Phil | Wired Sussex Blog

Comment

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Phil

Why the FuseBox is Needed

The FuseBox is our new support space for the creative and digital industries. It still very much in beta mode, but we recently had a little party for people who have supported it in some way. Those who came brought books as housewarming presents. I spoke at the event about why the FuseBox is necessary. This is the text: “Welcome to the Fusebox. This day has been a long time coming. And represents the place where many roads converge. It’s a space. A space that has lain unused and unusable for over 12 years. And, for a city with limited …

Comment

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Phil

Wired Sussex is proud to announce ‘The FuseBox’

Delivering Different Business Thinking for a Disruptive Sector. We’d like to tell you about a new initiative that we are launching shortly. Wired Sussex is creating a new learning and support centre for start-ups and existing businesses in the creative and tech sector. Called the FuseBox, it will be based in New England House in Brighton. Most business support models are based upon the needs of large companies in stable markets. If you are at the smaller end of the spectrum and operating in a disruptive, digital business environment, then we think that a different set of rules …

Comment

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Phil

Fighting for Better Broadband for Brighton

Today (17th September) Brighton & Hove Council submitted the city’s bid for government funding to improve our business broadband infrastructure – The Ultra Fast Broadband Bid. Wired Sussex has put a lot of time into supporting and collaborating on the bid – we have met with the head of UK broadband strategy at the Government (twice), with those who have submitted previously successful bids at Bristol, Manchester and Birmingham, with the senior management at Virgin and BT and with the Creative Industries Minister Ed Vaizey. We have spoken about the bid at the Westminster Forum and last week Wired Sussex …

Comment

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Phil

Recent Meetings and Lobbying activities

One of our core aims (and a benefit of your membership) is to work to support the creation of a better climate for member companies and freelancers to do business in – to assist our members collectively as well as individually. To do this, we spend time explaining our members’ needs to local and national government departments who have the resources to improve business infrastructure, we talk to those from other countries interested in engaging with the sector, we meet with banks, skills providers, universities and others. I thought it might be worth going a brief outline of just some …

Comment

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Phil

Brighton Digital Festival receives Arts Council funding to support its future growth

We have some really good news regarding Brighton Digital Festival. Many of you will know that Wired Sussex (together with Lighthouse) put in a bid some months ago to the Arts Council for funding to support the festival in 2012 and 2013. We have just heard that our bid has been successful We thought it may be worth going into a bit of detail about what the bid covers (and what it doesn’t cover). The bid was for £200,000 and, for logistical reasons, is weighted towards next year’s festival. It has 3 elements First, it included funding for Wired Sussex …

1 comment

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Phil

Telling Brighton’s story to the world: A mini marketing hackathon.

How do you talk about why you are a Brighton business to those you meet overseas? Wired Sussex is working with UKTI, Brighton Economic Partnership, Brighton & Hove Council and others to develop a more effective inward investment strategy for the city. Inward investment is about attracting businesses and start-ups from overseas and from elsewhere in the UK and encouraging them to set up and grow companies here. We’ve done that quite successfully in the digital sector, attracting amongst others Linden Lab and Disney and, more recently, Fortune Cookie and Dyn. Such companies add to the cluster, increasing the visibility …

2 comments

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Phil

Why the future of e-learning should be mobile

> Introducing guest blogger Clare Hardman, most recent winner of the University of Sussex’s Postgraduate Certificate in E-Learning Design course’s Best Student award, which we’re very proud to sponsor. Some thoughts from her on the future of e-learning… Last year I studied on the Postgraduate Certificate in e-learning design at the University of Sussex. Not only was the course interesting and fantastically helpful for my job, it is also sponsored by Wired Sussex with a £200 prize, which I was fortunate enough to win. So I’d like to use this blog post to tell you a bit about the course …

Comment

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Phil

CityCamp Brighton 2

> Anthony Zacharzewski, director at The Democratic Society (demsoc), on how CityCamp is building on its first year’s success: Hack your way to a better Brighton and £20,000 Digital businesses, designers, technologists and creative thinkers who want to make their city a better place can now get free tickets to the CityCamp innovation event on 2-4 March, where more than £20,000 is available for social innovation and technology projects. The first CityCamp, co-produced by Wired Sussex, brought together more than 200 people from public services, business and community groups to problem-solve around the big issues facing the city. This year, it goes …

Comment

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Phil

Let Brighton bid – Jeremy Hunt says …No

>Jeremy Hunt has rejected the Let Brighton Bid’s argument that Brighton should be included in the bidding process for government funds to deliver ultra fast broadband (see letter to Caroline Lucas below). This battle may be lost, but the fight goes on… Your Ref: ML.C0011.ID.11.1.12 Our Ref: 196107/KS/31 Caroline Lucas MP House of CommonsLondon SW1A 0AAcaroline.lucas.mp@parliament.uk 17 January 2012 Dear Caroline, Thank you for your email of 11 January about the campaign ‘Let Brighton Bid’ and your interest in Brighton and Hove being considered for the Super-Connected Cities Initiative. I am very pleased to hear of the successes of Brighton …

2 comments

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Phil

Why Wired Sussex supports the Brighton TV bid

>Just thought it would be worth posting the statement of support Wired Sussex delivered in favour of the bid as it outlines what we believe are some of the key opportunities that Brighton TV could deliver to the city: “Wired Sussex is an active supporter of Brightonʼs bid for a local TV licence. It is well known that Brighton has a booming digital and media sector, with strengths in TV production, web, gaming and music. A local TVservice will help support the growth of that sector in two crucial ways. First, it will provide an additional avenue through which those …