Notes of actions agreed and some of discussion at Idea Birmingham Dinner 24th October, Opus
Restaurant
Present:
Table 1
Professor Cliff Allan, Vice Chancellor, Birmingham City University host
Sir Albert Bore, Birmingham City Council
Peter Andrews, Principal Designer, MG
Richard Burden, MP
Simon Topman, Acme/Millennium Point
Angela Maxwell, Acuwoman
William McGrath, AGA Rangemaster
Councillor Victoria Quinn, Birmingham City Council
Brian Gambles, Birmingham City Council
Table 2
Professor Chris O’Neil, Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, BCU host
Philip Singleton, Millennium Point
Patrick Fuller, WB The Creative Jewellery Group
Pam Waddell, Birmingham Science City
John Rider, IoD
Ian Taylor, Marketing Birmingham
Simon Cane, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Ian Emes, Film Director
Stuart Ballinger, JCDecaux
Table 3
Professor Simon Bolton, Birmingham Institute for Art and Design, BCU host
Kim Paterson, RBS
Dr. Steve Harding, Birmingham City University
Sophia Tarr, Freelance Artistic Consultant
David Mahony, PCPT Architects/JQ BID
Lucan Gray
Table 4
Professor Mike Stevenson, Birmingham Institute of Art & Design, BCU host
Andrew Mitchell, RBS
Beverley Nielsen, Birmingham City University
Tony Sartorius, MD, Alucast
Lincoln Fan, Laney Amplification
Matt Till, Birmingham City University
Mike Mounfield, JQDT
Steven Green, Brooks England
Delia Goldsby, RBH/YBD
Key Issues for Birmingham/Midlands to be addressed by Birmingham MadeMe
William McGrath, AGA Rangemaster: Reputation Deficit
Birmingham’s reputation was not aligned with the reality of our achievements. This was
affecting who was prepared to stay/come here to work and invest as individuals and
businesses. It affected our perception of ourselves. We were not a Second City, but
second to none. As the Poster and Wall chart showed from 1707 when Abraham Darby
first produced cast iron cooking pots using mass production at Coalbrookdale to sell these
patented pots our region had shown a capability to transform the way we live by
combining the science and technology of production with art, design and creativity – or
branding – to stimulate desirability, market demand and customer loyalty.
BMM Design Expo was addressing this by showcasing the best of what is designed and
made in Birmingham and the Midlands through the ‘do-able and scaleable’ activity of the
Design Expo and Awards. It needed to keep building on this to promote a stronger
reputation for Birmingham and the Midlands around our capacity and track record of
transformation – improving the quality of life for people around the world as the Original
Design City.
William McGrath, AGA Rangemaster: Public Policy
Idea Birmingham as a think tank had pulled together an impressive range of speakers
which had informed our thinking as a City region. It was important not to lose sight of
this and the impact it was having. 125 top calibre speakers had presented at this year’s
Design Expo – Directors General of CBI, IoD, British Chambers of Commerce, and
Directors from Design Council, IPPR, Centre for Cities, Big Innovation Centre, Work
Foundation, with international speakers from Germany, Austria, Holland, USA and China.
One serious high profile output would be to write a book about Birmingham that
portrayed Birmingham and the Midlands for its authentic heritage in designing and
making things that have transformed the world as well as our ongoing track record in this
area.
Patrick Fuller, WB the Creative Jewellery Group: Reputation and Knowledge of our
Transformational Culture
Given these words with regard to heritage, engagement and focus there is much in Idea Birmingham
and BMM that harks to the original Lunar Society which brought together a fascinating mixture of
people from the scientific, medical and commercial world, with some strong personalities with
different ideas and the university as the catalyst. These different backgrounds and interests are
beginning to move forward a cross fertilisation of ideas which could be a powerful driving force
forward with regard to innovation and creativity leading to a competitive edge for our city and
region.
There were a couple of paragraphs in ‘The Summary Document’ circulated prior to the dinner which
seemed particularly relevant to our situation.
“ To understand more about the critical features of design and innovation-led businesses or the
cross sectorally based companies leading the Midlands economy, Idea Birmingham ran a survey in
2012, assessing 24 Midlands companies generating £24.5bn turnover, contributing around £2.5bn
profits and investing over an estimated £3-4bn in designing and developing new products and
services that year.
These businesses employ over 38,000 people in the region, supporting a further reported 32,000
jobs directly through supply chain procurement across the Midlands. These design and innovationled businesses are largely overlooked in regional business development approaches favouring
cluster-led thinking, even though it is design and innovation led businesses which are the driving
force in terms of economic growth for the Midlands area.
The Idea Birmingham survey found that for these businesses their skills base is highly focussed on
design and innovation capabilities in delivering above average business performance with 41% of
respondents having grown significantly, by more than 10% over the past year, and 36% having
grown modestly, between 1-10% against a backdrop at that time of flat or declining GDP at that
time.”
These businesses are key to our growth prospects moving forward yet they have hardly been
recognised by our business development approach and they need to be not only recognised, but
applauded, encouraged and celebrated.
Sir Albert Bore, Birmingham City Council: Skills and Jobs
There was a real need for young people and our emerging talent to be more effectively
linked to job opportunities in the region. Young people were being educated and
prepared for work, but the best ones were too often leaving the region. Could BMM play
more of a real and practical role in bringing together employers with emerging talent
through jobs and skills opportunities, building on the experiences of the businesseducation collaborations and schools design programmes which had been delivered todate?
Simon Topman, Acme Whistles and Millennium Point: Linking university expertise, skills
and know-how to SMEs
Over the years Acme Whistles had been able to build good relationships with the
universities in the region – University of Birmingham, Aston University and BCU, but not
Warwick. However, this took a certain tenacity and endurance to establish and many
SMEs did not have the time or capacity to do this as accessing university skills was not
straight forward. Could BMM provide or be a conduit into a gateway that enabled the
linking up of SMEs as growth engines of the economy into applied and business relevant
skills, expertise and know-how within the university base?
Simon Topman, Acme Whistles and Millennium Point: Skills and Jobs
Following on from the issues raised by Sir Albert Bore there was the Jobs Fair and if that
could possibly be linked into BMM – perhaps being hosted at Millennium Point with some
element of an Expo alongside it.
Steve Green, Brooks England: Heritage
For Brooks England heritage was not something about the past, it was about them and
their authenticity. It was not behind them, but rather it was something they were
‘swimming through’ on a daily basis. It was part of them and it added value and
provenance to the customer experience. Surely there was a lesson in this for the City and
region?
Simon Cane, BMAG: Heritage
BMAG were custodians of a large part of the Birmingham and Midlands archives and they
were keen to ensure that people living and working in the region were not only aware of
but had a pride in the role played by former generations living and working in the region
who had transformed the world. It was a multi-layered and rich story, not a linear one
and one which upcoming generations needed to understand and enjoy to be able to take
this forward as ‘real, living and understood’ as part of them and their experience of
growing up here. BMAG were keen to play a greater part in moving this part of the
agenda forward.
Dr Steve Harding, Head of Policy, BCU: Cross Innovation
Idea Birmingham think tank and BMM Design Expo could play an important role in
stimulating and contributing to cross innovation – getting more innovations and best
practice to move from one sector to another rather than remaining boxed in. His Cross
Innovation project was focussed on using the creative skills and cultures to drive greater
capacity for innovation within businesses and stimulating innovation capabilities.
Professor Mike Stevenson, BIAD, BCU: Building a Breakthrough Brand and a ‘Milan-style
experience’
To build more of a Milan-style experience through BMM we needed it to be a city-side
experience with signage that was visible throughout so that it was something that went
‘viral’. In Milan all the shop fronts carried the Design Week signage and we needed to
adopt a similar approach to get nearer to critical mass with lots of different activities
taking place but all promoting the overall brand. This required much more pulling
together of our respective efforts – more collaboration.
Professor Chris O’Neil, BIAD, BCU: Reputation and International Exposure
There had been some very positive links established on the back of our activities to-date.
One notable piece was the growing reputation of Birmingham in Brazil. The Brazilian Post
had run a supplement on Innovation and creativity in Birmingham during this year’s
Design Expo and following on from contacts that had been established 20 students were
now coming to the city and this number was doubling for next year. These kinds of
contacts were being established by raising our profile in areas where our excellence could
be accessed and understood internationally.
Professor Simon Bolton, BIAD, BCU: Building a Breakthrough Brand and a ‘Milan-style
experience’
To do this two things were needed which had been discussed in earlier meetings both
within BCU and with businesses at a meeting hosted at WB the Creative Jewellery Group:
 Activity spread across the city providing more opportunity to access the Expo

