UKTV Leading LightsWhat are the key challenges facing the creative industries in today?s multi-platform digital age? And what can we do to help nurture the imaginative thinking and innovative ideas that will help propel the creative sector to a brighter future when so much looks uncertain? Thats the question UKTV - the multi-award winning media company - has posed to a section of the nations most influential creatives for inclusion in Leading Lights - a new e-book published on 2nd April 2013.
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Leading Lights features a series of insightful yet accessible essays from a range of creative luminaries around innovation and thought leadership. Contributors include Iain Morris, the creative genius behind the The Inbetweeners, Michelin stared chef, Michel Roux Jr, Martha Lane Fox founder of lastminute.com, Roly Keating, Chief Executive of the British Library and Culture Secretary, Ed Vaizey.
Baroness Martha Lane Fox CBE, founder Lastminute.com and newly appointed Lady Soho argues that there are structural problems within the UK that work against digital business start ups ? Victorian education, pessimism, the role of the BBC and the American imports that use the UK as a testing ground. She thinks that a cultural shift is needed ? not just to create more individual entrepreneurs but to improve the teams working for entrepreneurs. Together with a board of eight top CEOs she is putting her energies into Go On UK ? a charity that will build Britains digital skills so we are all equipped for the future.
Roly Keating, CEO of the British Library, argues that print is not dead but the move from physical to digital is an opportunity that results in a burst of creativity. He sees opportunities for digital creativity through the intersection of different industries. TV companies and libraries have more in common than you would first imagine.
Iain Morris, creator of The Inbetweeners says a decision to say ?yes? to any kind of social event or offer was the defining factor in his creative career - most of the time it led to disaster! Out of disaster came The Inbetweeners TV Series and movie and a writing career in the UK and now in LA. The American comedy process of corralling a team of writers to sit around a table isn?t for Iain and nor is the process of working on several projects at a time. Iain is a great believer in the notion that you should focus on one thing at a time and be utterly single-minded.
Michel Roux Jnr, the three-michelin starred owner of Le Gavroche, grew up in a creative family kitchen, and believes that your ingredients are the basis for all creativity. Now a top professional chef, he gets his inspiration from other chefs. He sends his sous chefs out to other restaurants to investigate the repertoire and come up with new dishes that they can trial together.
Ed Vaizey MP describes himself as middle aged and stuck in traditional patterns, but admits to being a keen SuperMario player and digital downloader. Unlike many other politicians he reveals that he doesn?t know what is going to happen next in the creative industries because he cannot predict the speed of change, and suggests that there?s something to be said for doing nothing.
Commenting on the launch of the book and its contributors, Darren Childs, CEO, UKTV said, ?Im proud to have brought together such a diverse and impressive line-up of artistic luminaries for Leading Lights, to celebrate UKTVs 21 years at the forefront of digital television. The book provides fascinating insights on the challenges facing the creative industries in the digital age and how we need to meet those challenges head on by ensuring innovation and creativity are at the heart of everything we do?.
Leading Lights edited by UKTVs Communications Director, Zo Clapp, is available on Amazon and iTunes ISBN number: 978-0-9566561-9-3. Books can be ordered directly from Premium Publishing.
Full and abridged essay texts are available for publication.
Leading Lights: SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS Baroness Martha Lane-Fox ?In the UK we have a problem. The big digital movers and shakers in the UK ? Google, Twitter, Linked In, Amazon and many others were founded in America. We are stuck in a cultural cul-de ?sac. There are no easy answers as to why the UK does not have the digital confidence of the USA, but we must do our best to tackle our low digital self esteem ? My second concern is the dominance of the BBC. Although the BBC is a phenomenal organisation, digital innovation in the UK has happened inside the BBC. It is impressive that the BBC develops something as good as the iplayer, but it remains inside the organisation and that restricts market factors. ?
Iain Morris ?Im working in the US at the moment, and I think that creative single-mindedness is often missing in the American television industry. People are always looking towards the next deal. Its almost expected in America that you should have at least three things on the go at once, doing each to a ?good enough? degree, rather than spending time on one thing and making it excellent. There are of course exceptions: the best shows, like South Park and The Simpsons, are made by people who concentrate wholly on them. ?
Roly Keating ?Print is not dead. In sheer volume, both newspapers and print books seem to be riding high, but audience habits are changing in front of our eyes. My daughter flits effortlessly between buying books on her Kindle and working her way through a paperback and likes both in different moods. In our lifetime we will undoubtedly enjoy a sea of print materials but it?ll also be our privilege to live through some form of revolution of blended media with people being amphibious, switching back and forth between print and digital. There?s an analogy with television here. Linear scheduling hasn?t disappeared under pressure of on demand services. It has jus
