Worldwide interest in Teesside’s digital story

Teesside’s digital pulling power is attracting interest among younger creative entrepreneurs from as far away as Turkey, India and Brazil.

For a group of eight international young creative business leaders spent a day in Middlesbrough as part of a whistle-stop tour of the UK organised by the British Council's International Young Interactive Entrepreneur Award scheme. All eight were finalists in the award scheme, which singles out creative leaders, aged between 25 and 35, who share entrepreneurial flair with commitment to their local interactive media and entertainment sectors.

Business incubation champion of the year As part of a two-week fact finding tour of the UK, they visited Middlesbrough's DigitalCity project and our University's graduate business start-up initiative, which has just been named as business incubation champion of the year.

After touring our new Phoenix building, home to the Institute of Digital Innovation, they visited the Victoria Building and met some of the young graduates who have set up their own digital and creative businesses on campus.

Hakki Goktas, founder and director of a SoundKlan A.S/Turk Dijital, based in Istanbul, Turkey, said he was impressed by the levels of support offered by the University and by the Middlesbrough Council backed-DigitalCity business initiative to creative industry business start-ups on Teesside. "I like the way young companies here are given a few years to build up their portfolio through the business incubation scheme and are not expected simply to start making money immediately."

I like the approach here on Teesside Shailesh Prabhu, founder and director of Yellow Monkey Studios Pvt Ltd, agreed. The Mumbai University computer engineering graduate worked in the video games industry before setting up his own company last year. "I want to push the bar of games development in India, and make my country more than just a destination to cheap services. And I like what I've seen of the approach taken here on Teesside."

After visiting the University, the British Council party went on to meet games designer Sean Cross and the team from 3rd Dimension Creations Ltd at Royal Middlehaven House and see the progress being made at DigitalCity's Boho Zone.

Dave Sharp, Head of Special Projects for DigitalCity Business, which organised the visit with the British Council, said: "We're both delighted with the success of the visit to Middlesbrough. It reconfirms that we are a genuine destination for entrepreneurs in the digital media space and we're looking forward to developing the close relationship we have with the British Council in the future."

---