The Campus by Mark Waugh

On Thursday 17th May, The Sharp Project is hosting a debate ‘Manchester – a Tech City?’ in association with TechHub, The Next Web and Manchester Digital.

A FutureEverything fringe event, Event 004 will feature experts from the world of digital technology including Martin Bryant, managing editor of The Next Web and Elizabeth Varley, co-founder and CEO of London’s TechHub alongside Sharp Project tenants Global Tech and AppLearn, chaired by Ian Aspin, journalist, speaker, and blogger and Professor of Ideas for Really Good Thinking.

The panel will discuss whether Manchester is ready to be at the forefront of the UK’s key emerging sector. The panel will ask what Manchester needs to do to encourage the next generation of startups to base themselves in the city.

Rose Marley, Manager of The Sharp Project said:  “Our panel of experts will be asking some tough and probing questions about how prepared the city is for the technological revolution that is upon us. Investment and development in connectivity, resources and education have created the opportunity for the city to compete at the forefront of the UK’s key emerging new sector. Not only do startups need to base themselves in Manchester but SMEs with potential, and talented graduates need to stay, too – so what do we need to do to promote this?”

Martin Bryant, Managing Editor of The Next Web said: “This is a great opportunity for people in the tech sector to come together and discuss their future and the future of the city. New tech businesses will need not just ideas, but the means and networks to develop them. Without the right environment, they could struggle to survive, let alone succeed.  We need to examine what can be done to develop the means, tools and environments where startups and business growth will flourish.  Manchester has so much potential to be top of the game and it needs to ensure the potential is realised.”

Elizabeth Varley, co-founder and CEO of TechHub (based in Silicon Roundabout area of London’s Shoreditch) commented “we are keen to see what the appetite is like for a TechHub in Manchester and looking forward to an evening at The Sharp Project to discuss.”

Event 004 ‘Manchester – A Tech City?’ takes place from 6-9pm.  For more details click here . Places are strictly limited.

To enquire about this event and to book a place email events@thesharpproject.co.uk Entry is free to The Campus members, Sharp Project tenants and FutureEverything delegates. The panel discussion will be followed by followed by networking in The Campus

Event 004 is part of FutureEverything

FutureEverything is an annual festival of art, music and ideas hosted in Manchester, UK. The festival is held over four days at venues across the city and includes a conference at MOSI Museum of Science and Industry.

We scan the horizon of art, innovation, society and the environment to create a two-day conference of international speakers with the latest thinking on the hottest topics. The art exhibition pushes the boundaries of contemporary digital art from international platforms alongside a digital craft fair at Victoria Baths. And continuing the festival into the night, the music strand is a celebration of sonic pioneers, from the best emerging talent to established musicians who continue to innovate and inspire.

FutureEverything 2012 takes place Wed 16–Sat 19 May 2012 in Manchester city centre. It features 52 artists, 45 musicians and 70 speakers across 11 venues over three main days with exhibitions and partner events extending over 3 weeks.

Photo by www.markwaugh.net

Photo by www.markwaugh.net

The Sharp Project, Manchester’s digital production complex, has opened its communal hub, The Campus, to non-tenants.  Creative entrepreneurs and digital businesses can sign up to a membership scheme to allow access, enabling them to work and network with The Sharp Projects tenants and on site production companies in a relaxed, social environment.

For as little as £80 + VAT per year, freelancers, and students studying for a career in the creative digital sector can use The Campus as a regular base, accessing free Wi-Fi, lockers and the café.  They can also get a 10 per cent discount off meeting room hire and other membership discounts.  SME and Corporate membership is also available with up to ten people signed in at any one time.

Day passes at £15 + VAT are also available for people who are visiting Manchester just for the day or those wishing to trial the membership.  The day pass gives access to The Campus from 9am – 5pm and access to any events taking place in The Campus that day.  They will also be able to use the Wi-Fi and daily lockers for free.

The Campus is a 5,000 sq. ft. social and events space is at the centre of the ‘Gold’ zone, which contains office units over two levels. The Campus is situated in a light, airy internal courtyard with a glazed roof and has a range of coordinating tables, chairs, soft seating and sound-absorbing booths supplied by Steelcase Solutions North West, the experts in workplace interiors.

Photo by www.markwaugh.net

The Campus café offers a range of hot and cold food including traditional home cooked pan-European dishes at affordable prices catered by small local business Amanda’s Catering.

Sue Woodward, Director of the Sharp Project said: “This is the final piece in our jigsaw. We are very keen to give creative individuals who are just starting out, the ability to benefit from our very own ecosystem, where people meet, companies collaborate and businesses flourish. Networking is at the heart of our ethos.  The Campus opens to the wider community in Greater Manchester and beyond.”

