News
Melting pot
Published 15.11.07
This September, CIDS, in partnership with Stockport Economic Alliance, launched the Stockport Creative Industries Network.
An impressive band of over forty creative business people and freelancers gathered for an inaugural meeting at Stockport Art Gallery. The event offered a chance for creatives to meet and air their thoughts and ideas on what they want from a network.
Stockport has the highest concentration of creative businesses, besides Manchester, within the Greater Manchester area. Following research and analysis, CIDS found that there are particular strengths within the advertising, photography, design and new media sectors. Visual arts, performing arts and film and broadcast media closely follow – which means over half of the thirteen creative sub-sectors, as defined by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, are well represented in Stockport. “It’s interesting that a picture is emerging within these sectors; particularly with design, photography and advertising where potentially businesses can start to work together,” said Chris Lethbridge, Project Team Leader at CIDS,
As the evening gathered pace, a rather different kind of networking got under way, with arts collective Sketch City getting people talking through their unique style of interactive and creative exercises. When asked what they wanted from the Stockport Network, Gez O’Brien of Stardotstar said, “One thing I think should be highlighted is awareness that creative companies actually exist and grow in Stockport.” “I get the feeling that people want to distance themselves from Manchester. But, I think the strength of Stockport is its locality to Manchester, the airport and train stations and so we need to make sure that Stockport is brought in as part of Manchester,” added Mark Stringer of Bourn Design.
If you want to have your say on the Stockport Network, whether your business is based in Stockport or you live in Stockport, get in touch and let us know your feedback and ideas at stockport@cids.co.uk . If you’d like to register to be part of the Stockport Network, go to:
