Ultraband – high speed broadband for Nottingham city?

This week I went to hear a presentation in Nottingham by a project a little closer to actuality that the recent 2012 Design Capital bid I recently blogged about.

Ultraband is a public sector non-profit partnership led by Connected Nottingham whose current mission is to create a high-speed broadband ring hooked around central institutes in Nottingham (including Broadway and Biocity).  The network will enable businesses with high speed broadband needs, particularly in the media industries around Nottingham’s Lace Market, to access high fibre pipes to ail the curent creaking, high capacity broadband network which will be essential for the productivity of businesses in the future.

According to a survey they conducted which you can still fill out online (and you probably should as they’re basing their findings on just 23 responses currently) 71% of Lace Market businesses were unhappy with their internet, and had problems with bandwith and connectivity that prevented service delivery – including outsourcing rendering projects.

If the Lace Market wants to become a creative hub, competing with the net access offering of other European regions like MediaCity Salford, Amsterdam and Paris is essential.

The service would be operated on a non-project co-operative basis, which is how many Scandinavian high speed networks have been established.  However it’s subject to approval of an EMDA bid which could become a longwinded process.  Director Peter Goodwin was keen to point out that if we didn’t reach a decision on moving forward within a year the opportunity would be lost and with it competitive advantage for Nottingham.

I don’t know too much about this kind of technology and the pros and cons, but from speaking to others it would seem that high-speed is available already – though price may be an inhibitor.  A rep from BT was also vocal about a network run by “over enthusiastic amateurs” – assuring us it’s not about the fibre in the ground which already exists but the support and connectivity provided by the service provider.

With Virgin’s announcement of a rollout of 50Mb high speed broadband for the very affordable £51 month,  I’m still left confused as to whether we are missing out on an opportunity to do something radical that addresses a market failure (which is, or should be, after all the point of Regional Development Agency money) or whether the market is actually already advancing in serving the needs of the few for whom ‘big pipe’ access is an imperative.

Yet any infrastructure that makes Nottingham more appealing to incoming investors and retains the high tech businesses we have could be crucial in survival.  But what is it we need most right now in the recession – the telecoms networks or the business networks?

Ultraband are also keen to raise awareness and garner views about the project in the inner-city Nottingham business community.  A blog strategy perhaps?

Nottingham – World Design Capital 2012?

I went to a small shindig last night at ChinaChina restaurant organised by Nottingham Ambassadors (City Council) and Invest in Nottingham, to raise profile for the city (in his introduction Simon Green, the city’s council’s Director of Sustainable Development was to keen to point out this was the whole of Nottingham and it’s professional community, not just his local authority’s boundaries) in a bid to become the next city of World Design Capital, which in 2008 is currently Turin.

Mr Green solicited our answers on a postcard – but scant was revealed at this stage of what emphasis the city’s bid would take – or indeed what the benefits would be to us as business owners and practitioners (or will we, like the City of Culture bid, be in position to leverage in more European cash?).

Further probing on the World Design Capital website says the award is for:

“The vision of the World Design Capital project is to promote and encourage the use of design to further the social, economic and cultural development of the world’s cities.

The designation provides a distinctive opportunity for the selected city to showcase their accomplishments in attracting and promoting creative industries, as well as demonstrate how government and industry work in concert with educational institutions, designers and its citizens to revitalise and reinveint the urban environment.“

A laudable aim, but initially my thoughts were:

1. What design industry?

2. Is the city actually offering any systematic, public support to the design sector – or just riding PR off the back of its well-coutured coat tails?

Spot the cynical consultant.  Then after some reflection, and a chat with the lovely Debbie Bryan, a designer of exquisite knit wear and booches and resident of creative incubator The Hive, Nottingham is indeed brimming with design success stories – from pioneering computer games developers, great branding, web and design agencies of national calibre (like Souk Digital and Studio Output), a raft of homeware designers and most significantly the fashion industry, put on the map by local guru Mr Paul Smith – who says publicly he is backing the bid alongside other bid brand Speedo -  now spinning off a clutch of gifted textiles, fashion and designer-maker names – many graduates from the great design courses at Nottingham Trent University.

Indeed, gatecrashing the fasionista club RSViP night after, quite a show of quality design people were showcasing there work in fashion, homeware and art.

Yet for me the buck stops at how the city (and region) is supporting and promoting its creative and design sector – and thus I fail to see how Nottingham could make a shortlist, despite a talent pool up with the best of England’s bigger cities.

As a starter-for-ten in the nearby, not especially design noteworthy Birmingham, the city supports the Plus design festival and Rhubarb Rhubarb international photography exhibition, alongside newer initiatives like Hello Digital digital film and media showcase. Not to mention Fused mag’s affordable art markets at the Custard Factory and a plethora of media, craft and arts events and exhibitions in between.  Many are run commercially or altruistically – yet many are given some seed (or bush-like in some cases) finance or marketing clout from public institutes like Business Link, Arts Council, Marketing Birmingham and Birmingham City Council.

The Council’s official press release on the city’s bid state’s we need to consider several areas for the bid, including: our proposed programme of events, design in schools, regeneration and architecture.  This seems quite geared towards architecture and the built environment to me, and as such perhaps Nottingham has developing some interesting work here in recent years.

Someone recently commented to me that Nottingham city officials expects the creative industries to happen without investing in it.  Big capital bids like developing Broadway cinema, New Art Exchange and Nottingham Contemporary art gallery run contrary to this, but from my own experience  of working in creative regeneration, projects need to be about much more than buildings and institutes, revenues need to flow through to support the fine grain of the creative city – which includes public spaces, networks, events, showcases, training and business support – either through European funding, regional funding, local funding from business rates or capital-turned-into-revenue endowments like the Bristol+ Creative Industries endowement fund I helped to set up with Bristol’s Watershed Media Centre in 2007 (though I’m disappointed that for a digital insitute they seem to be suprisingly unaccountable online as to how the £300K annual revenue is being spent or can be accessed – any further heads-up on the latest greatly received in comments).

And in this respect I fear Nottingham is many furlongs behind other English, let alone European cities.  However, I do think events like this are important in starting to galavanise the design community – in all its depths, shapes and sizes – and wider creative business sector to discuss our own strengths, opportunities and maybe do something about promoting it ourselves.

And who knows, perhaps Nottingham Council will put their money where their mouth is and commit to a significant event or series of activities to promote local alongside international design talent and start to put Nottingham on the international map for design – and with it attracting some very necessary tourism and inward investment.

What do you think are our odds for success?