Skip to content
Where Next for Liverpool’s Thriving Creative Sector event Prolific North
As the global spotlight was on Liverpool last week as Eurovision fever hit the city, Prolific North held a special event to celebrate the success of Liverpool’s dedicated creative sector.
Hosted at Barclays Eagle Lab, Avenue HQ on Wednesday May 10, the jam-packed morning event united a room filled with brands and industry leaders.
Held in partnership with business advisory firm Sedulo, the event explored how Liverpool can properly be recognised as a creative hub beyond Eurovision through a mix of informative panels, inspiring stories and networking.
Speakers:
- Paul Corcoran, CEO, Agent
- Lynn Haime, CEO, Baltic Creative
- Anna Heyes, CEO, Active Profile
- Rosie Kenyon, managing director, Kenyons
- Russell McGrath, senior business development manager, Sedulo
- Robin Tudor, head of PR & communications, Liverpool John Lennon Airport
- Phil Boylan, marketing director, Aurora
- Sarah Goulden, CEO, Form
- Helen Cross, digital & creative sector lead, Growth Platform
Following an introduction and welcome by Prolific North editor David Prior and Russell McGrath (Sedulo), the first panel session explored Liverpool’s creative sector and examined how the city can nurture and retain creative talent.
Chaired by Prior, he was joined by Paul Corcoran, CEO at Agent; Lynn Haime, CEO at Baltic Creative; Anna Heyes, CEO at Active Profile and Rosie Kenyon, Managing Director at Kenyons.
Anna Heyes (Active Profile) reflected on how the city has changed “massively in 20 years.” Networking events were typically about the issues facing the city, not the opportunities, showing just how much the culture has progressed in that time but the “entrepreneurial spirit” of the city has never changed.
Liverpool was crowned as the European capital of culture for 2008 and events like Eurovision are “great opportunities for creativity,” fuelled by the abundance of support and collaboration across the creative sector. On attracting and retaining talent, there have been turbulent times through the Covid period, transport “could be better” across the city but better flexibility has been crucial, steering away from the typical 9-5.
Paul Corcoran (Agent) said next month marks Agent’s 17 anniversary and believes Agent Academy wouldn’t have been able to emerge out of another city as region has helped its success. In 2014, following a pilot project with 12 young people who didn’t know how to navigate the tech or digital sector, Agent Academy helped them onto programmes to “navigate the ecosystem and into jobs.”
Over the past nine years, Agent Academy has continued to expand the programme. “The kindness of the creative and digital community here has been the petrol that’s helped keep the machine running and helped hundreds of young people into jobs.”
Lynn Haime (Baltic Creative) explained how Baltic Creative is a community interest company, reinvesting profit back into supporting the city’s creative sector. Established in the Baltic Triangle area in 2009, there are now six buildings with lots of “cool, creative spaces to encourage people back into the office.” By having these diverse creative spaces in the city, it helps the sector to thrive by being surrounded by like-minded creative businesses with genuine collaboration.
There are plenty of initiatives which are a “big part” of what Baltic Creatives does – from the monthly Baltic Brew and Bev events, networking and providing access to funding or talent.
