10 February 2021

Launching The BradfordNetwork

Bradford City Hall
Author Curtis Malonowski Licence CC BY-SA 3.0 Source Wikipedia, Bradford
 












Jane Lambert

On 9 Feb 2021, I launched the BradfordNetwork with an online talk entitled What every Business in Bradford needs to know about Intellectual PropertyBecause of the public health emergency, the network used Webanywhere Ltd's conferencing platform eventanywhere.  I was introduced by Steve Ding who is Head of Global Talent at Webanywhere.  I have known Steve for many years. When I first made his acquaintance, he was Chief Executive of Bmedi@.

Bmedi@ was the forum for much of the creative sector in West Yorkshire and later West and South Yorkshire.  It had a very diverse membership ranging from brand consultants to web designers. It included some of the brightest, most enterprising and talented individuals I have ever met.   Bmedi@ offered a wide range of services but the high points for me were the Third Thursday meetings at the Bradford Business and Innovation Centre with speakers from business, government and the universities on everything from 3D printing to Web 2.0.   Later Bmedi@ held monthly breakfast meetings at Barnsley Business and Innovation Centres at Wilthorpe and Cudworth and at the Digital Media Centre in Barnsley town centre, 

Although Bradford is overshadowed to a certain extent by Leeds it has a lot going for it.  Its university offered one of the first computer science degree courses in the United Kingdom and its School of Management is one of the country's oldest business schools.  The National Science and Media Museum is linked to the Science Museum in London, the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester and the National Railway Museum in York.  It has a very young population and many of its residents have come from outside the UK.  Some of them have founded businesses which have become household names around the world.

Third Thursday worked well because the discussions took place over wine, pizza and Bombay mix. Obviously, we could not do any of that online but the platform has a breakout facility called the "exhibition hall" which is the next best thing.  Each breakout space (called a "table") has space for up to 4 occupants.  I went to the nearest table and was joined by Steve Ding, Alison Orr of Inngot and Robin Cramp of the Screen Industry Growth Network.

In our brief conversation, Steve outlined his hopes for the network.  Bmedi@ disbanded in 2011. It is still missed by many of its members. With the economy in deep recession, the need for the services that Bmedi@ used to offer has never been greater. Though it will be necessary to hold online meetings for the next few weeks Steve hopes eventually to have live meetings in a lecture room with pizza, wine and Bombay mix. I am very happy to help make that happen.

Among the services that Bmedi@ offered were patent clinics in Bradford and Barnsley,   I have never stopped holding monthly clinics on the second Tuesday of every month at the Barnsley Business Village in Wilthorpe. I should be very happy to revive the Bradford clinic.  Having held its first meeting, the BradfrodNetwork needs to announce a second in the next few days. After that, a constitution should be adopted and a committee elected.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article should call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.