Osborne Clarke Offices, Temple Back East, Bristol

Minutes of LEP High Tech Sector Group

28th April 2014, 4pm

Attendees: Mike Bartley, Melissa Houston, Emily Jones, Tracey France, Ben Shorrock, Liz Humphries, Anthony Merritt, Adam Powell, Rick Chapman, Rodger Sykes, Alastair Watson, Henry Nurser, Nick Flaherty.

Apologies: Simon Bond, Nick Sturge, Paul Applebyand Duncan Allsopp.

Review of actions from previous meetings

Action Summary Ongoing unknown progress

Rick C to investigate if user activity on the Cluster Map can be monitored.
Nick F to produce job spec and advertise position for SIG Manager.

Melissa to share the list of attendees registered for the High Tech sessions.
Melissa to email Tracey a letter of support for the studio Schools.

Studio School Proposal

Tracey Francefrom South Gloucestershire came to present to the group the Studio Schools proposal.
This will be a state funded school for 14-19 year olds = around 300 students in total.
It will be an educational and vocational school to address the gaps between education and business – Project based learning, focus on employability. Business will be involved throughout.
An external review on the performance of South Gloucestershire secondary schools showed they weren’t good enough – challenges around this.
There are currently 27 studio schools and 18 more planned. Focusing on a wide variety of topics (not just High Tech).
Group expressed an interest in seeing employment outcome and questioned how teachers would be trained.
The initial bid will be submitted at the beginning of May. Letters of support are needed. If successful, the second stage will be to confirm business support – 30 placements needed in total. This would mean 4 hours a week for someone pre 16 and 1 day a week post 16.
ACTION: Melissa to email Tracey a letter of support on behalf of the LEP High Tech Sector Group.

Skills Update

Adam Powell introduced himself to thegroup. Adam replaced Jane Middleton as Head of Skills 8 weeks ago and is now managing a team of 12.
Adam’s main focus is to strengthen relationships with the Sector Groups to identify any skills gaps and shortages. There are 3 High Tech priorities within the Skills Agenda.
Group felt frustrated with having 3 top level priorities – too high level. Mike wanted confirmation that (going forward) a skills rep would attend meetings.
There needs to be some structure. There seems to be a fragmented link between schools and business - Group would be interested in seeing any impact analysis.
There is a keen interest to hold events targeted at encouraging females to consider engineering as a career.

WE LEP Collabortorium

The High Tech breakout sessions will be led by Mike Bartley and Nick Sturge (with participation from others). Members are encouraged to attend other sector sessions where possible.
ACTION: Melissa to share the list of attendees so far.

Silicon South West

Silicon South West has ground to a halt. A decision with regards to the brand has not been decided.
Group agreed that SSW is a strong brand, it has value and could be used when organising high level networking events.
Suggested that this could be a task for the new SIG Manager.

Cluster Map

Ben and Rick have both tried to contact Trampoline due to lack of success in resolving the issues. Emily has also given them legal advice.
Data and IP of data is ours, Trampoline cannot use this to promote their service.
£18K has been spent so far.
Ben and Rick are formulating a backup plan i.e. do something ourselves. Export the data a page at a time (this shouldn’t be as horrendous as first thought pre-Trampoline) – currently looking at cost and timescales.

HB2 update

2 people have shown interest in the SIG Manager position. It will however be opened out.
Job application is nearly ready to go – need to make sure money is there. At present there’sconfirmation but no actually money. People are chasing various funding sources.
Ben and Nick to chase BCC as Thanh Quan-Nicholls has now left. Anthony Merritt (South Gloucestershire Council) confirmed that he’ll be able to contribute £4K.

Update on “From Chips to…”

Rick informed the group that campaigns have been signed off. Alastair Watson has been taken on as the Project Coordinator (Part Time).
Due to delays this will no longer be a calendar event – allowing us to continue to run events into 2015 when Bristol is the Green Capital.
Alumni dinner is scheduled for end of September this year.
Liz for IBB showed the group examples of potential branding – aim to show past, present and future. This will also be a starting point to then support as number of key messages.
Group were happy with the first draft – having a logo with strapline. This could also be used on business cards.
With this in mind, Liz challenged the group to think about 6 key technology events that have happened in Bristol and Bath. Why are they significant / important? What words should be on it? Should there be links to other sectors as well – Low Carbon, Creative?
Majority of the group felt that this should be an organic process – run and let something develop naturally.

Venturefest Bristol 2014

Alastair circulated the proposal - TSB are supportive, they are looking to hold a number of these events in 2015.
An advisory board would be needed – A High Tech member should be on this.
An open discussion developed on the main objective of the event as a couple of members felt it was unclear:
What does the event actually deliver?
Is it about bringing together academics with entrepreneurs?
Is it a festival or brokerage between SME’s?
It is believed that Joe McGeehan has spoken to Colin Skellett to obtain LEP support.
Could the event be joined with Multicore?
In conclusion the group supported the concept but felt that clarity was needed and could it be done cheaper?

AOB

None

Next meeting:Tuesday 17th June, 9:30am

Venue TBC