Chief Executive Takes to the Stage

Northwest's Booming TV and Film Industry Promoted to an International Audience

Chief Executive of North West Vision, Alice Morrison, took to the stage to promote the Northwest's booming film and TV industry at two key industry events in Ireland last month.

Alice was invited to talk about the current value of the film and TV industry in the Northwest and the impact the industry will have on Liverpool, Capital of Culture 2008 at the North West Regional Assembly Conference to be held in Cork (this year's Capital of Culture) on the 18th October.

Belfast and the 3rd annual Creative Clusters conference was Alice's second stop on the 25th. She addressed an international audience of professionals from across the creative industries sector including MP James Purnell, Minister for the Creative Industries & Tourism.

Creative Clusters is a significant event on the creative industries calendar and competition to talk at the event is high. Alice's session, which was titled 'A Risky Business, Bringing Private Discipline to Public Funding', was selected from over 200 entries.

Enthusing about her involvement with the conferences, Alice Morrison said:

"The Northwest is an absolute leader in independent TV production and has had an enormous growth rate this year. I am really looking forward to sharing what we have leant and how we will continue to progress with my creative industries colleagues in Cork and Belfast".

In December 2004 North West Vision established the Regional Attraction Fund (RAF) an annual £1million initiative funded by the North West Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and managed by NWV to grow and sustain a strong TV industry in Manchester.

Alice talked about RAF and the new economic model that North West Vision has created that uses public money to invest into TV/film projects in the Northwest to stimulate the growth of the TV/film and service industries in the region and create a viable, valuable regional industry. She will be trying to highlight the benefits and pitfalls associated with investing public money in TV/film SME's.

The whole of the Northwest has had a filming boom this year. Manchester has experienced an increase of 30%; Liverpool 20% and Lancashire an enormous 45% increase.
The boom is set to continue across the region when North West Vision launches its Cumbria film office in December 2005. Interest in filming in the county has already started and it has been confirmed that a feature film about the life of Beatrix Potter, starring Rennee Zellwegger will starting shooting across the region in early Spring 2006.