West Yorkshire Creative Industries Showcased At Creative UK Investment Summit In Bradford
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Hot on the heels of the launch of Bradford 2025 City of Culture comes the Big Creative UK Summit: Investment in West Yorkshire, held in Bradford’s Great Victoria Hotel. The event, which takes place on 6 February, will showcase the region’s most exciting creative and cultural businesses and features a keynote speech from Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire.
The summit is to be a celebration of the West Yorkshire businesses that have completed the DCMS Create Growth Programme delivered by Creative UK in partnership with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority. This investment readiness programme has supported over 40 organisations from across the region to build towards their investment ambitions and has recently had its funding for 2025 confirmed by Lisa Nandy MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport as part of a £60 million boost for creative industries.
Organisers hope that the event will deliver a thought-provoking and powerful agenda. This agenda includes a business expo, investor pitches and speakers such as Jim Farmery, External Affairs Director at Production Park and Pardeep Duggal, Product & Marketing Director at Bupa Global.
This is to be the third of a series of regional summits being held across the country by Creative UK which will culminate in a national summit, Investment for Growth on 4 March in Kings Place, London. The first of these summits, which took place on Friday 17 January in Gateshead was featured as part of the DCMS Creative Industries Growth Summit at which Lisa Nandy announced the £60 million package to support the creative industries. As the leading membership organisation for the cultural and creative industries, Creative UK plays a key role in advocating for greater investment into the sector, both regionally and nationally.
Caroline Norbury OBE, CEO of Creative UK and member of the DCMS Creative Industries Taskforce said:
"With the recent launch of Bradford 2025 City of Culture, this feels like the perfect time to be elevating the debate about how we do more to invest in the cultural and creative businesses that already bring around £2 billion to the local economy. West Yorkshire currently enjoys the fastest creative sector growth of any region outside of London and it’s only right that investors should have the opportunity to get in on the action.
“It’s been fantastic to support over 40 businesses from the region through the Create Growth Programme that Creative UK has delivered in partnership with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority. At the Big Creative UK Summit: Investment in West Yorkshire, these businesses will have the opportunity to rub shoulders with the investors and policymakers who can further support their growth, and hear from a mayor who continues to be a great champion for the Creative Industries in the region. I’m supremely proud that our organisation can play a key role in pushing these creative businesses forwards.”
TIt’s an epic year for West Yorkshire, and we’re pulling out all the stops to ensure our creative sector thrives, creates jobs and drives growth in our economy.
This event offers a fantastic opportunity for businesses to showcase their talent and secure investment.
We’ll continue to support our creatives to unleash their potential in a stronger, brighter West Yorkshire that works for all.
racy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire and member of the DCMS Creative Industries Taskforce.