts of Distribution
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:: Aubrey Nunn - Faithless
:: Mike Owen - Mike Owen Media
:: David Ledsam - Screenburn |
3. The Music Network - Monthly Networking Event held at tic
4. Creative Networks Online Portal - TENDERS NOW ONLINE*DON'T MISS OUT*
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For suppliers of creative media content, the tic now brings jobs and contracts directly to you through the Creative Networks Online portal on a regular basis. |
5. The 2007 Creative City Awards - Nomination Deadline |
...we’d also like to hear from you!
Contact Scarlet Scardanelli, the Creative Networks administrator
with any feedback, case studies, success stories, interesting projects, collaboration opportunities or news:
:: phone
0121 331 5400
:: email
scarlet.scardanelli@tic.ac.uk
:: or
post to Technology Innovation Centre, Millennium
Point, Curzon Street, Birmingham, B4 7XG
:: or online at www.creativenetworksonline.com |
| 1. COMING UP - May's Creative Networks Event @ tic *DON'T MISS OUT* |
Thursday
31st May - From 6.00pm til LATE at tic, Millennium Point
The Collaborative Networking Event for Creative Industry Professionals
Making Business Personal
The Art of Successful Networking
Successful networking is all about turning relationships into profits. When it comes to growing your business, connecting with people is key, whether they are clients, colleagues, directors, bank managers or anyone else who might cross your path. Even the biggest deals, orders, projects, funds, sales and contracts come down to two or more people making a connection.
One of the UK’s leading speakers on Business Relationships, Rob Brown, will be joining us at Creative Networks to give the West Midlands’ creative industry an insight into the true power of networking. He is is the author of the successful book ‘How To Build Your Reputation’ and 25 other business bibles, and in the last 12 months he turned an annual income into a monthly one by doing all of the things he shares in his presentations.
Rob will guide us through his proven strategies to connect with strangers, build rapport, and cultivate a list of contacts that can even generate business on your behalf.
The Creative Networks event is FREE. If you would like to join us, please contact Scarlet Scardanelli email scarlet.scardanelli@tic.ac.uk, or phone 07969 226 693
or register online on the Creative Networks portal www.creativenetworksonline.com
You'll be very welcome.
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| 2. Review of April's Creative Networks Event - The Do's and Don'ts of Distribution |
Thursday 26th April - From 6.00pm ‘til LATE at tic, Millennium Point
The tic’s 30th monthly Creative Networks meeting welcomed over 130 delegates, from across the region to our April event. As a result of your feedback, this meeting was themed around media distribution, a topic which is fundamental to the business of all creative industry professionals. We were proud to welcome accomplished bass guitarist and producer Aubrey Nunn to join an impressive guest panel which also included Mike Owen and David Ledsam, who all offered sound advice on the practicalities of distributing media throughout the creative industry and beyond.
The canteen was a hive of activity with hot food, cold drinks and a screening from local film maker Ravi Singh, while the more daring creatives gave speed networking a try. After half an hour of lively and condensed conversation, the speed networkers joined the rest of the crowd with a bulging contact list to find out about the ‘Do’s and Don’t’s of Distribution’.
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| Film Screening - "The Race" |
"The Race" From Burned Out Productions
contact: Ravi Singh - Director
email: burnedoutprod@btinternet.com
Ravi Singh is a writer/director of short films and documentaries, who runs his own small scale film and video production company, Burned Out Productions. The business makes documentaries that have social issues as their core theme and has just completed a forty minute documentary called The Race, which considered the issues of local politics, Britishness and multiculturalism in Birmingham. The film is due to be shown on the BBC website. This race was made in collaboration with another video production company, Perpetual Motion Productions which is run by Mark Corden.
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| Summaries of Open Floor Pitches |
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Voxvision Video Productions Ltd was set up in September 2006 by Bob Sanderson, a professional actor and musician who saw a gap in the market for low-budget voiced over video for small companies and local authorities.
Prior to becoming a professional actor in 2002 Bob had a thirty year sales career in Telecommunications and IT and has been able to use his business experience, voice over skills and acquired video production knowledge to satisfy a requirement for business video solutions at the small end of the market, whilst utilising the synergy between being both a performer and producer.
