Each Friday in The Wrap, one of the North’s leading media and creative figures will be giving us their take on the news covered by Prolific North over the last seven days.
This week it’s the turn of Nikki Kitchen, Director of Marketing at Purple Riot Marketing.
The budget is of course the main story on everyone’s lips this week, and I was pleased to see that the government has pledged to boost the Northern Powerhouse and Manchester tech sector.
Hammond’s budget overall was surprisingly pro-business, which is good news for us all, and his willingness to embrace the new technological revolution and put money into tech companies and start-ups is indeed forward thinking. With £500m set aside for tech initiatives such as AI and 5G, it’s good to see that the current government is taking these advances seriously.
It’s been interesting to watch the tech revolution unfold in our city. At Purple Riot, we’ve had the pleasure of working on some really exciting tech initiatives for clients, including the launch of Dreamr Ventures, a bold new scheme set up to offer support and infrastructure services to tech start-ups in the north west.
It’s really nice to see that the Co-Op have refurbed the old Federation building into another cool co-working space for digital businesses and innovators in the heart of the city. It definitely fits the start-up/young agency vibe, chip board walls-check, cool graffiti-check, hanging egg chair-check. Manchester is bursting with new collaborative working ventures and Federation looks like it will be a welcome addition. Co-working spaces really encourage partnerships and help our city’s pioneers to share knowledge and work together. Additionally, these spaces improve Manchester’s infrastructure by taking beautiful but unused buildings and making them useful again.
Tech North’s Northern Stars recent awards ceremony highlights the amazing talent we have in our region, and – for me – the most interesting thing is seeing what the individual businesses actually do. Winners that stood out for me this time were Vypr – a Manchester company that helps FMCG businesses to turn product innovation into a science, and Tutora, a company that uses a powerful algorithm to link students with tutors. The tech industry is constantly pioneering and problem solving, something that resonates with us at Purple Riot!
I’m pleased to see that Prolific North Live is back next year. A fantastic event showcasing the best of Manchester and the north west’s marketing and creative industries. It will be interesting to visit the immersive technologies area, to see first-hand the advances in VR, AR and AI. It’s definitely in the diary!
