On Tuesday 11 July Invest Newcastle hosted a key strategic event at Campus North examining how landlords and property developers can ensure the city is delivering the right commercial office space to meet the needs of its growing digital tech sector.
The Tech Workspace Showcase: Focus on Newcastle, featured expert speakers including Adam Serfontein from Hanro, Tristan Watson from Campus North, Steve Pette from London-based Central Working as well as Stephen Coleman from Codebase – The UK’s largest tech incubator based in Edinburgh.
The interactive event discussed how open and collaborative hubs could pave the way for sector growth locally, and was organised by Invest Newcastle in partnership with Newcastle City Council following a piece of Council research which recommended a minimum of 274,000sqft of commercial office space would be needed to facilitate the growth of the local tech sector.
Ciara Small, Senior Investment Manager at Invest Newcastle, said: “It’s really important that property available across the city is fit to attract and house new and established tech companies to ensure Newcastle remains a leading digital city in the UK. The event brought together key personnel in the Council with the private sector to properly understand and address challenges to the creation of ‘the right kind of space’ for tech companies.
“We saw some great debate and ideas with discussion around everything from flexible terms to accommodate fluctuating growth to links to investment funds and digital connectivity.”
Additional activity is planned to take forward the discussions started at the event with a core working group developing a range of initiatives for the public and private sectors to drive forward.
ENDS.