Welcome to the June LCR Digital, Creative & Tech round up
Here we share some of the fantastic businesses we are home to; the good work being done in nurturing our talent pipeline; all important funding and opportunities relevant to your business; and helpful events happening for you. Please contact our Digital & Creative Champion for details on any of the below at helen.cross@growthplatform.org
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Congratulations to the winners of the Echo Regional Business Awards including from our sector Videosign scooping the Innovation and Technology Award, Agent Academy the Diversity and Inclusion Awards, hi-impact consultancy the Business of the Year (up to 50 people) and Antony Craven from House Essential Records for Young Business Person of the Year. Find out more here.
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Skyhook Games, an Art Outsourcing Studio providing high quality 2D & 3D art for the video games industry kick starts its new chapter of growth by securing a substantial grant with help from Growth Platform – Liverpool City Region Growth Company. Find out more here.
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National Museums Liverpool is delighted to announce the launch of NML Xtra, a series of events taking over its venues and spaces like never before outside daytime opening hours. Providing sparkling entertainment and delicious food and drink, the NML Xtra series will both reimagine their venues and invite visitors to explore collections in new and creative ways. Find out more here.
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The Liverpool leg of the Ukie Hub Crawl was on 9 June. Home to multiple games companies who started with humble roots and have grown into industry leaders, nestled alongside some of the biggest names in video games, Liverpool truly is a hub that is as much looking towards the future as it is being proud about its past. Find out more here.
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Steve Rotheram, the Liverpool City Region Mayor, officially opened the University of Liverpool’s Digital Innovation Facility (DIF), a £12.7 million Centre of Excellence in emerging digital technologies. Find out more here.
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An audience of over 200 gathered for the Liverpool City Region’s first ever Innovation Investment Summit at The Spine, discussing innovation investment opportunities for the City Region. Find out more here.
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Hiring Ukranian refugees
Can you offer good employment or support opportunities for Ukrainian refugees? Check out this important campaign co-created by some of the North’s leading organisations & companies unitedforukraine.org.uk
Fully funded student interns from LJMU & UoL
If you have the capacity in your Liverpool City Region business to nurture one of Liverpool John Moores University students in a fully-funded internship, you can register your expression of interest here
Liverpool interns from the University of Liverpool is also offering funded internships such across a variety of business disciplines. Find out more here
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Digital Schoolhouse is looking for exhibitors for the Festival of Play
Ukie is looking for games businesses to showcase games suitable for children and families at the new Digital Schoolhouse & EA Festival of Play. The festival takes place on Friday 8 July at Guildford Pavilion and Wednesday 13 July at HOST Salford, for those that can provide a games demo at one or both venues. Games should be fun for children to pick up and play with an upper limit of PEGI 7, and it doesn't have to be an educational game at its core. If it is educational, that’s a bonus. Find out more here.
Barclays Entrepreneur Awards 2022
Nominations are now open for the Barclays Entrepreneur Awards 2022, showcasing the best of British Entrepreneurship. The Awards shines a spotlight on disruptors, game changers and those challenging the status quo who underpin the UK entrepreneurial eco system. Deadline to apply is 1 July. Find out more here.
Tech industry asked for feedback on measures to make the app market safer and more secure
The National Cyber Security Centre’s new report on the threats in application stores highlights that people’s data and money are at risk because of fraudulent apps with malicious malware created by cyber criminals or badly developed apps with software vulnerabilities that can be easily exploited by hackers. Therefore, to provide better protection for consumers, the government is calling for views from the tech industry on enhanced security and privacy requirements for both firms running app stores and developers making apps. Find out more here.
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Funding & National Bodies
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£1millon fund on offer for Liverpool City Region businesses
Growth Platform has re-launched the New Markets 2 ERDF programme to help SMEs access high value commercial business advice and support.
Eligible businesses can receive a 35% contribution to the cost of consultancy or agency fees which can include financial advice, HR support, legal advice, export, as well as strategic development including marketing and sales. Find out more here.
