bournemouth digital hub


Bournemouth as a Tech Hub


BFX family weekend


Recently, however, the town has risen through the ranks to become one of the UK’s most vibrant creative/tech hubs and has witnessed a huge growth in companies and individuals working within the creative/ digital economy, especially in the fields of film production, VFX, animation, app development, computer games and digital/ transmedia content creation.


This spectacular growth was stimulated by Bournemouth Borough Council, the Dorset LEP, Bournemouth University (BU), the Arts University Bournemouth (AUB) and local MPs in recognition of the region’s enviable reputation as a leading centre for media and the arts in higher education. Their mutual determination to develop the local creative economy was formalised at a Digital Summit in June 2013 by the signing of a manifesto, which set in place plans and commitments to make the region an international hub for the creative and digital industries.


The establishment of the Bournemouth creative cluster, especially in the fields of VFX and animation, can be traced back to the creation of the NCCA (National Centre for Computer Animation) at Bournemouth University in 1989. For over 25-years, graduates from the NCCA have been the backbone of the UK VFX industry and have won several Oscars and BAFTAs for their work on ground-breaking movies, including Inception, Interstellar and Ex-Machina.


In 2011, in recognition of this phenomenal success, the VFX Hub was launched to strengthen links to the global VFX industry and to raise the profile of Bournemouth as a centre of excellence for VFX and animation. One of the VFX Hub’s main projects is BFX – a week-long festival of VFX, animation and games that is held annually at the Bournemouth International Centre and brings in speakers and studio professionals from around the world (bfxfestival.com).


BFX 2015 saw speakers and presentations from Disney Studios, ILM, Aardman Animation, Frontier Games, Iloura Studios, Microsoft, Pixar, The Foundry, MPC and many other top studios. BFX also includes


Bournemouth has been well known as a thriving seaside resort for many years. The town’s close proximity to London makes it a popular destination for holiday makers, convention organisers and political conferences of all colours


a competition, academic conference, workshops, master classes and a family weekend of events focused on promoting interest in the creative industries.


The town’s other popular festivals include Silicon Beach (siliconbeach.eu), a two-day symposium that brings together the UK’s leading strategic thinkers, digital innovators and brand gurus. Launched in 2010 Silicon Beach regularly attracts a capacity audience of industry professionals to hear ground- breaking talks on everything from futurology to the semiotics of logo design.


Digital Wave (digitalwave.org.uk) is a one-day event for GSCE and A-Level students that features industry speakers and presentations designed to inform the audience about career opportunities in the digital/creative sector. This unique event, which has an audience of 500-600 students, also features stands and booths for local/national agencies and studios as well as FE and HE course advisers.


Now in its third year, Re:develop (redevelop.io) is a conference for developers, coders and managers that focuses on improving collaboration in the digital workspace and discussing the latest coding issues and emergent tech. This one- day event is fast becoming one of the UK’s top conferences in its field and provides excellent local and national networking opportunities for attendees.


These four festivals are amazing showcases for the region’s creative and technical achievements and pull in an enormous amount of support from the local council, LEP and high-profile industry sponsors.


The digital/creative economy in Bournemouth is technically diverse and sophisticated; Coretx, one of the UK’s largest providers of data connectivity, is based in the town and is incredibly supportive of regional growth, especially in the creative sector.


Coretx initiatives have already helped several fledgling companies become established players in this agile and vibrant arena. Bournemouth has the UK’s largest pure


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH COAST – SEPTEMBER 2016 businessmag.co.uk 13


fibre-to-the-home network as well as the country’s fastest consumer and business services, offering reliable speeds of up to 1000Mb/s.


This infrastructure has helped to drive sector growth – there are more than 350 creative and digital businesses in the region, including VFX, animation, gaming, film production, digital agencies, app creation and post production.


Between them these companies employ over 8,000 people, producing work in their own fields and also collaborating on diverse cross-sector activities including, advertising, architecture, crafts, design, fashion, music, performing and visual arts, publishing, software, television and radio, health and medicine, tourism, heritage and hi-tech manufacturing such as flight simulation systems.


The breadth and mix of these associated applications adds to the sustainability of the region’s digital output and gives a distinct and unique flavour to the Bournemouth cluster. Bournemouth University continues to help drive the tech-hub reputation by undertaking world-class research in areas as diverse as cybersecurity, games technology, digital health care and combining its enviable reputation in the world of computer animation with its medical science centres and institutes, to spearhead augmented reality in operating theatres.


Peter Truckel – director The VFX Hub ptruckel@bournemouth.ac.uk bfxfestival.com


Professor Jim Roach – Bournemouth Uni jroach@bournemouth.ac.uk bournemouth.ac.uk


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