Learning by Doing – proposal to engage more actively with schools, students and
the public through Innovation Huts where people could work up ideas into
prototypes and products. The best could be judged next year as part of the
Design Awards and go on display in prestigious locations.
 In our discussions at WB the Creative Jewellery Group Harvey Nichols
Birmingham had offered to display some of the best products to be ‘designed and
made’ in these locations around the city.
Councillor Victoria Quinn, Birmingham City Council: Use our existing infrastructure for
the ‘Innovation Hubs’
It was important that by pushing the engagement we did not recreate the hubs which
already existed. We had a lot of great existing infrastructure – buildings, spaces that
could be used. Could the Innovation Hubs not be located within these?
Pam Waddell, Birmingham Science City: Year of Science and Innovation Expo
Birmingham Science City was looking at holding an Innovation Expo in 2014 in
collaboration with city partners around the science and innovation agenda and working
with VentureFest. There was a strong interest amongst partners for greater collaboration
and how by working together we could pull together apparently disparate strands and
activities to create greater impact.
Angela Maxwell, Acuwoman, Ian Taylor Marketing Birmingham, John Rider, IoD: Clarity
of Goals and Objectives
All raised the issue of clarity of goals and objectives and whether the BMM initiative was
trying to spread itself too thinly and without any real clarity of what it was aiming to
achieve – what were the outcomes.
Actions Agreed:
1. BMM Design Expo and Awards Dates for 2014 – 2nd – 11th May
2. Revisit the Mission and Objectives, outcomes.
For information – current Mission, Objectives are stated at and outlined below -http://www.ideabirmingham.co.uk/Strategic-Objectives.aspx
Strategic Objectives