Bob has recently discovered projects which require more resources than Vox Vision can offer and proposed a referral programme to the “big boys” of the region, whereby he’ll be willing to pass up larger projects in exchange for ones where the client has an extremely low budget. |
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Light House representative Katie Spragg dropped in to Creative Networks to let the region know about ‘Screen Forum: Pitching and Cannes Survival Guide’, which is taking place in Wolverhampton’s Chubb Building on Thursday 10th May from 5.45pm. This event supported by BAFTA and Screen WM, will focus on pitching and will provide a timely opportunity for those thinking about taking their ideas to Cannes later in the month. The event will feature a workshop and talk by Julian Friedmann from Blake Friedmann Literary, Film & TV Agency. Julian is the author of 'How to Make Money Scriptwriting' and publishes the UK’s only scriptwriting magazine, the Scriptwriter. He has been teaching pitching for the last 17 years and has been a frequent visitor at Cannes. If that isn't enough to get you down to Light House, there will also be exclusive BAFTA and Screen WM prizes for best pitch. |
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ABC Communications Ltd are a media marketing and advertising company based in the heart of the West Midlands. Their services are geared towards businesses that are looking for new marketing strategies and are also looking to enhance their company image and brand awareness.
The company specialise in voiceovers for film ,TV, animation and music/marketing message on hold applications. They also produce cutting edge mobile phone, promotional videos for businesses and make websites more accessible to people with disabilities with their qualified interpreters, actors and web audio solutions. Find out what retail music therapy can do for businesses by contacting Donovan using any of the methods above.
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ipScoreKeeper helps clients unlock the value of patent assets to increase performance, improve profits, gain knowledge, identify opportunities, research competitors and pursue the right investments.
Founded in 2007 as a patent analytics and research institution, ipScoreKeeper is dedicated to becoming the leading independent provider of best practice research, tools and metrics for patent analysis and intellectual property investment. ipScoreKeeper tracks and analyses innovation, movement and the business value of patent assets across every industry on a global basis. |
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Creative Networks regular Rasib Khan pitched this month to talk about Alphabet Runner®, his board game invention which has received critical acclaim from the games industry.
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Alphabet Runner®, a new British board game, has won not one, but two marks of success. |
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Alphabet Runner® has received two commendations for innovation. |
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Alphabet Runner® is taking the board game market by storm. Local newspapers, radio, and television are all hailing it as the biggest thing since Cluedo. |
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The game is also proving popular around the world, with people downloading the lower case alphabet cards free from the internet – www.alphabetrunner.com |
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Available to buy from NES Arnold, Hope Education and Brain-ed |
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Alphabet Runner® game does exactly what it says on the box, a race to the finish for all around family fun! |
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| Guest Speakers - The Do's and Don'ts of Distribution |
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Aubrey Nunn |
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Mike Owen |
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David Ledsam |
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Izzy MacLachlan |
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Roy Priest |
Before the discussion got underway, the panel members each provided an insight into their vast experience of media distribution across different channels in the creative industry.
First to take the floor was Aubrey Nunn, a successful musician whose credits include co-writing and co-producing Dido's album 'Life For Rent'. For the last eleven years he has been managing director of Faithless' own management company whilst continuing to perform and work with developing artists as a writer, producer and manager.
Aubrey conveyed the importance of cultivating a ‘do it yourself’ attitude to overcome the many challenges faced by artists in the music business. When he began his career, he was under the impression that it was impossible to succeed without a manager or an agent, however the now established musician has consistently managed to prove himself wrong. Aubrey has steadily built a substantial portfolio of successful records through exploiting the many small opportunities that presented themselves throughout his career to date. For example, during his time with Stiltskin, the success of the band’s 1994 number one hit, ‘Inside’, was widely attributed to its use in a famous Levi’s advert at the time. Aubrey recalled that the exposure that the track received through the advert was priceless, and subsequently opened doors for exploiting the single in all of the territories where the advertisement was aired.
