The inaugural Made North Conference was held on 21st February 2012 at the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology in Liverpool (FACT) - a lively building tucked neatly in to a cobbled side street close to the city's bohemian shopping quarter.
By 9am the buzzing registration queue snaked from the welcome desk all the way through the front doors and in to the brisk winter sunshine, packed with delegates from a wide range of design, business and manufacturing backgrounds there to be inspired by an impressive array of talks and presentations.
The cinema auditorium was full by 10.00 and an exciting programme of speakers kicked off, split in to four separate segments:
- Art of Technology
- Designing The Future
- Making In The 21st Century
- MADE NORTH
The sense of pride at the very heart of the conference was pervasive, with organiser Patrick Murphy, Creative Director of Culture North, explaining his aim to "brand the North as a design force". Keen not to be North-centric, though - "there's no point us just patting ourselves on the back", he said, Murphy had assembled a broad range of speakers from the North, all around the UK and further afield.
Case studies covered a vast array of design disciplines from light installations (Matt Clark - United Visual Artists and Eva Rucki -Troika) to cutlery design (Corin Mellor - David Mellor Design) to book publishing (Max Fraser) to interactive installations (Sam Hoey - Jason Bruges Studio) and provided much food for thought as the speakers discussed their vision, their processes and their outcomes.
Running alongside the conference was the MADE North Designer Showcase, an exhibition featuring work from 15 Northern designers and makers including Deadgood, Swifty Scooters, Superfauna and REthinkthings. Due to tour other Northern cities and appear at London Design Festival in October 2012, the collection will also be available via an online and physical retail space and aims to raise awareness of Northern design and encourage people to buy local, with pride.
Acknowledging the importance of business working in partnership with design and innovation, Murphy was keen to stress the practical nature of the conference and the importance of collaboration in creating successful partnerships for the future: "People enjoy talking about creativity but it's about brokering a partnership between manufacturing ad creativity and that will support not only the Northern economy, hopefully, but the UK wide economy".