At A Glance: Leeds Creative Hubs

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With one of the fastest growing creative scenes in the UK, Leeds is quickly becoming a hotbed for digital tech and innovation.

For our latest blog, we take a look at the various creative clusters available to entrepreneurs and small businesses based in this Northern region.

Test Space Hub

Test space is a pioneering hub in the city, it offers companies from all creative sectors to come together and work in an enriching environment, based in the heart of Leeds. The space aims to provide for all types of creativity, it offers event and office space along with artist workshops and gallery opportunities. The creative hub takes inspiration from similar studios across the country including the Custard Factory in Birmingham along with other hubs from our blogs. The low costs of the hub allows small and medium sized companies to establish themselves, turning finance inward to invest in development.

Digital Hub

Leeds Beckett University and the Yorkshire Post have partnered to provide the Digital Hub, which allows creative and digital businesses an office space in the city centre. Apart from the discounted cost and ideal office location, the hub is open to freelancers looking to hot desk as well as SMEs. The space also includes opportunities through its host the Yorkshire Post such as on-site support, business development and PR. The community of creative and digital companies opens itself to almost endless opportunities for collaboration and partnerships. With mentoring and around the clock access, Leeds’ Digital Hub provides a lot to its clients for a competitive fee, allowing businesses to spend more on growth and development.

Leeds Innovation Centre

The science park is home to the Leeds Innovation Centre Limited, which was established by the University of Leeds. The space offers a combination of laboratory and office space and brings together university connections with other organisations in a hot bed for technology development. Based on the outskirts of the city, the centre offers ample space for clients and good links to both the airport and motorway. The centre is already home to some innovative businesses including Connect Yorkshire and Medisoft. Offices can be accessed around the clock so contact with clients from around the world should be no issue.

Leeds Tech Hub

The hub is a series of events that bring together the creative communities in and around Leeds.  Creatives meet once or twice a month and invite a group of industry leaders to speak at each event. The event gives attendees the opportunity to network and possibly collaborate with similar SMEs on unique projects. Recently the hub has arranged a new series of events for mobile developers to give local developers a platform to gather and share knowledge amongst themselves.

Creative Industries Hub
The specific hub has a simple yet powerful mantra, ‘To ensure we improve creative professionals’ skills, careers, businesses and knowledge and add value every time.’ The Creative Industries Hub is a unique space that aims to help individuals and companies in the music, fashion, film and art industries. The hub was set up by George Taylor, also known for his establishment of ‘Strictly Go Networking’. For companies that are looking to further themselves and their company, the Creative Industry Hub is a mentor and supporter that is enthusiastic and willing to promote businesses in the creative industries.

Sky Technology hub

As part of Sky’s dedication to the UK’s development, they are currently building a new technology hub in Leeds. The project is to create over four hundred jobs and will be focused on the design and development of the company’s new websites and apps. The new centre will be located at the Allied London’s Leeds Dock and as part of the expansion of the new hub; Sky will be opening a software engineering academy in the city centre, offering students an industry education to work on live projects. The expansion of Sky to the city reinforces Leeds hold as one of the biggest tech development cities in the UK.

Leeds offers a wide variety of hubs and spaces for businesses to grow and develop, and with its future supported by some of the UK fastest growing businesses, Leeds is here to stay.

We look at the some of the digital hubs from creative cities across England including ManchesterNewcastleand Birmingham.

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