A new study on Brighton’s digital cluster says business that combines creative, digital and business talent with technology skills achieves growth figures that are 10X faster than the overall UK economy.
Funded by the AHRC and dubbed ‘supefused’, this new type of business means companies that work in this way will grow three times faster than ‘unfused’ companies and 40% faster than the ‘average’ Brighton company.
“The Brighton CDIT cluster is clearly a great success story and I welcome this study that looks at the factors underpinning its success. We are living in an increasingly convergent world where the earlier distinctions between arts and digital technologies are blurring,” said Creative Industries Minster Ed Vaizey.
I met Vaizey at a digital event at the baths in, er, Bath, last year and he’s a dead-ringer for Tom Hollander, the actor formerly best-known for his role in the TV series Rev and it’s good to know he supports the Brighton cluster.
As for reports creating new terms such as ‘superfused’, I’m not so sure, especially when other research in the report says that the average superfused entrepreneur is 40 years old and ‘99% of Brighton CDIT firms engaged in at least one type of innovation’.
The latter is bleedin’ obvious and I don’t even know what the CDIT acronym stands for. But as somebody who lives near Brighton, has written about Brighton and is a strong supporter of the Brighton cluster, every little helps… although the alarm bells do tend to go off whenever a Minister is quoted.
Monty Munford has more than 15 years' experience in mobile, digital media, web and journalism. He is the founder of Mob76, a company that helps tech companies raise money and exit. He speaks regularly at global media events with a focus on Africa, writes a weekly column for The Telegraph, is a regular contributor to The Economist, Wired, Mashable and speaks regularly on the BBC World Service.
