NWDA Conference and AGM – Liverpool 2008 PHIL REDMOND, Creative Director, Liverpool Culture Company Pretty good eh? Just watching that go through always reminds me what a great privilege it's been for me to manage to get myself in this position and it's also really great to be here to attend Bryan's going away party and if anybody does want to start the Bryan Gray Appreciation Society, they can sign me up because Bryan has actually been quite a driving force in making all that happen. Also a formal welcome from the People's Republic and the European Capital of Culture to the creative centre of the North West, England's most vibrant region as is proved by the fact that the logo itself is even bouncing in time to the bottom of the screen there. They put me on just before coffee because they told me they were always worried about what I was going to say and I don't blame them either because I don't know either. I kind of lashed this up last night, I mean I put this together quite carefully last night to go through what's actually been happening here. But I really just want to talk to you about one point today and that is about culture actually creates commerce and how we actually get commerce from culture. You've seen some of these slides already go through on a film there, which is sort of coming through from the opening. There's the pensioner, that's Clint. This is an interesting example of artistic capitalism with branch economies operating in the region and all profits remitted to headquarters in London but we'll come back to that one! That's the Viennese ball. And this is Ben Johnson, this is quite interesting, a cityscape that has been commissioned for Capital of Culture and while the rapacious Londoners - I'm trying to go backwards here, it doesn't seem to be working - (? words inaudible) taking its money down to London 140,000 people went through that exhibition and it generated £800,000, Ben Johnson also had 140,000 people going past in the walk in and that was all free. This is one of our greatest philosophies, this is part of the Community Project, we like fireworks and of course, there's Macca! What's Macca? Is he a rock star or is he an £800million corporation? MPL Productions which looks after Macca actually does have all its own procurement procedures, preferred suppliers and controls all its intellectual property rights. So it's quite an interesting thing but actually he's just a bloke from Speke. So we can't let this one go by without showing you a bit about what the papers have been saying about Liverpool, it's all getting quite good, it goes right across the world, our Spider actually made the front page of the South China Daily Post. These are quite cool - one from Manchester, look at that! That's come through gritted teeth! And the Evening Standard I think was a paid for ad! But this is actually my favourite, look at this, this is what the Sunday Telegraph had to say about the whole European Capital of Culture Project - how about that! Anyway some (? Word inaudible) statistics there for you which just demonstrate that the power of culture is not just in putting on shows and people singing songs but actually raising awareness and for quite a small investment you can buy back quite a lot. The pensioner on St George's roof we reckon earned us about £35million, it'd be easy exposure across the world and only cost us about 85 first class air fares as well. These are some stats about the increases at the cultural venues, I won't pause on them but it's quite interesting. The bottom one, 40,000 actually attended the opening event when everybody said it was going to be useless and nobody would turn up and I even had people from the Culture Company five minutes beforehand saying "what happens if no-one turns up" and then as the 40,000 descended on St George's they
were all coming up saying "there's too many people, there's too many people". That's culture. Anyway, what's the economic impact? You've already seen some of these stats go through. We won't really know for a few years, the impact 08 is a longitudinal study, it has been running for three years and going for two more years collaboration between the City and the universities but these are some of the things which are coming through now which we talk about. Quite interesting. This is a big impact for culture, 80% residents (?) are now positive about it and you can see that thing, the bottom one is really important because Liverpool with all the cultural events is now out-performing any kind of benchmark in terms of widening access and diversity to cultural activity. You've seen that one go through too but we reckon the Spider has probably also brought about £30million to the City so for £1million out, £30million in. Things like the Lambananas (?), interesting too, generates a lot of interest, brought a lot of people to the city but they also generated £550,000 at a charity auction at the end of the whole thing. There's our Spider again. This is strolling through the streets. Again this is bringing people out onto the street and this is what I'm going to come on to, it's about culture creates (? word inaudible). I'll pause for a minute now because everybody has been throwing stats up and I want to throw a few of my own up. So this is the other story so far and this is about a bloke from Huyton, which is me. I created Mersey Television, Grange Hill, Brookside, Hollyoaks. That figure there is what it actually cost for a piece of paper in 1978 when I actually put the idea down for Grange Hill. That's actually gone on to create with Mersey Television 750 full time jobs, 10,000 casuals and probably about £500million into