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 of Brighton’s digital sector and hopefully helping everyone attract more talent, investment and clients here.
And an inward investment strategy is a chance to define what is special and unique about the city and find ways to take that message to the world. It’s about creating a business brand that makes sense to those in business here and those who might want to do business here. Currently the Brighton inward investment tagline is “The location that makes business sense”. I’m sure you’ll agree that there is nothing in that phrase that captures what is special about our city (as opposed to a million others) and we need to find something more effective.(BTW check these US taglines out: http://tinyurl.com/dyy7j6n )
Of course a brand is more than a tagline, it’s an aggregation of people’s expectations, memories, stories and relationships http://tinyurl.com/ychdkh2. And, as well as creating a compelling message, we also want to find ways to use digital media to spread that message as effectively as possible - something that our cluster should have some useful thoughts on!
The digital, media and tech sector in Brighton is incredibly internationally connected, whether that’s through having overseas clients, partnerships and offices or through speaking at international conferences and events. We want to make sure your experiences and expertise, your voice and your opinions are heard and understood as the strategy gets developed.
So we are putting on an event to hear from you, our members, about how Brighton could (and how you do) talk about the city and so ensure that we capture a real sense of what is different, unique and compelling about this city.
Cogapp (who have some great international clients themselves) are kindly providing their office (its just up from the clock tower) on Tuesday 15th May at 6pm – 8.00pm. The consultants TIR who are working on the project will be there, as will UKTI technology inward investment specialist (and Brighton boy) Will Morley.
Please join us and share your thoughts. Register for the event here: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/3330980051. Oh, and pass it on.
Thanks