Manager of The Sharp Project Rose Marley added: “Over 40 people have pre-registered for membership but we will limit the capacity in the first instance to allow quality networks to grow.  We feel it is important to open our doors to a wider section of the creative and digital industry and share with them what has been created for this important sector.  Not everyone needs office space when they are starting out or when they already have an office based elsewhere in the City region, so The Campus membership provides an affordable and flexible alternative venue to work from.”

Application for membership is now open.  For more information on The Sharp Project, Campus membership and how to join, please click here

In essence, the city and the region are currently in a position of great potential but we will need to be bold if we are to break through to being a world leader recognised as a city of creative and digital excellence.

Danny Meany from NMP presents his report

Mentioning “Manchester” to people anywhere in the world will usually elicit one of two responses: music or football. But who remembers our international signings Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov on their celebratory open-topped bus tour in 2010? No, they weren’t City or United heroes; the two Manchester University physicists won the Nobel Prize in Physics that year for their work with graphene. And of course, the triumphal tour never happened, something that should force a little introspection about the way Manchester blows its own trumpet. The technology they worked on is already attracting hundreds of millions of pounds of investment into the area, but much of the groundbreaking work is now taking place internationally, and there is the risk that Manchester will lose any claim to ownership of the material in the global consciousness.

So we have a potentially life-changing material that is making ripples all over the world, but it is hardly registering outside its natural domains. Is the symptom of the silo culture that has developed (perhaps inevitably) among Manchester’s creative and media players? Can academia squeeze its influence past the Cornerhouse and the Palace Hotel? Our digital and technology sectors are proving successful enough to merit the attention afforded to our kicking and screaming brethren. We just need to shout about it more.

We have all come to accept the idea that in our connected world, location is not so important. For sure, an endless global data stream of digital business is taking place between continents, villages, living rooms and mobile devices. But businesses need expertise and finance, and they cluster in physical places. It is the very cross-fertilisation of ideas that pins ideas to locations, and thus attracts new talent into the fold. And this welcoming of new talent, new ideas, means that a system needs to have flexibility and adaptability built into it. How can this be made concrete? By making sure that technology decisions are not constrained by the standards of the day.

Imagine a city in 2012 announcing the completion of its 10-year mission to get a dedicated 56K internet connection in every home and business. Even if they had gambled on 2 meg broadband they would still be playing catch-up now that connectivity has many more uses than it did in 2002. There is only one way to be sure that such a mistake is never made – and that’s never to attempt to tackle technology head-on. But going half-hearted into an enterprise is just as bad. When major tech infrastructure projects are mooted at city level, there needs to be a boldness and a decisiveness, a willingness to hire the best people, and an educated instinct for the future that is already the norm in, say, road and rail planning.

As soon as a city council is involved, the public really needs to buy in if the endeavour is not to be seen as a vanity project, lambasted at every stumbling block. But therein lies the boldness – not a blind, stubborn boldness that invites opposition; an intelligence-based boldness that comes from research and experience. There is no reason why the city as a whole can’t be fully behind a bold endeavour that just might fail (as anything can) but would provide a superb platform for investment and growth if it succeeded.

Training and apprenticeships will need to play a major part, and these need to be developed with a sense of urgency. Academia and business need to work towards creating a new generation of pupils, school-leavers and students who understand and recognise the potential of the sector. Show them what success looks like and they will try to attain it. Everyone knows the coolest people are the geeks and the nerds. Don’t they?

By any measure Manchester is a successful city, with industry at its heart. But stagnation and decline will come from overcelebrating our past and our fleeting glories while assuming that some kind of momentum will guarantee future success. The greatness of the past was only ever achieved by millions of tiny steps – punctuated by the occasional giant leap. What we can take from the past is learning, and the fact that in its people and our city, Manchester’s heritage gives us the perfect platform to go on innovating.

Only with the right blend of training, infrastructure, self-belief, risk awareness, forward thinking, confidence and collaboration – as well as shouting about our successes and attaching our city’s name to them – can Manchester continue to make waves rather than simply ride them. Our city is full of monuments to its past greatness, but they are really bookmarks in our history, built to inspire us. The next generation’s monuments might be built not of steel and stone but of zeros and ones cascading through the ether. It’s our duty to make sure they are stamped with Manchester’s name.

A copy of the NMP report can be requested from info@thesharpproject.co.uk

ABF Pictures

ABF’s Creative Director Matt Barraclough said “We’re excited to be working with a brand like United Carpets & Beds. They have years on TV under their belt, they know what works for them but are also keen to take on and try new ideas.”

The first commercial created and produced by the Sharp Project based company will be broadcast just before Easter, in a multi region ITV 1 campaign.

“The new look commercials are great, they still have the key elements that work for the brand, yet we’ve added a new concept and look. I’m confident they will make an impact on TV. ” said Matt.

