I only went to the first day (the Friday) of Brighton’s second CityCamp, but from all I’ve heard the weekend was a big success.
I expect we’ll get a lot more from others who were there over the weekend, but I thought I’d just sum up a little of what happened on Friday before that. As we heard at the time, the event will live on both in the ideas that have won funding and with the many other projects that people will pursue, so hopefully the inspiring and thought-provoking things that speakers said then will still be relevant. Obviously, this is just quick run down. For chapter and verse check out the webcast (with all the slides) here.
Social deprivation is a massive, massive challenge…
We heard from Alistair Hill of NHS Sussex that while Brighton and Hove is in the privileged South East of England, its levels of social deprivation are relatively high (see above). Some more insights:-
- Between 1.3 and 2.5 million life years are lost in England every year through health inequalities.
- The Marmot Review said that health inequalities economic costs of up to £70bn. But impact on quality of life and wellbeing is even greater.
- Between Portslade and Whitehawk there is a seven-year female and 10-year male life expectancy gap.
We need to create jobs… and we should be good at it!
Colin Monk, who is the pro-vice chancellor at Brighton University for business and marketing spoke with passion and authority about how our city has to recognise how its strengths can create new jobs at a time when they are desperately needed.
- Brighton and Hove needs to create 6,000 jobs over the next three years to stay at the same employment rate.
- Brighton’s greatest resource is that it ’embodies the knowledge-enterprise culture probably better than any other single location in the world else’.
- Two different studies both suggest small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are responsible for the bulk of job growth – and Brighton has an unusually high concentration of these.
He pointed out that Brighton has the potential to become a ‘super city’ – which he explained to me afterwards in this video…
Brighton is a remarkable place and can be home to remarkable ideas
Will McInnes of Nixon McInnes talked about how social and technological changes and challenges have resulted in remarkable innovation. He mentioned a few ideas that he thought might be illustrative and helpful to CityCamp Brighton…
- Bank Transfer Day in America – a movement to encourage people in the US to move their money from commercial banks to credit unions.
- The recent flashmob to support women breastfeeding in public in Brighton.
- Buddy, a text message diary about how you’re feeling to help people with their mental health.
He explains some other ideas in this short video interview I did on Friday:-
This is a big year for Brighton and the UK
John Barradell, who is the chief executive of Brighton and Hove City Council, rounded up the day by setting out a very big challenge for the city. He explains here…