Global Screen Fund: financial support for games export to continue following successful pilot
The UK Global Screen Fund is set to continue following a successful pilot, providing a welcome boost to independent video games businesses seeking to promote content abroad. The fund, which supports business development across the independent film, TV and games industries and is administered by The British Film Institute (BFI), initially received £7m of funding from Government to support the development of high wage, high skilled creative jobs across the country. Find out more here.
Applications open for Tech Nation programmes
Applications are open until 28 June for seven prestigious growth stage and sector programmes from Tech Nation: Upscale, Future Fifty, Libra, Applied AI, Fintech, Net Zero and, for the first time ever, Net Zero X. These free, government-backed programmes are designed to help scaling companies from all UK regions to overcome common growth challenges and scale faster by providing them with expert coaching, peer-to-peer learning and extensive networking opportunities. Find out more here.
The NatWest Accelerator
Supporting and empowering UK entrepreneurs and business owners to scale their businesses to the next level. Through a six month fully funded Accelerator programme NatWest provide wrap around support and access to expertise, removing barriers and providing more opportunities to help businesses grow. Find out more here.
Innovate UK R&D funding
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £25 million for game-changing and commercially viable research and development (R&D) innovation that can significantly impact the UK economy. This funding is from Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation. Find out more here
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A regular meetup of CTOs organised by the Digital Tech Cluster at Daresbury
16 June at 12pm - Get tickets
16 June at 5pm - Get tickets
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London Tech week, 13 - 17 June, London and online
The UK’s tech flagship event will return on 13-17 June bringing 20,000+ global government and corporate leaders, inspirational start-up founders, senior investors and tech rising stars together to discuss the power of technology for societies. Find out more here.
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GDC masterclass programme 16 & 17 June, online
As part of London Tech Week the GDC Masterclass program is comprised of small-group workshops that deliver in-depth, hands-on training from industry experts around some of the most important challenges facing game developers today. Find out more here.
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TechNomads meet-up, 21 June 6:00pm, Liverpool Science Park and online
Online or at Liverpool Science Park for insight into the tech job market and invaluable tips to help you land that next role! Guest speaker Ellie King, co-founder of Equal IT, will be sharing advice on job searching. Find out more here
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Jelly Liverpool, Liverpool Science Park, 3rd Thursday of each month.
An all day offer for Liverpool’s freelance community to meet-up in the entrance café at Liverpool Science Park. Find out more here
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The Peepl Power Fair, 29 June 12:00pm – 9:00pm
Kicking off a new era for the Liverpool City Region’s economy. Taking the economic power back from the 1%. Drop in for 30 minutes or stick around to meet the community. Find out more here
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Intellectual Property for digital technology with Marks and Clerk, 30 June, online
An event from the Digital Tech cluster covering a range of topics and Q&A session. Find out more here
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Merseyside Business Expo 2022, 30 June 9:00am – 3:00pm
The Expo features a wide range of businesses promoting their products and services from both the private and public sectors, corporates and SMEs. Find out more here
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Access previous Growth Platform events via our YouTube channel
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Liverpool City Region Digital & Creative Board
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The LCR Digital & Creative Board is the voice of the city region’s digital, creative and tech businesses. It is driving improvements for the sector through business growth initiatives, skills and talent retention and developing the space, place and infrastructure to help the sector flourish.
Four new recruits have been added to the board following a lot of interest from within the community. The new board members are: Peter Denby, Hyper Group; Enda Cary, The Studio School; Zoe Gill, CGI and; Victoria Rodgers, Universally Speaking.
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Peter Denby, co-founder of Hyper-Group said “I’m delighted to be joining the Digital and Creative Board to support growth within the Liverpool City Region. With 20+ years' experience in data and AI, including co-founding my own business, and contributing to the Leeds Digital Festival board, I hope to provide expert guidance on how we can develop capabilities to benefit all stakeholders within the region.”
You can read about who is in on the LCR Digital & Creative Board here and we welcome your views and input via helen.cross@growthplatform.org.
The next meeting is the 15 September 2022.
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