A crisp, bright morning on 25 November 2011 welcomed delegates to Wynyard Park, Billingham for Design Network North’s Step Up to Design event, a new venture for DNN supported by the Design Council's Design Fund for Growth.
Terry McStea, Network Manager for Design Network North welcomed the lively mix of designers, service providers, marketeers and SMEs in the room, setting out the agenda for the day and introducing Procter & Gamble Research Fellow Roy Sandbach for a session on “Networked Innovation - observations on the way networks drive innovation”, a fascinating look at the similarities between genetic and social networks.
Discussion on the importance of innovation in the current business climate continued following a unique insight in to how it works within The Procter & Gamble Company, and Sandbach left delegates to the rest of their day with some rousing words: "Business is not easy, things are tough, but in fact my experience is that when times are tough, that’s the right time to innovate, it’s the right time to make connections which innovate."
Much to ponder there, but it was already time for delegates to grab the stage for two minute pitches, and everyone was surprised and excited by the breadth of skills and services on offer in the room, from product design to marketing to web design to e-learning to analytic insight and much more besides.
"I’m always inspired, especially when I find out what is available within the region. A lot of companies think you have to travel elsewhere to gain resources to help your business grow, but you’d be surprised what you can find here." Shaun Oakes, Managing Director, iEvo
"It’s quite remarkable how many solutions to problems you can find in the SME environment that exists even in a region that is as relatively small as the North East, and the pitches that I saw were inspirational." Roy Sandbach, Research Fellow, Procter & Gamble
Lunch, and an opportunity to chew over the morning’s information and prepare for an afternoon of “Speed Designing”, a series of three minute networking sessions between design service providers and SMEs. With 5 funding pots of £1000 available to kickstart projects this was serious business, and it was great to see delegates getting passionate about bouncing their ideas off one another, though it proved difficult to persuade them to stop and move on once their three minutes were up!
"Without the funding from the Design Council this wouldn’t have happened, we knew that funding was going to be made available and that really prompted us to think of something, to come up with some ideas and then we were fortunate enough to be awarded the funding. Without it, we simply wouldn’t have done it, so it’s been a great boost for us." Terry McStea, Network Manager, Design Network North