Charismatic media industry veteran Mike Owen, then guided us through the opportunities presented by radio, one of the oldest distribution channels around. With over 30 years experience in broadcasting, Mike imparted some of his vast knowledge to the network, covering commissioning policies, public service broadcasting and independent production to mention but a few topics touched upon in a lively presentation.
The former BRMB boss highlighted that it was very difficult to break into the world of radio with new content as so much of the airwaves are controlled by the BBC and a select group of commercial companies. After a brief discussion, Mike offered his conclusion that it is possible to pitch and sell quality radio content, but stressed that even the best ideas will not bear fruit without the right strategy and a lot of hard work.
Our final guest from the panel was David Ledsam from Screenburn, one of Birmingham’s foremost animation/visual effects agencies. David recalled for us his experiences in one of his recent projects, a music video for the hip hop artist Rishi Rich. The project appeared on 'Shooting People', an established online community which sources crews and production teams in the creative industry. Despite a very loose brief, no designs, no choreography and only 5 weeks to complete a sizeable project, the Screenburn team managed to produce stunning 3D animation sequences which captivated those present in the lecture theatre.
The panel discussion was led by Izzy MacLachlan and assisted by Roy Priest, two of the tic’s music course directors, who pointed out that not every distribution channel is right for every media product. With this thought in mind, several members of the network provided their own music tracks, and after playing them back to the audience, the panel discussed which methods of distribution would be best for each product. After a lively discussion, both the artists in question and the whole network left with some expert advice from some of the most respected names in the region and across the UK. |
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The Music Network leads a monthly networking event at the tic for all music related businesses from the West Midlands region.
Running successfully for over 5 years, their meetings have proved inspirational in the support, development and promotion of thousands of music related activities.
If you have news to report, events to promote, points for discussion or a pitch to make, the Music Network may be useful for you.
They offer access through our network to contacts, opportunities, applicable help, advice and guidance, and even free tea and biscuits.
The Music Network is a voluntary, not for profit, social enterprise organisation seeking charitable status. Meetings take place on the last Thursday of each month, 4-6pm at The UCE Birmingham Technology Innovation Centre (tic), Millennium Point, Curzon Street, Birmingham, B4 7XG.
email info@birminghammusicnetwork.com
web www.birminghammusicnetwork.com |
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| 4. Creative Networks Online Portal - TENDERS NOW ONLINE *DON'T MISS OUT* |
| 5. The 2007 Creative City Awards |
The Creative City Awards are back with some significant changes to the eligibility criteria since they were last held.
As a result of feedback from the 2005 Awards, this year's event has been moved to the Summer and will now be held on Thursday 19th July 2007 at the ICC, Birmingham.
In previous years, only companies which had participated on the Business Support for the Creative Industries (BSCI) programme were eligible for entry. However, for the very first time, ANY creative business based in Birmingham & Solihull Objective 2 area is eligible to nominate themselves for an award, regardless of BSCI participation.
If you have won a Creative City award previously, then you can still nominate your business, providing it is in a different category from the one in which you won previously.
They have also introduced a new award category for those businesses based in the West Midlands region (the Regional Small Business of the Year Award).
It's easy to nominate your business for an award, details of how to enter and the criteria for each of the business award categories, along with nomination forms, are all available online on the Birmingham City Council website. The deadline for receipt of nomination forms is 31st May 2007, so the clock is ticking!
Winning companies receive a cheque for £2,000, along with a Creative City trophy and will be invited to attend this prestigious awards ceremony, where they will be presented on stage with their trophy.
The awards are a fantastic opportunity to raise your business profile and to meet other creative companies, and there's nothing to stop you applying for more than one category, so get your entries in NOW.
Details of the 9 award categories are on the Birmingham City Council website www.birmingham.gov.uk/creative and nomination forms can be obtained from the website, or by contacting Shasta Rashid on 0121 303 2462.
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Technology Innovation Centre (tic) 2006
Millennium Point, Curzon Street, Birmingham B4 7XG
phone +44 (0)121 331 5400 fax +44 (0)121
331 5401
email enquiries@tic.ac.uk www.tic.ac.uk
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