1. Brighton Fuse:
An interpretation of the research from Wired Sussex
#BrightonFuse

2. They funded it
#BrightonFuse

3. #BrightonFuse
They all supported it

4. We delivered it
#BrightonFuse

5. #BrightonFuse

6. The full #BrightonFuse research
report, the executive summary
and our policy recommendations
are available to download on
www.brightonfuse.com
#BrightonFuse

7. #BrightonFuse

8. This is where it started…
Creative + Digital + IT = CDIT
Arts + Humanities + Design + Digital Technology
#BrightonFuse

9. “It's in Apple's DNA that
technology alone is not enough —
it's technology married with
liberal arts, married with the
humanities, that yields us the
result that makes our heart sing”.
Steve Jobs
#BrightonFuse

10. The Brighton Fuse research
looks at the scale of this CDIT
sector in Brighton and the
impact and interplay of talent,
businesses and cluster
#BrightonFuse

11. 7,500+ businesses individually reviewed
1,495 indentified as being part of the cluster
32.4% response rate to detailed questionnaire
75+ in depth follow up interviews
Our research…
#BrightonFuse
The Method

12. What is the CDIT sector worth?
1000
£
M
I
L
L
I
O
N
S
900
800
700
600
£713m
500
400
300
200
100
0
Universities
#BrightonFuse
Visitor
Economy
Nighttime
economy
CDIT

13. Growth of Brighton’s CDIT sector
14.7%
3.8%
Vs 0.7%
per annum on average
median
#BrightonFuse
for overall UK economy

14. Jobs Growth
in Brighton’s CDIT sector
4x
2x
10x
Brighton & Hove’s overall economy
as fast as same sectors in rest of South East England
UK’s overall economy
#BrightonFuse

15. “ I thought, seven years at [a London IT services
company], going back to start a business in
Brighton, I’ll clean up! I’ll have people begging me to
work for them.
I knew there would be a lot of people doing digital
stuff in Brighton but I just didn’t think the
competition would be particularly hot.
And I found out very quickly within about two or
three weeks that Brighton actually had some really
good established businesses that were doing worldleading stuff.”
#BrightonFuse

16. The CDIT entrepreneurs
90%
circa
are ‘outsiders’
73% said lifestyle was an important reason,
30% said it was the main reason
#BrightonFuse

17. It’s the place, stupid
Brighton is “great weekends...a city of
creative people, whether its
journalists, musicians or artists; the
Brighton Festival, the slightly alternative
and bohemian aspect to the brand”
#BrightonFuse

18. “Lifestyle was a part of it. I think I’d just had
enough of London really. I liked the idea of
being able to walk to work, a short-ride to
work, and just work-life balance was really up
there.
But also I’d noticed that there were more
professional companies here. The perception
I’d had ten, twelve years ago was that it was
guy’s in their bedroom; whereas when I moved
here four, five years ago there was a lot more
serious companies coming up.”
#BrightonFuse

19. The degrees they have…
#BrightonFuse

20. Superfused
Fused
Unfused
Creative content combined with
technology is the core of their value
proposition
Bring together creative content
and technology
Only focus on either creative
content or technology
3 categories of CDIT business
#BrightonFuse

21. “Our development environment means that …if
an artist changes a graphic it’s immediately
reflected in the build that the developer’s doing
through a conversion system, so it’s very kind of
closely integrated… everyone’s mixed up...
We’ve never really wanted to pursue a
‘developers on one floor and artists on another’
model, Our projects are very creative, but that
creativity is always under-pinned by technology
and we have to evolve the creative vision side by
side with what the tech will do.”
Juliet Tzbar, Plug-in Media
#BrightonFuse

22. Growth rates by fusion
-5%
Unfused
0%
5%
25%
20.8%
8.8%
3.8%
Average growth
#BrightonFuse
20%
17.9%
3.8%
Superfused
Total
15%
7.0%
-1.2%
Fused
10%
14.7%
Median growth

23. “Tech …designer …host, they’re all part of an
ecosystem... if your target is to entice your
consumer to do something or to give them a
great user experience, or whatever it might
be, any one of those technological or design
things can be the hole in the boat that makes
it sink.
Covering the bases of all of those things, (has)
helped us grow quite quickly.”
Mike Hollingbery, BozBoz
#BrightonFuse

24. Brighton’s Talent Economy
An opportunity…
…and a challenge
#BrightonFuse

25. Brighton’s Talent Economy
“We give people time to
experiment together, to
fiddle about”
“Staff are regularly given
time on specifically to
discuss with the team
something interesting or
relevant they have read”
“We have 3d printers and
stuff for people to play
around with”
#BrightonFuse
“…We invite
inspirational and
motivational peers in to
give talks”
“Our studio and the way it
looks and feels helps to
define who we are...”

26. #BrightonFuse

27. Are we ambitious?
Ambitious for what?
Compared to whom?
Limits on your ambition
#BrightonFuse

28. Its innovation Jim,
but not as we know it…
CDIT businesses in
Brighton are good at
creating value…
#BrightonFuse

29. Innovation activities
#BrightonFuse

30. …But they are far less
successful at capturing value
Only 1% of businesses registered IP during the
previous 12 months
50% of businesses appear to be producing
materials eligible for copyright, but only 8% have
royalties as a source of revenue
#BrightonFuse

31. Some things are designed
to create value and leave
value capture to others
#BrightonFuse

32. Brighton’s CDIT cluster...
Delivers significant value to the local economy
Is growing rapidly
Is driven by SuperFused businesses which are:
– Very fast growing
– More likely to be innovating with products and
services, markets and methods
– More likely to emphasise a company culture
designed to attract, nurture and grow its talent
– More likely to network
#BrightonFuse

33. #BrightonFuse

34. What
is to be
done?
#BrightonFuse

35. “Our new office in Manhattan is
cheaper
than our Brighton HQ
– in the centre of Manhattan!”
“How can we seriously
call ourselves a digital cluster
with such cr*p broadband?
Its better at home than at
work.”
“we need to re-think our
education system so that it meets
the needs of our society and our
businesses as they are now, not
how they were”
Jenni Lloyd, Nixon McInnnes
#BrightonFuse

36. SuperFused:
Brighton’s Talent Economy
#BrightonFuse

37. #BrightonFuse
#BrightonFuse