LEP 2011 Summit - Realise The Potential
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 3:31PM 
On Friday I attended the Local Enterprise Partnership Summit entitled 'Realise the Potential'. The event was held at Saviles Hall at Clarence Dock. I must have typed and deleted this blog post at least three times, deciding which angle I would take this from. You will no doubt be able to read all the 'official' versions about how great it was and what the speakers spoke about in depth so I will simply give a personal point of view on the event and how it made me feel.
Why did I go?
First of all for you people who do not usually visit our blog (99% of the audience at this event) Hebe Media is a new type of company. We are trend researchers, communication specialists, bloggers, photographers, designers, event producers, DJs, strategists and what other people sometimes refer to as 'influencers'. We have worked with some of the biggest brands in the world but always try to create projects that are based here in Leeds where possible. We produce two projects focusing on Leeds: the massive LOL! Leeds Online network which is around 50,000 'members' strong and the UK Observing Diary project which attracts around 10 Million views per month.
In the lead-up to the event I had tried to persuade a number of people we work and hang with to attend the event, unfortunately only one would take up the offer and attend. I am asked a lot why I engage with events like this one and others I have attended in the past such as the City Centre Vision Conference and What if Leeds. The answer is simple - I am interested in what type of strategy the people making big decisions in this region are putting forward. I want to know what the LEP, Leeds City Council, Marketing Leeds and Welcome to Yorkshire and other important organisations in the city are doing because it can directly help or hinder some of the things we are trying to do. Maybe foolishly I am looking for an area or plan we can engage with and help shape the bigger picture in Leeds and beyond. It is not easy for me to do this, I give up lots of time, energy and ideas, but I do it because I am passionate about my city and want to represent the people in 'our world' at these types of events.
Morning Session
As I approached the conference I had the usual 'odd one out' feeling as I was not wearing a suit, but I expected nothing less. I touched base with a few of the people I recognised from various organisations and made my way in to the lovely Saviles Hall.
The conference started out with speeches from some of the main players involved including Neil McLean, the Chair of the LEP, Keith Wakefield who is the leader of Leeds City Council and Steve Morriss from the sponsors, AECOM. We were hit with a number of stats about how big and powerful the city region is and a nice video highlighting this. Just one point here, can we please ban all talk of Harvey Nichols opening here? It was 1996. Seriously.
During this part of the day I jotted down a few quotes that caught my attention:
"This is a high level strategy"
"We are listening and learning"
"Region has not punched it's weight"
"Fact we do not have any money means we can be more creative"
At this point I thought, "ok I agree with a lot of this, we do need to improve and have massive potential here in the city region". I felt excited, waiting to see where the day would lead after all of the headlines and macro-economic stuff. The conversation and presentations that followed definitely had more of a political feel than I had expected. Aside from the odd line that caught my attention (from Peter Box usually) this is where I generally begin to lose interest. What did this mean to me or my ambitions? Does this inspire me? As the questions came in from the crowd I began to find myself drawn to the Twitter debate which was actually more varied and interesting than the conversation going on in the room.
Before the event started we were asked to sign up for break out sessions on different subjects. I had chosen 'infrastructure'. I was hoping for talk of soft-infrastructure and how we could create conditions and systems in which creativity could flourish. Perhaps we could even discuss potential uses and plans for existing unused infrastructure in the region that Evert Verhagen had brilliantly spoken about at the City Centre Vision Conference I had attended the last time I was at Saviles Hall. The conversation did not really move that way, so I decided to leave and gather my thoughts over a coffee with another young, creative business owner in the city. We both shared our thoughts and we were definitely thinking along the same lines.
Afternoon Session
We debated whether to stay for the afternoon session. I was still trying to convince myself that there would be something relevant to me at some point during the day. I thought the 'City Regions in a Global Economy' session would be particularly interesting for me with my Hebe Media hat on. After all we work globally and have produced projects that showcase Leeds talent and creativity on a global stage so surely that would be right up our street!
Enrique Garcilazo spoke about the importance of 'human capital' in a regional economy. I think he meant 'people'. "Ok this is getting interesting" I thought, as I firmly believe our people and the talent they possess are the key to 'realising the potential' so this was exciting me. It was weird that it came from an economist and was based on mathematical equations that would make Doc Brown freak, but this was something I felt passionately about and was glad it was being pushed as an important part of the plan. During this part of the day the Chair, Neil McLean also mentioned 'Creative Industries' as being an important part of the plan moving forward. They had pressed my two buttons - Realising the potential of people and the Creative Economy! But unfortunately that one line was as far as it went.
As I made my way out I spoke with a number of people from both private and public organisations and the majority seemed to be pretty happy with how the day had gone. I did speak with other people who were not so enthralled and we talked about the things we would have liked to have heard. I am sure everyone who attended has their own views on the event, some will feel disapointed like me, some will be really happy with how it went and will have heard exactly what they wanted to hear.
Conclusion
I thought about writing a conclusion that encapsulates my feelings from the day like I have in previous blog posts about events like this. But after the summit I felt so disconnected from the event and the people running things that I decided to use a quote from a good friend of mine, who sent me a message as I was leaving Saviles Hall,
"Hollywood and Silicon Valley do not wait for the government of California to help them"
This sums it up perfectly for me. We are going to create kick-ass projects with or without the help of LEPs and this message reminded me of that after having my creative brain and dreams for Leeds drained a little at the summit.
Reader Comments (2)
There were so many things wrong with the event, and the processes it encapsulates, that I will never have time and space to go into them here. The "LEP-community", if it is a community, seems to be made up of people who constantly reinforce their own outdated view of the world, and shield themselves from the realities beyond their office walls. That's why the twitter stream was so different to what was being said from the stage. If you're on Twitter, you have ample access to information that the world is a very different place from how it is seen by the LEP-insiders. And do they not see that the constant stream of white men in suits (with just one woman) who talk about "diversity" is an issue?
What I really don't understand is the contrast between the "Big Society"-rhetoric, that says the public sector needs to get out of the way and let people do things for themselves, and the LEP-rhetoric, which says we know how the economy should be run and we are going to plan it to death.
So, in the LEP world, we need to pick "growth sectors", we need HS2 and more motorways to whisk our elite to London, and we need lots more wrinkly tin sheds on Industrial Estates and enterprise zones. No recognition that the world is changing, that more people are working for themselves and collaborating with each other in portfolio careers. The LEPerrati don't work like that, and they don't know anyone else who does; at least they don't acknowledge that they do.
As you say, Lee, Silicon Valley & Hollywood don't wait for the state to plan things for them, and neither should we. But these people waste massive amounts of resources planning their outdated grand schemes. We need to be worried about that.
And, you know the other thing that concerned me on Friday? It was how glum so many of the delegates looked. It was not just a case of grey suits, but grey faces too. Some of them need to learn to enjoy their own life, and then maybe they'd stop trying to plan everybody else's lives.
I agree with what you are saying, it is like 2 different worlds sometimes. The difference in approach, language, understanding of what is important, I definitely felt disconnected as I listened.