Member Article

Sue Woodward on Manchester's digital and creative economy

Sue Woodward is a woman with an impressive CV. She was the managing director of ITV Granada, creative director for the 2002 Commonwealth Games and set up the company behind Liverpool’s successful bid for the European Capital of Culture in 2008.

Her accolades include an OBE awarded for services to Broadcasting and the Commonwealth Games and North West Business Woman of the Year 2005.

Sue’s latest venture is her role as the director of East Manchester’s creative industries hub, The Sharp Project, which was first conceived in 2007.

Bdaily met up with Sue to find out her take on Manchester’s position in the UK and globally, as well as what is next for The Sharp Project:

“In terms of economic value, the North West is the second biggest cluster in the UK. But it’s not just about being second cluster to London, it’s about being third or fourth in the world.

“Greater Manchester is seen as an economic growth area for UK plc. We’re really great in the UK for creative industries, and the Government has identified that investment in this area will not only create new jobs, but the jobs that haven’t been invented yet.

“That’s the only way that countries like Britain in a post-industrial age are going to leapfrog themselves forward.

“We’re not going to beat China at cost, or Vietnam or India, but we have knowledge as international leverage in these areas.

“For creative and digital, there’s barely any country in the world who can claim to be as a good as the UK.”

“Manchester’s city leaders, in particular Richard Leese, are very visionary in their views. By 2020 he wants Manchester to be one of the top digital cities in the world. Things like The Sharp Project are helping him achieve that objective.”

The Sharp Project is part of a burgeoning digital and creative economy in Greater Manchester, with 5% of employment in the region within this sector.

Forecasts say that by 2020 the sector will have grown by 4%, there will be 11,000 extra jobs and £3.7bn additional GVA.

The project currently houses an array of creative businesses, from the smallest micro company to huge production firms who make the likes of Sky1’s comedy-drama Mount Pleasant and Channel 4’s sitcom Fresh Meat.

Sue talked about how she became involved in The Sharp Project and how it is set to develop over the coming years:

“I came to the Sharp Project because I’ve always been heavily involved in technology, even when I was a journalist I used to road test new technologies. Then I sat on ITV’s Technology Committee, so I’ve always been a secret geek.

“In the latter years at Granada, because of the massive transition from analogue to digital, people started to realise there’s a whole new world out there.

“So when I left Granada they asked me to explain what that new world would look like. That was when the BBC had just moved up to Salford.

“The city leaders were asking, “Should we build more TV studios?” I said, “Forget TV in analogue, it’s about digital.”

“They said, “We’ve got this old factory up the road that we don’t really know what to do with,” so I came and had a look.

“Then I wrote a business proposition, which has become The Sharp Project.”

Two further project sites are in the pipeline, and are both still under the working titles of ’Sharp Project Two and Three’.

Californian firm EON Reality recently moved their European headquarters to ’Sharp Project Two’, while Sue has firm plans to create what will be the largest drama production hub outside London.

“This is a £10m scheme funded by the European Regional Development Fund and all sorts of city regeneration money.

“It’s important because Greater Manchester has been making brilliant drama for the last half century, and Granada invented contemporary drama.

“So we’ve grown up with brilliant script writers, directors, producers, actors, writing directors. Greater Manchester is brilliant for the whole service industry that supplies content to TV and drama.

“Because we’re full at The Sharp Project all the time, we’ve almost restimulated the production for drama in Greater Manchester. We’ve now outstripped the demand we’ve created in our own market.”

Sue concluded by telling me about the type of skills and talent she’s seen come into The Sharp Project:

“This lot want to be the next Google. They’re very business-savvy, very focussed and very driven.

“The creative industry is not a lifestyle sector, it’s real business, and i think that’s surprising to a lot of people who think “Creative” means they’re all fluffy heads.

“They don’t do fluff, at all. They do business.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .