Creativity drives productivity and innovation
Our collective experience suggests that being creative drives new ways of being productive and delivers new enterprise and innovation within and beyond the creative and digital sectors. Creativity is found to enable mental health in a similar way to sports enabling physical health.
A clearer understanding of those tech/digital businesses that act as enablers for innovation across all sectors is required. Al & Data has been identified by Government as one of the first grand challenges because it is having, and will continue to have, such a significant impact on every aspect of our lives. At a regional level there is immense opportunity to adapt to, and embrace, these technologies, encouraging those that have a potential positive impact whilst being aware that not all Al and Data delivers One Day and some undermines it.
Finally the educate piece is across the board - from schools to public services to commercial entities. We see this education as part of the infrastructure which, along with infrastructure and application, needs planning and acting on now. In a digital world, it is is content, not cabling, that creates value and so a focus on the physical infrastructure whilst ignoring the regions ability to develop applications and content, will equate to us all having a fancy video recorder we don’t know how to use.
Language is important. Evidence shared at our one-day event suggested that a city region technology innovation project was attracting 80% men and 20% women until the word digital was replaced by creative. The programme subsequently attracted 60% of applications led by women and 40% by men. Generally, for women the usefulness of technology to deliver a project or solve a problem appeared most important, whilst for men the technology itself was of more interest.
At present women make up just 22% of all Al professionals of which only 16% are designers with few women in senior roles. Gender bias is being hardwired into Al and algorithms and increases gender and other inequalities. Investment in Al that does not also address gender inequalities is at risk of further excluding women and other groups and decreasing potential for productivity.
The Creative and Digital sector has a significant skills shortage. According to the CBI (2019), Accenture (2018) and the Government’s report on Current and Future Demand for Digital Skills in the Workplace (2019) the lack of digital skills now jeopardises the UK’s economic strategy. By closing the gender gap and accessing women to digital technologies the regions technological skills shortage can be resolved. Innovate Her, a regional exemplar, is well placed to develop and deliver a program to address that challenge.