Position design-driven innovation and entrepreneurial collaboration at the heart of the
region's growth strategy and economic success.

Leverage the region's existing brand capital and cultural heritage to provide a strong
marketing platform enhancing regional identity, promoting existing brands and supporting
emerging brands.

Through the IDEA Leaders Network, develop a collaborative philosophy to encourage a
multidisciplinary IDEA-based culture through skills and knowledge transfer to create
opportunities for growth through focussed public and private sector action.
Mission: Design Expo and Awards

Within the next 5 years, put Birmingham and the Midlands firmly on the map by
establishing an internationally-renowned Design Expo of innovative, authentic, regionallybased brands by showcasing upcoming graduate and entrepreneurial talent driven by
business and university collaborations, rewarding design excellence, user-focused
innovation and commercially-viable, radical design visions that can be produced for sale.
Objectives: Year one

Establish a robust, unique Design Expo format housing at least 20 large exhibits and
generating a measurable and significant footfall during a week-long Design Expo, hosted at
the Mailbox, Birmingham.

Design a distinctive Awards concept to attract individual and collaborative submissions
from companies, students and upcoming entrepreneurs providing entrants 'unfettered
access' to a Midlands-based regional brand platform leading to new business
opportunities and sales.

Develop a sustainable Design Expo growth strategy and a success buzz to ensure strong
stakeholder demand challenging out-dated perceptions of Birmingham and the Midlands.