David Code from United Carpets & Beds said “The guys from ABF made a real impression at the pitch. They are Down to earth, hardworking with a true understanding of what was required to win our account.I wouldn’t think twice about recommending them.

The new ad was presented at our Annual Sales Conference to an audience of over 200, and was instantly loved by all. We look forward to working with ABF and creating some fantastic ads in the future.”

To coincide with this new appointment ABF has launched their new website, designed and created by Sharp Project based business Project Simply.

Matt said “The Sharp Project is been a great place to collaborate and network. It’s good to know that when we needed a new website we had to look no further than the talents of Project Simply, who reside just a corridor away. We love the new site.”

The new ABF site can be seen at www.abfpictures.co.uk

The commercial for United Carpets & Beds can be found at by clicking here

The month-long events programme kicks off on 7th March with the MPA World Class Series with The Sharp Project’s Director Sue Woodward sharing her thoughts on the Global City of Manchester and how Manchester’s creative community can deliver the vital digital agenda.

In the first week Cisco is loaning The Sharp Project a portable ‘TelePresence’ unit allowing tenants and the wider digital community to connect for free to digital cities across the globe and engage with potential new clients. Cisco’s TelePresence technology offers high quality life-like video links.

On March 9th at 11am tenants and the wider digital community are also invited to view an exclusive presentation about the BIG Awards via TelePresence by Cisco business development manager Tom Kneen. Tom will present an overview of the awards, their aims and objectives plus will be able to answer questions on how The Sharp Project’s tenants and Campus members can submit their ideas to the BIG Awards and win £100k.

BBC Learning, CityCo and Deliotte are also all hosting events. Those interested should contact the relevant host organisation or The Sharp Project website to check availability as places are limited and booking is essential.

On March 21st there will be the final Creative and Digital Summit. This is the last of three summit events where The Sharp Project have brought together key influencers and opinion formers to formulate a digital action plan for the region.

The month of activity will culminate on 30 March with free ‘Ask the Experts’ workshops with a range of organisations including The Accidental Business School, Sizzle Media, media law experts Ward Hadaway. Anyone wishing to join a workshop can register their interest by emailing  events@thesharpproject.co.uk.

Sharp Project tenant, Ian Henry from Sizzle Media, who will be hosting a workshop on how to deliver award-winning websites in a budget, commented: “We’ve been part of The Sharp Project community for over a year now and we’re really excited by the next steps in the development. Opening up The Campus to this kind of activity will really benefit us and present all kinds of new opportunities for existing tenants and those who have never visited The Sharp Project before.”

Rose Marley, Interim General Manager of The Sharp Project said:  ‘The aim of this series of events is to give practitioners from the creative and digital sector a taste of what it will be like to be a member of The Sharp Project Campus.  We had originally planned a ‘Fresher’s week’ to launch The Sharp Project Campus but so many organisations wanted to collaborate with us that we quickly realised we had enough activity to extend this to last the whole month.”

Full details of the events programme can be found by clicking here

Ross Miller from Steelcase Solutions said: “It’s fantastic to have the opportunity to work with The Sharp Project to deliver a vibrant but functional space that will grow along with The Campus. It is unlike anything else in the region so far and we are proud to be a part of it.”

Sue Woodward, Director of The Sharp Project said: “It’s great to have created this partnership between Steelcase and The Sharp Project. It was important to form an alliance with a highly regarded, design-led furniture supplier who was able to deliver a communal space that could be used equally by both our tenants and The Campus members. This is an attractive, inviting space where digital entrepreneurs and creatives can conduct meetings with clients, grab a sandwich, surf the net or simply network. The layout has been cleverly designed to encourage interaction, enabling people to get to know their neighbours and make new business contacts naturally.”

The Campus will be open from 1st April 2012 with a taster month of activity in March.  For more information on The Sharp Project visit www.thesharpproject.co.uk and for more information on Steelcase visit www.steelcase.co.uk.

If you would like to sign up for further information about The Campus please click here

The gift-giving got under way, with bottles of wine and beer, chocolate robots, coasters and a Manchester United toilet brush among the gifts changing hands, with varied degrees of gratitude being shown.

Since Tim got Dawn the art set in The Office, it takes a very special secret Santa gift to bring a tear to our worldly eyes. But the Boot Room’s gift did just that. It was a deep, heartfelt, touching gift that sent an emotional frisson through the assembled guests, and was a perfect trophy to remind us all that without Keith’s and Ken’s inspiration, none of this would have been conceived. Let’s hope they can think of a suitable place to put it.

Over 2011, The Sharp Project’s sound stages became temporary homes to two major TV productions, Mount Pleasant and Fresh Meat. We also hosted several conferences, summits and other events, most notably the Creative & Digital Summit on 29 June which coincided with our official opening, as well as that of George Atkins’ 80 Hertz Studios. Considering we have still been in launch mode throughout the year, that’s not bad going.

