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Bournemouth & Poole
Bournemouth & Poole is one of the UK’s fastest-growing digital clusters in terms of number of company registrations year on year from 2010-2013. With an increase of 212% in new digital companies incorporated between 2010-13, digital employment has now risen to over 7,000.
Along with an emerging community of app development agencies, digital marketing and advertising companies lead the way in the area. 67% of companies in Bournemouth & Poole reported that they feel part of the cluster when asked as part of the Tech Nation report, a community ethos which is encouraged by events such as the annual Bournemouth Silicon Beach Festival and Digital Day Bournemouth.
Strength in the digital sector has been partly driven by the constant stream of skilled workers made available by the National Centre for Computer Animation at Bournemouth University, on top of the creative marketing agencies in the area which have acted as hubs for talent. Entrepreneurs also highlighted a high quality of life in Bournemouth as one of the main draws in choosing to set up there.
Silicon Beach Founder, Matt Desmier credits the community dynamic and vibrancy of the cluster, commenting, “Bournemouth has a vibrant network of meet-ups and events, feeding off its community of creative and app development agencies.”
Support:
- Think – Create – Do – online resource for the tech community in Bournemouth
- Factory studios – Co-working space geared towards the creative industries
- By The Sea – Co-working space
- Open Device Lab Bournemouth – a free-to-use resource in Bournemouth for testing and developing modern devices
- Meetdraw – A free to attend quarterly networking event for digital and tech individuals and businesses
- She Says Bournemouth – Supporting and inspiring more women into Bournemouth’s digital community
Funding:
- Dorset Business Angels, a business angel network for Dorset
- Show me the money: Seed money of £12,500 is available via Creative England, whose accelerator programme for apps, games and special effects start-ups launched last year
- Bournemouth Community Finance – set up to make finance available to local companies to support their plans for growth
Media Lounge are a specialist eCommerce agency who hone their skills by investing in and developing a number of their own eCommerce stores.
We Are Base builds user-centred digital products and services for businesses, using existing data. It specialises in mobile and web applications.
Redweb is a digital strategy, design and development company. It offers a range of services in-house, from commercial consultancy to the creative and technical aspects of web design.
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