Inspiral - What's new

Inspiral inspires awards success

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 16:33:29 +0000

Two Inspiral clients were honoured at the inaugural Sheffield Telegraph Environment Awards in October.

Sustainable Building Solutions; part of the High Growth Start-Up programme, won the Innovation award for their energy-saving builders’ products.

Another high growth client, Bag It Don’t Bin It, was a runner-up in the same category. The eco-business produces cotton and jute branded shopping bags with the aim of getting people to stop using harmful plastic bags.

“We’re really proud of the achievements of Sustainable Building Solutions and Bag It Don’t Bin It,” says Inspiral’s enterprise advisor Chris Baker. “Hopefully they will inspire more of our high growth clients to enter awards, to achieve the wider recognition they deserve.”

Inspiral secures nationwide NESTA contract

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 16:34:12 +0000

Inspiral has won a competitive tender to manage a nationwide programme of business support on behalf of NESTA [National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts].

The contract, which runs until June 2010, will see Inspiral provide mentoring and guidance to 38 creative businesses across the UK.

The businesses are part of NESTA’s Creative Pioneer Team, formerly the Creative Pioneer Programme, which was set up to help creative businesses take their ideas to market.

NESTA’s Creative Pioneer Team members were chosen through open competition and selection, an 11-month residential training course and a further competitive process.

Once selected, the 38 businesses were awarded a £35,000 grant to turn their business dreams into reality. Inspiral will now help the Creative Pioneer Team entrepreneurs to develop their businesses to the next stage.

“We chose Inspiral to manage our Creative Pioneer portfolio because of their proven track record of delivering specialist business support to the Creative and Digital Industries, their enthusiasm and complete professionalism,” says Jackie McKenzie, acting head of NESTA’s Creative Pioneer team.

“We are delighted to be working with NESTA on this project,” says Inspiral’s business development director Grant Keir. “As the country’s leading supplier of specialist business support to the creative industries, we can make a real difference to the progress of the Creative Pioneer Team. Our aim is quite simply to ensure that all 38 businesses are hugely successful.”

Inspiral research disruptive innovation

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:40:19 +0000

The success of Inspiral's business mentoring is fast gathering pace and we've gained a well-deserved reputation for recognising the potential of creative content and digital business ideas that might have gone unnoticed by more ‘generic' business support agencies.

This emphasis on innovative business models has resulted in Inspiral carrying out an original research project specially commissioned by Creative Sheffield on the positive impact of ‘disruptive innovation' on the City-Region.

What can we learn from disruptive innovators like eBay and iTunes - does it happen by accident or design? What does it take to accelerate innovation?

The research report will be released at a special launch event hosted by NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) in London.

Our customers and what we do for them

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:27:39 +0000

Our customers are national organisations such as Business Link, Channel 4 Talent, Skillset and NESTA, Regional Development Agencies such as Yorkshire Forward and City-Region Development Companies such as Creative Sheffield. They recognise the vital role that the CDI can play in growing the UK economy, and that CDI businesses need specialist business support to help them enter and survive in fast moving and disruptive markets.

To help our customers grow businesses in the Creative and Digital Industries sector we offer:

- Consulting
- Business support program design
- Business support delivery
- Networking