So what will 2012’s Christmas party look like? Considering where we are now and where we were last year, the trajectory looks good. But just like everyone else in the country and in the wider world, we’re battling against nervous businesses’ retreat into the comfort of a pessimistic conservation footing. The creative industries do seem to be coping, and in some cases growing, even while the situation on the high street and in manufacturing looks less certain. Perhaps this is the moment when the digital realm finally proves itself as a weatherer of storms, a cost-effective way to keep the wheels of commerce rolling. If so, The Sharp Project has arrived just in time.

In the coming months our local tram stop at Central Park will open, making Manchester city centre a few minutes away and closing off the final gap in physical infrastructure (at least until we get planning permission for a runway). Our campus and café are opening in early March and will mark a real sense of completion in the project. We’ll also be welcoming new businesses, and maybe bidding reluctant farewells to those who outgrow their cloches, but we can be assured that they’ll leave the building weighed down by their former neighbours’ business cards – and long may the cycle continue.

Happy 2012!

The Sharp Project

With the tally of tenants reaching 50, over 75 per cent of the office units are now let. In total, the building accommodates 66 work spaces including 26 converted shipping containers in the Red Street space, and 40 office units across Blue and Gold areas.

New occupiers include The Zood, Made in Manchester, Digital Cools, Social Surf Online, Will Yapp, ELP (Elstree Light and Power), Dig Marketing, Paramount Media and Vibe Republic.

One of the companies that has just moved in, content marketing specialists Dig Marketing, chose The Sharp Project because of their ability to tap into the wealth of talent based there.

Tim Bilsborough, formed the company three months ago with business partner, Gabrielle O’Hare, and between them have 40 years’ experience working in advertising and production at the North West’s leading agencies.

Tim Bilsborough explained: “Having such a diverse range of digital companies literally outside our door is fantastic and made our decision to move here an easy one.  We love the niche entrepreneurial spirit that has been created and want to pull on the resources right here all under this roof and offer our clients a truly unique service.  We’re in the business of selling tailored ideas to companies, particularly in the retail sector, and we know we can find people within the building that can make the ideas happen.”

Rose Marley, General Manager of The Sharp Project added: “Reaching this milestone is a great way of rounding off a fantastic year for The Sharp Project. With 50 of the 66 office units now occupied, we are creating a thriving community of digital entrepreneurs. This clearly demonstrates that the digital and creative media sector is flourishing here in the North West despite the current economic downturn.  There has never been a more exciting time to work in this field with so many opportunities available to small digital businesses and young start-ups.”

Eddie Smith, chief executive for New East Manchester who oversee the delivery of The Sharp Project on behalf of landlords Manchester City Council said: “We’ve delivered a fantastic environment for young digital start-ups and the amount of interest in our facilities is testament to this. Having reached a 75 per cent occupancy rate on the office units is great news. With The Campus opening next year, 2012 is set to be another exciting year for The Sharp Project.”

Sizzle Media

The Lord-Lieutenant maintains Her Majesty’s dignity and seeks to promote a good atmosphere and spirit of co-operation by the encouragement he gives to voluntary service, benevolent organisations, and by the interest he takes in the commercial and social life of his county.

Sizzle Media will be developing a bespoke content management system that allows Deputy Lieutenants across the county secure access to contribute to the system, creating a site that is up to date with regional news and events. Furthermore the system will allow the administration team to make full use of Social Media to help raise the awareness of the services available at GML to a much wider audience.

Based out of the Sharp Project, Sizzle Media have developed a series of high profile projects with GMLO being the latest win. Recently they were selected to develop the site for the GB British Bobsleigh Team Deen, skiing sensation Daisi Daniels and professional footballer turned pro boxer Curtis Woodhouse. Last Year Sizzle Media designed the Amir Kahn official merchandise outlet ecommerce store. Existing regional clients include Great John Street Hotels, Suzuki, Evevee, Blacks Business Brokers, Astra Signs and Marilyn Comrie OBE.

Find out more about Sizzle Media by visiting their website here

Rose Marley, manager at The Sharp Project commented ‘We thought this would be a great opportunity to offer companies and individuals the opportunity to work to a brief. It’s often hard for interns or junior members of staff to take full creative control on a client brief but it’s such a good experience and process to go through. It fits with the aims of SharpFutures to generate briefs  which can be used to take a risk and show off emerging talent. ‘

Please click here to view the winning entry, by Hogan Burrows at Mocapone

The Sharp Project Christmas Card will be sent out from The Sharp Project in December to their entire database enabling the winning designer’s work to reach hundreds of new regional, national and international contacts and potential future clients in the industry.

Photography by Joel Fildes & Andrew Marshall