Bristol’s tech and creative sectors today called on the city’s next elected mayor to help build its global profile as a hotbed of innovation.
Bristol Media and TechSPARK, the region’s digital tech network, launched the city’s first tech manifesto to ensure the importance of the sectors are recognised in the mayoral race. 
The publication – which has as its starting point the vision of Bristol is as a globally recognised city leading the combination of creative and tech – outlines the strength of the sector and its importance to the future of the city.
It was launched at a hustings at the city’s Engine Shed innovation hub attended by five of the candidates standing in next month’s mayoral election.
It calls for a commitment to boost innovation by building on the city’s leading developments such as its pioneering Bristol is Open smart city project, addressing the skills shortage in the sectors, encouraging microbusinesses and providing a testbed for leading-edge technologies.
Officially unveiling the manifesto, Bristol tech entrepreneur Jaya Chakrabarti MBE told the contenders: “It’s important that what we have built here isn’t taken for granted.
“We have been building on this for decades, not just overnight.
“We’re not a party political football. We’re the stadium – or I should say arena.”
The hustings was sponsored by TechSPARK, Engine Shed and innovative energy supply company Ovo Energy, which moved to the city four years ago and has since grown exponentially.
Ovo founder Stephen Fitzpatrick said Bristol had provided an excellent base for the firm – recently voted the UK’s favourite energy company by the readers of Which? 
It had enabled the firm to maintain its rapid growth through a good supply of skilled staff. But he warned that the race for talent was becoming ever more competitive, with many experienced people in the tech sector heading to the US.
This was a challenge for Bristol if it wanted to continue to act as a tech centre. He also said politicians often failed to understand that tech businesses needed to act extremely quickly and could not operate at the slow pace of local government.
According to the 2016 Tech Nation report, the Bristol & Bath digital tech cluster is the most productive tech region in the UK, with a digital turnover of £8.2bn.
Taking part in the hustings were George Ferguson (Bristol 1st), Marvin Rees (Labour), Charles Lucas (Conservative), Tony Dyer (Green Party) and Kay Barnard (Liberal Democrat). Each spoke for three minutes on how they would work with the tech and creative sectors before answering questions from the audience.
The hustings were chaired by deputy chief executive of the think tank Centre for Cities Andrew Carter, who opened the event by telling the audience: “The future of Bristol will be largely determined by the influence of the industry you work in.”
Click here to download the full tech manifesto.
