25 March 2011

Creatives come together - Media Marketplace Exhibition

PHOTO CREDIT: photography supplied by Michelle Heseltine
PIC/CAP: Keynote speaker John Riker, Blue Ocean Strategy Initiative Centre, London

Click here to view photo gallery.

The first Media Marketplace has been hailed a success by both exhibitors and visitors, with hopes it might become an annual event.

Held towards the end of March at Elland Road, the first Media Marketplace – which attracted in excess of 500 visitors -  came about as a collaborative venture between partners Print Yorkshire, Screen Yorkshire and bmedia.

“We wanted to provide a forum for creative sector businesses in the region to come together.” said Print Yorkshire Chief Executive Robert McClements. “This is the first time the networks have collaborated in this way and the success of the event has proven the appetite of creative and digital sectors for a forum through which they can meet, learn and network.”

The event provided exhibition space for 50 companies from across the region and featured eight speakers talking on subjects as diverse as marketing and business development through to new and emerging technologies.

Exhibitor Adam Stanning, a Director of 2D and 3D design company Bright White said the company had had a positive experience at the Media Marketplace. “It’s been good for raising the profile of what we do,” he said. “But we’ve also met some great people we didn’t expect to meet – and that we wouldn’t ordinarily bump into. We’ve gained some really useful new contacts.”

This was echoed by Ann Storey of The Media Centre in Huddersfield, who was primarily at the exhibition to make new connections for the businesses housed at The Media Centre. “We have a wide range of client businesses and events like this are crucial, not only for raising the profile of the Media Centre itself, but also to see if there are companies out there that would be useful to our tenants.”

With such positive feedback, is it likely that the Media Marketplace will take its place on Yorkshire’s annual calendar of business events?

“We’d really like it to because we’ve had a lot of positive feedback from both visitors and exhibitors and most have asked when the next event will be,” says McClements. “Our challenge now is to find commercial sponsors for the event to make it self-sustaining and develop the concept. This year’s event was run  with a degree of subsidy, but we won’t have this in the future, so to make it work we need greater corporate involvement, but I’m optimistic we’ll be able to secure it.”

The Media Marketplace was presented by Screen Yorkshire, Print Yorkshire and bmedia, with support from: BPIF, Electronics Yorkshire, Yorkshire Forward, Techmesh, Brand Yorkshire, Connect and Leeds Media.