Establish a focus on excellence and momentum amongst West Midlands universities, FE
Colleges and schools for Design Expo as an alternative option to 'New Designers' and
facilitating innovation and knowledge transfer opportunities to create real growth and
jobs.
Peter Andrews, SAIC Motors contributed the following thoughts to our goals and
objectives after the meeting –
“We seemed to be asking what are the goals of Birmingham Made Me, to me as a new
comer it would be:
o Regional Awareness for the people that live here of the richness of
Design/Manufacturing at all scales
o Inspire the next generation locally, as well as retraining opportunities
o Draw Investment and Attention to the Region for creativity and manufacturing
specialism.
o Reflect the heritage but also demonstrate a future of hi-tech and modern
craftsmanship with conviction This is something we use every day with MG we
understand and utilise the positives of our past and are always looking to creatively
inspire and push forward our designs for tomorrow.”
3. Clarify activities for Birmingham MadeMe Design Expo and Awards 2014
a) Jobs Fair – assess opportunity for this as central activity/strand, perhaps at
Millennium Point, linking emerging talent to employers and building on Speed
Recruitment, student business collaborations and Schools Design Programme of
2013;
b) Innovation Huts – locations confirmed as previously agreed include:
a. Library of Birmingham
b. Millennium Point
c. Jewellery Quarter
d. Acme – as part of series of factory locations
e. Bullring
c) Factory flash demonstrations – Peter Andrews at SAIC has suggested the following:
“Demonstrations - Flash Factories including Brooks Saddles were also shown at
designjunction and would be something worth consolidating like designjunction in one area
to allow small start ups/creatives to be showcased in a slightly bigger event then just saying
they have an open door for a day at their own premises. For bigger companies or where
machinery can’t be moved to demonstrate then having an open door at their site would be
more appropriate.”
d) Other possibilities – (contribution from Peter Andrews follows)
“There seems to be a lot of parallels with the London Design Festival. It may be worth reviewing
what and how they do things to see what could be embraced and shaped for Birmingham. Key
aspects to look at:
i. Venues - Local Councils and Companies offer interesting/unusual locations
for exhibition space or installations, eg disused underground platforms that
trains still pass by, all the way through to the fourth plinth in Trafalgar
Square.
ii. Venues – You do not need to think that the buildings /sheds need to be
immaculate, there is a design chic in many environments and the products
/installations are the stars. With just good lighting and a considered layout
they can really impress, again benchmark designjunction. For example, could
you use old buildings by the canals giving a connection to the industrial era,
or even a strategically moored barges with installations or workshops on.
iii. Locations - Hundreds of Venues across the city but with several key
exhibitions like 100% Design and designjunction
(http://thedesignjunction.co.uk) giving a focal point and opportunity for up
and coming designers/manufacturers to be seen.
iv. Duration - Their event is over nine days, this indicates that as we are a
smaller format that perhaps a week or less for main activities maybe more
appropriate to keep focus and attendance. You could have unmanned
installations up for longer perhaps partly as a build up to the main event.
“I can’t remember the exact dates you are considering in May but as previously mentioned it would
be good to avoid clashing with London’s Clerkenwell Design Week which starts on the 20th May
http://www.clerkenwelldesignweek.com. I presume as well as promoting the region to itself that
you want to draw Press and the wider design community to Birmingham and a clash I am afraid will
always see London realistically winning.
“As also mentioned yesterday with creative sheds, please find attached (Below) some images from
MG Live where we helped design the central exhibition and also provided designers over a weekend
to show how we create the designs of tomorrow in a way that was interactive to the public.
“With regard to other anniversaries next year for your information it is also MGs 90th.
“Finally to reiterate that we, in Design, are interested in continuing a relationship with yourselves
and look forward to discussing possible opportunities for 2014.”
e) Write a book about Birmingham and Midlands – BN updated meeting that she
had been asked to write a book about Manufacturing Matters with economist,
Vicky Pryce and Professor Mike Beverland, School of Management, Bath
University. Perhaps, in addition BN could write a book that told more of the
Birmingham and Midlands story.