the local economy and also creates Mersey Television Centre of Excellence, you know, all that. But the figure at the bottom, £2.5billion flow through sounds amazing but when you think about 25 years of Mersey Television, at one stage Brookside and Hollyoaks were worth £250million per annum to Channel 4 and then you've got things like local talent like Jimmy McGull and Ricky Tomlinson bank rolling other projects, and local producers like Colin McKeown and Mal Young actually creating things. Colin McKeown made things like Liverpool One, Mal Young actually was the guy who resurrected Dr Who, which itself has actually become an industry in its own right. So, there you are and I like this one because … how about that! This one I like to use to people like Arthur Anderson and Deloitte and also when we've gone through the various deals over the years with people like Barings, remember them? And the VCs when we actually sold out to the company because it's fantastic business creativity because you take a piece of paper and you put some ink on it and you just move the decimal point. And also because you've already (?word inaudible) it's a zero marginal cost. But I'll pause there though. Last night when I was checking this, I just googled what actually a piece of paper costs now. It's 2.5p. That's makes you stop doesn't it because that's an old tanner. However with a bit of imagination, a bit of encouragement, a bit of mentoring you can actually grow a huge business from actually intellectual neurons flying round your brain and that's what you need. And that's what Capital of Culture's done for Liverpool. It's built a confidence and vibrancy back into the population. You can sense it. You can feel it when you're walking round.
So, what should we really invest in? Well the answer to that is obviously people. How do we do that? I would say we do it through culture. I'm just waiting for this slide so I can think what I'm going to say. So, some of the culture projects. The Creative Communities Project is really interesting because this really underpins what's actually happened in Liverpool. It's actually really easy and it's easy for me to stand here and say it, to do things like bring Simon Rattle with the Phil, to actually bring the Spider, to actually organise the Talls Ships thing. All you do is phone the professionals and give them a cheque and they do it. But to build the confidence, to build the talent base, to build the skill you need to invest in your creative communities and this is what we've been doing right throughout the year and we will continue to do later. Why? Because this is what it's all about. Culture actually creates the confidence, the culture creates the floor, it actually brings people to the places, people arrive with cash in their pockets and cash of course is the fuel of the regeneration engine. So remember that 0.25 that went up to 2.5 billion and when we think to 2009 which is going to be Liverpool's Year of Environment and Sustainability, that 2.5 will become zero because there's something else I've learnt from Bryan, never buy paper, just use other papers and print on the back! And that become 2.5 billion with a little imagination. Now, the City's had three ages. It had the first age which was commerce not culture. It's when the port started to develop and it was just a drive to kind of grow, prospect, conquer the world, become that second city of empire which 50% of the world's trade flowed through. It then went through that and when it actually became that very wealthy place and our forefathers started to describe themselves as the Second Rome. However, the commerce then created the philanthropic investment within culture with people like Roscoe and Tate and all the rest of them. And we've been building on that and I think we're now getting to the third age which is commerce from culture. Because that's what we've actually got within the city. We've got a lot of people with a very bright imagination and I'm not going to do any scouser jokes but it goes right across the spectrum and it all comes from two things. It comes from being an import/export occupation where you're at the centre and not thinking on the periphery of everything and the way to survive is to skim, is to take the percentage as they go through. As that got bigger, then people wanted protection through the unionism and the rights and the social justice and that's where you get the tension within the city. Very imaginative. No respect for authority. Wants to go in every new direction it can find. At the same time it wants that human dignity and respect and social justice. Oh la (?) it actually wraps up into what culture is. Oh la is what we can drive as part of the creative future for the place. So, you know, from Lambananas and Rafa Benitez there, quite interesting ‌ when we did the charity auction, someone bought the Rafa Banana and then threw it back! And there's our Spider bringing people back into the city again. (?words inaudible) our fireworks. But the future is really sort of getting everybody to engage in culture. And that's it from me. Beyond 08, the story will continue and I think I've just about made it because Jim's coming into the wings to wind me up, so you can now go and have coffee. I should warn you, before you get your coffee go and find somewhere where you can get a mobile phone signal because the BT Convention Centre is the most eco-building in the UK, it is also the pioneering core for social responsibility. British Telecom got to the fact that they realise, even as a telecommunications centre, people need peace, quiet and silence so you can't get a signal here! Thank you.