I was struck by seeing in the Linkedin post of Naomi Sesay who recently left Channel 4 that she's involved developing the first female-led Smart City in Matamp, Sierra Leone. While the news reaction to her post seemed to focus on what she called the rebounding backlash to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives that she had worked hard for in her time at Channel 4 - and of course it was important that she spoke out about that - there was less attention on her big idea.
Like a lot of freelancers, I spend most of my time looking for work and opportunities. I've been trained to 'think of programme ideas' - and that's still the dominant view of creativity. Recently I've started thinking about creative business ideas that can scale. So rather than obsessing about a single production - which is usually dependent on a single commissioner and is crazily competitive - I'm looking to draw on my knowledge and experience to think bigger.
Right now I'm looking to help in the development of audiovisual instructure in Galicia, the northwest corner of Spain. Exploring that opportunity I realise how much public authorities look to the Creative Industries as a source of future employment and GDP - and the real challenges of building an ecosystem with the skilled workforce and infrastructure that's needed. It also means looking at all of the new ways of making content - Virtual Production, Motion Capture, immersive - and the new people looking to finance it. Such public authorities need ideas - and there is money available for regional development if you can come with projects of scale. In the UK, as announced recently by the government, another £380 million investment is being made available to develop creative industries in the UK, including into the UK Global Screen Fund and the NFT, through the 'Screen Growth Package' .
Thinking bigger means having to learn a more corporate style of pitching, imagine in the longer-term, and understand what investors are looking for. The Creative Industries Finance Forum organised earlier this month at the Bayes Business School by Katherine Parsons - which I was very sorry not to have got to - brought together financiers and creative entrepreneurs and was a very positive initiative.
Another concept I'm developing is a hybrid conference model, using pre-recorded elements as well as the traditional panels, which aims to serve a need for documentary festivals who want to have industry insight - without the high cost of inviting industry guests - and some ongoing resources for their websites. I get a lot from industry programmes, panels and presentations, but often wonder about followup once the event has finished. On ideas, too, I'm trying to think beyond single ideas and develop a slate around a genre or topic, or think about large-scale singles. (I realise that's not very radical, particularly in the UK where many production companies' development will only focus on formats and series).
There are now so many tools available to develop business ideas - from using ChatGPT for brainstorming, to producing glossy decks, as well as all the information online about how to start and grow a business. It all starts with a 'what if...?' thought.
What's your big idea?
