Support programme designed to boost creative sector
Creative businesses, with ambitions to grow, are being offered a unique support package to help them to scale up by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).
The Creative Scale Up Programme offers developing companies the opportunity to benefit from monthly coaching sessions and a series of workshops and seminars covering a range of subjects designed to help them grow and build capacity.
The programme, which is being launched on Thursday (November 7) at Wolverhampton’s Lighthouse Cinema, is being run by the WMCA with £1.3m funding from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport over two years.
Bridging the Gap creativity by Imagineer Productions
Businesses accepted onto the programme will have demonstrated a readiness to scale up their operations within the creative sector in Birmingham and Solihull, the Black County and Coventry and Warwickshire.
They will be able to take advantage of sessions ranging from pricing and exporting to intellectual property, pitching and presenting as well as one to one business mentoring support.
As part of the Creative Scale Up Programme, the WMCA will also stage regular events to give businesses the opportunity to showcase themselves to potential investors and pitch for financial backing.
Cllr Patrick Harley, Dudley Council leader and WMCA portfolio holder for Culture and Digital, said: “The creative sector is blossoming, boasting around 10,000 companies in the West Midlands, and this is a unique opportunity to support their development. We are very grateful to the DCMS for the funding that has been made available to us.”
Three businesses are being showcased at the launch, including Kingswinford-based Simworx, an example of an innovative creative enterprise that has emerged as a world leader in design, development and manufacturing of 3D and 4D dynamic simulation attractions and 4D cinema effects, highlighting what can be achieved.
Imagineer Productions, from Coventry, which creates a fusion of mechanical engineering with art and performance on a grand scale and for educational programmes, along with Vermillion Films, from Birmingham, which makes branded content, corporate films and commercials for global brands, demonstrated their ambition and capacity for growth and hope to make successful applications to the WMCA’s Creative Scale Up Programme.