West London Film Network is a new film makers network group was recently launched during the Portobello Film Festival.  This new network is the collaborative work of a various partners including Portobello Film Festival, Pop Cinema and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.  Royal Borough Art Services reports that WLFN is “open to anyone living in the Royal Borough with a professional interest in film, encouraging training and professional development as well as providing information on grants and commercial investment opportunities.”

While the network is still establishing itself, it already has a membership of 600. Well done WLFN! To get more information about the network contact:  arts@rbkc.gov.uk

TechCityEast.com launched in January of this year and has been working to build up its recognition as the online presence a accompany the ever expanding tech/digital city that has blossomed in East London. TechCityEast.com plans to draw the threads together about the East London Tech City Initiative which was launched by the Prime Minister, David Cameron last November 2010.

“Old Street was a seemingly unlikely place to build a web company when we came here six years ago, but there’s no doubt it’s now becoming a hive of tech activity. The noise, vibrancy and underground attitude of east London certainly rubs off on you, and inspires fresh perspectives – something I think all these start-ups share.” Martin Stiksel, last.fm”

From budding entrepreneurs in technology incubators around Old Street and Shoreditch to major facilities in the Olympics Park available post-2012, the Tech City area clearly holds opportunities for companies of all sizes. With the backing from the Government and active support from major global technology companies including Cisco, Intel and Google, the Initiative will help to stimulate east London’s high-tech industry.

East London is already home to one of the largest concentration of small, fast growing digital technology companies in Europe including:

- Last.fm (sold to CBS for $280million)
- Songkick (the largest global database of concerts in the world)
- Dopplr (sold to Nokia for $22million).

Working with the local business community, No10, UK Trade & Investment, Greater London Authority including the Mayor’s Office and Think London, TechCityEast.com will act as a network of networks for the local community. We will bring you news on local events, announcement, etc so feel free to contact us.

Editorial for TechCityEast.com is provided by TechHub, the community for tech entrepreneurs.
TechHub London, Ground Floor, 76-80 City Rd, London EC1Y 2BJ, UK, Phone: +44 20 7490 0764
Email: Info@TechHub.com

Thanks to Glenn Shoesmith and BookingBug for technical assistance.

Check out this video by Lizzie McKinnell from the University of Westminster reporting on the development of the Silicon Roundabout in Tech City East.

Ministry of Stories

Launched in December 2010 the Ministry of Stories has been going strong and is worthy of recognition.

Housed behind the facade of the Hoxton Street Monster Supplies store in East London, The Ministry of Stories has more than 200 volunteer writers, artists and teachers providing students with free workshops and mentoring sessions.

After passing by the shelves of Tinned Fear, Fang Floss and Organ Marmalade in the world’s first monster-specific retail store, young storytellers enter the Ministry to explore all forms of writing – from song lyrics and play scripts, to journalism, blogging and poetry.

The Ministry of Stories was founded by author Nick Hornby, along with Lucy Manab and Ben Payne, and is inspired by author Dave Eggers’ 826 movement in America. It boasts an extensive list of high-profile ambassadors including Roddy Doyle, who founded the 826-inspired project Fighting Wordsin Dublin; author Zadie Smith; writer, playwright and actor Meera Syal and former Children’s Laureate Michael Morpurgo.

The Ministry has a community focus and there are plans to replicate its success in locations across the country. Lucy Macnab, director and co-founder said: ‘There is a definite need to improve literacy and writing skills for young people in the UK. The 826 model has been proven to work across the USA by not only engaging young people but also volunteers and neighbourhoods through its creative, inclusive approach.

Generator is the latest project by London based publicly-funded visual arts organisation ARTQUEST which has taken on an ambitious endeavour to enable anyone to fund creative projects through an online fundraising platform called WeDidThis.

Through the website We Did This, lots of people are about to contribute small amounts of money to help fund the projects they like and believe in.  With each donation contributors are rewarded with unique and original gifts. Check out the links provided to learn more and see how to get involved.

