Bristol can be Europe’s most creative city if its burgeoning creative industries work together to lift its international profile, according to Mayor George Ferguson.
Speaking at Creative Bristol, a gathering of representatives from the city’s creative industries, Mayor Ferguson, pictured, said the sector’s capacity to expand by 20% a year made it a major engine of growth for the local economy. 
In a spirited speech drawing on his first 18 months in office – and in which he pledged to seek re-election in 2016 to keep him in the role until 2020 – the mayor vowed to work with Bristol’s creatives to lift the city’s international profile.
The industry was generating jobs in a sustainable way, he said, and now made up about 10% of the city’s economy, employing around 16,000 people.
“What’s not to like about the creative industry?” he said. “It’s clean, it’s sexy. It’s about as clean and exciting as any industry can be and we are punching way above our weight in it.
“It’s about being different. We’ve got the BBC here and Aardman and we all work off each other.”
While saying that Bristol drove the economy of the West of England, he said by working with Bath – which itself has a large and vibrant creative industry – the region could challenge London.
“I love London but it’s overheating,” he said. “And we are the next best choice.”
Bristol now attracted international media attention – and was gaining a reputation for being a fun city.
“We’re serious about fun,” he said. “It’s one of the things that attracts people to Bristol.”
Media coverage of the recent water slide in Park Street attracted 600m viewers, he said. “That’s getting on for about a tenth of the world’s population.”
While there were challenges – sorting out the traffic was mentioned as a priority by one attendee at the event – he said the creative sector could help out. “Let’s get creative traffic plans,” he said. “It’s about pride in place.”
He called on the creative sector to let him know of its successes but also problems that could stifle growth.
“Feed me more stories for me to better represent you nationally and internationally,” he said. “Tell me about the blockages in the system; let me help you sort those out so you can focus on the day job.”
The event was part of a nationwide tour to celebrate Creative Britain and was co-hosted by the IPA and Creative Skillset, in partnership with West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), Bristol Media and Creative England.
It was organised in acknowledgment of the strength of Bristol’s creative industries which are growing faster than the rest of the UK.
Following on from the Mayor’s speech, a panel of creative industry heads including Andy Reid, IPA City Head for Bristol and Managing Director McCann Bristol; Tomas Rawlings, Auroch Digital; Dan Martin,BusinessZone.co.uk; Greg Ingham, MediaClash and Laura Marshall, Icon Films, debated the ways in which the city’s creative industries could continue to flourish.
Ideas raised, with audience input, included the need to:
· Work more with local universities to make creative courses fit for the creative industries’ needs.
· Increase affordable space for start-ups and improve the communication about existing space available.
· Work with schools to nurture future talent in the tech and digital sectors, particularly in the area of coding for games development.
· Do more together, including more cross-sector networking.
· Develop a more coherent Bristol story.
The event also heard from Lewis Blackwell who is writing a series of features for The Drum to coincide with the nationwide tour to Birmingham and Manchester, in addition to Bristol. The articles will provide an in-depth study into the state of the creative industries within these cities. Closing comments were provided by David Sproxton of Aardman Animation and the Creative Industries Council.
Janet Hull, OBE, director of marketing and reputation management at the IPA, said: “The Creative Bristol event highlighted the city’s infectious buzz. From games, to advertising and digital, to film, TV and animation, there’s a real enthusiasm and sense of purpose. Bristol came out of recession first, and they’re keen to capitalise on the momentum. And, as we learnt last night, they’re in the perfect position to do so.”
