Putting Norwich on the digital map

Dotted across Norwich are a wealth of companies working in the digital and creative sector.

Last year, some of them started to meet regularly to share experience, skills and ideas. They hope to make a name for Norwich as a centre for digital excellence.

The community is now generating so much interest, it was standing room only at their last event.

Brighton, Bristol, Manchester. All 3 cities are known for their thriving digital creative sector. We’re talking designers, developers, animators, innovators. Norwich also has a whole host of these kind of companies but they are often small and, until recently, lacked any kind of community to bring them together.

To address this, a group called Hot Source was set up, aiming to raise the profile of this sector both locally and nationally. Jake Hithersay, creative director for digital agency, Soak, helped get Hot Source off the ground. He says it’s about raising awareness of what goes on here in Norwich: “Given the percentage of businesses in Norwich that do this type of activity, there’s no reason why we can’t compete as a centre of excellence.”

As well as wanting to put Norwich on the digital map, as a group they can start to tackle problems such as recruitment and skills. Nania Tait, who also helps to organise Hot Source, says they also want to get a key message across to big local companies: “The bulk of revenue spent on digital from big companies in Norfolk, I’d say 80-90%, is spent outside of Norfolk. As a community, we need to raise our profile and make sure those companies are spending money on digital and creative work in Norwich and not going outside the county.”

Hot Source organise an event on the last Thursday of each month. There are regular short talks on salient topics – normally about 15 minutes per speaker. This week, two south Norwich based speakers are up: Nania Tait from Special Design Studio on the topic of “What’s a Logo Worth?” and Harry Harrold from Neon Tribe, who will explain the basics of developing for Facebook. His short talk will explore more ways to engage with Facebook fans.

The UK’s last big digital conference was held in Brighton. Proof of Hot Source’s success would be if Norwich could stage such an event in the future. Until that time, the doors are open to anyone interested in this sector. All events are free and there’s no formal membership. Find out more from Hot Source’s website, where you can also view videos of all of the talks held so far.