Pegasus Group are delighted to have hosted a roundtable event on the creative industries sector in Yorkshire in conjunction with Insider Media at Church Fenton Studios yesterday.
Executive Director, Chris Calvert from our Leeds office and Associate and Economics expert, Richard Cook from our Manchester office were joined by David Caulfield (Selby District Council), Mark Finch (Rushbond PLC), Adam Chandler (Reel Film), Briony Robinson (Channel 4), Chris Makin (Owner – Leeds East Airport & Church Fenton Studios), Scott Royal (Royal Pilgram Communications), and Mark Mildren (Munroe K).
The event took place on the film set of Victoria at Church Fenton studios where Pegasus Group led on the project for Create Yorkshire providing planning, heritage, public consultation, design, environmental, economics and architecture services – please see our Create Yorkshire case study for more details.
Executive Director, Chris Calvert said:
“Create Yorkshire is a scheme that has been designed to build on the success of ITV’s Victoria and the realisation that at Church Fenton, there’s an opportunity to create a hub for creative industries. With a supportive local authority and excellent connections we’ve got the opportunity to really develop the offering here. Having the networking and cluster of operations in the centre of Yorkshire will be a fantastic opportunity for the industry.
“There are real opportunities clustering in the region. There’s a young demographic that’s ambitious, with excellent colleges, universities right across the region. Part of the plan with Create Yorkshire, after seeing projects getting off the ground down south, to develop schemes in Yorkshire that will showcase the region and ensure we don’t see the talent drain down south.
“The Create Yorkshire scheme has an education campus on site and what’s where we’ve seen a lot of interest from colleges and universities that want to work in partnership to get vocational and traditional learning opportunities.
At a Government level, creative industries have been identifies as a key growth area for the national economy. Yorkshire is well placed and ready to deliver.”
Associate, Richard Cook said:
“It’s so important to have larger assets like Church Fenton Studios, in terms of bolstering the Northern Powerhouse agenda and addressing the North-South divide. Church Fenton Studios is a game changer for Yorkshire, you’re looking at 2,000 jobs on site in one of the fastest growing sectors in the entire country. High paid and high skilled jobs are so important.
“Yorkshire needs to keep that momentum growing now, the region has a great story to tell and it needs to really shout about what’s going on.
“Yorkshire has a lot of sector strengths and creative businesses will be looking at how they can make the most of those specialisms and how they can develop different arms of their business. There will be spin off opportunities for other sectors, such as manufacturing and finance.
“Businesses in short need to be looking at their aims for the short, medium and long term without casting their net too wide and building on what is happening here. All cities across the world are looking to capitalise on the same sectors. In the digital and creative sector, Yorkshire is now competing on a global scale.”
To read the full roundtable report, please visit Insider Media online.
For more information about Pegasus Group and its services, please contact us.