Check out two of the latest publications made available by the Art Council, which hold a wealth of knowledge and advice.

1. Digital audiences: engagement with arts and culture online is a report co-commissioned by Art Council, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, and Arts & Business. Part of phase two of the Digital Research Programme, it uses a substantial survey of how people engage with arts and culture online, and attitudes towards using online technology to engage with the arts.

The report, by MTM London, also identities five distinct audience groups and looks at the cultural sector can use these groupongs, and better knowledge about people’s online arts and cultural activities, to both expand and deepen their relationships with the public.

2. Endownments in the Arts is a report commissioned by the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport to look at the use of endownments in the arts.

This report contextualises the use of the endownments in the wider landscape of philanthropy and fundraising and capital structure. A number of recommendations are made to help organisations fundraise better in the arts.

Hopefully these reports will be useful resources.

To read other commissioned reports check the Art Council’s Publication page.

The first step to environmental action is to understand your environmental impacts.  Measurement of those environmental impacts is a great place to get started. To help your company get its head around its key environmental impacts Julie’s Bicycle has developed a unique set of tools to environmentally measure your core activities on an annual or activity basis. They are environmental auditing tools that give you an overview of your performance against relevant benchmarks.

Here is a link to some other Resources and Tools that Julie’s Bicycle suggests.

Creative Future Partner: Julie’s Bicycle

Julie’s Bicycle is a broad coalition of music, theatre and scientific experts committed to making our industry green. Our ambition is global, our main operations UK. Almost everything we do is relevant to other creative industries and other global territories.

Established in 2007, Julie’s Bicycle has spent the last few years researching the UK music industry’s carbon emissions baseline with our research partner the Environmental Change Institute, and other organisations including Arup and the RESOLVE institute at Surrey University. This has informed the development of our not for profit certification programme Industry Green – a simple framework supporting continual improvement in environmental sustainabitlity for creative companies. Industry Green is extended by a series of industry campaigns, project partnerships and practical resources.

If you are interested incorporating a green business model into your existing business, register for Creative Futures to get 12 hours of free business support from Julie’s Bicycle and our other partners.

Congratulations to Julie’s Bicycle for concluding an extraordinary 3 part research project that assessed the carbon impact of Bands, Orchestras and Theatres touring the UK and Internationally. This research is another invaluable resource that Julie’s Bicycle provides to help the creative industry to become environmentally responsible. To read and download this research and more go to: Julie’s Bicycle – Research.

Creative Future Partner: Julie’s Bicycle

Julie’s Bicycle is a broad coalition of music, theatre and scientific experts committed to making our industry green. Our ambition is global, our main operations UK. Almost everything we do is relevant to other creative industries and other global territories.

Established in 2007, Julie’s Bicycle has spent the last few years researching the UK music industry’s carbon emissions baseline with our research partner the Environmental Change Institute, and other organisations including Arup and the RESOLVE institute at Surrey University. This has informed the development of our not for profit certification programme Industry Green – a simple framework supporting continual improvement in environmental sustainabitlity for creative companies. Industry Green is extended by a series of industry campaigns, project partnerships and practical resources.

If you are interested incorporating a green business model into your existing business, register for Creative Futures to get 12 hours of free business support from Julie’s Bicycle and our other partners.

Last month’s DorkbotLondon saw Innovation Design Engineering (RCA/Imperial) graduate Katrin Baumgarten presenting her infamous ‘Disgusting Light Switches‘ – a series of gruesome interactive version of the standard white plastic wall switches. When approached, some grew hair, some spat (and then sucked up) gunge, some quivered and squirmed like Kronenburgian props…

One questioner asked if these might be useful in an industrial context, where you might not want someone to use a button very often – the ‘emergency stop’ signal in the tube, for example… instead of the usual threat of a fine and/or glass to break.