Get Ready to Innovate with Northumbria University’s Creative Fuse Team

As part of Creative Fuse North East, Northumbria University’s design innovation team is launching two new innovation support programmes: one for clothing and textiles organisations; the other for DJs and musicians.

Small businesses and sole traders are being invited to take part in two new, fully-funded, action-packed workshop programmes to help recognise and realise their innovation potential.

At the start of the programmes, each participating organisation or individual will be matched with their own personal team of expert facilitators who will guide them through the process and tailor the experience to their specific needs. Working closely with their team, the facilitators will use a mix of high-energy creative activities to gently challenge current thinking and generate ideas for new ways to create value and achieve goals.

The interactive, design-led innovation approach offers participants a fresh perspective on their business opportunities and challenges. Those who take part in the programmes will gain hands-on experience of new ways of working to spark ideas for new services and products, or new ways of thinking about the future of their businesses.

Each programme consists of three 3-hour workshop sessions and a one-to-one follow-up session at the Northern Design Centre, Gateshead.

‘Get Ready to Innovate: Clothing and Textiles’

• Session 1: 16th April;
• Session 2: 19th April;
• Session 3: 30th April;
• 1-2-1 review session: May-June (date to be agreed with each participating organisation)

Find out more and book now

‘Get Ready to Innovate: DJs and Musicians’

• Session 1: 17th April;
• Session 2: 20th April;
• Session 3: 1st May;
• 1-2-1 review session: May-June (date to be agreed with each participating organisation)

Find out more and book now

These two new programmes are part of ‘Get Ready to Innovate’: a series of design-led creative sessions that help organisations and individuals to explore opportunities for innovation and growth.

One previous ‘Get Ready to Innovate’ participant commented: “I have so many ideas I now want to apply to my business, in order to grow and make a huge impact. I would definitely recommend this to any business wanting to make an impact in any way, shape or form.”

Another said: “I wanted to let you all know how much we valued the work you did. We have changed our process approach radically already. Thanks for all your support over the last few weeks. I feel we have taken a jump forwards and it’s down to both the program you took us through and the gently challenging manner you all adopted.”

Running until October 2018, Creative Fuse is a multi-disciplinary, multi stakeholder action research project which explores the social, economic and innovation value of the Creative Digital and IT (CDIT) sector in the region. Alongside this research strand, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Arts Council England and European Regional Development Funds are being used to support direct engagement with creative freelancers and SMEs in the sector, developing innovative collaborations and approaches and promoting economic growth.

Creative Fuse aims to encourage businesses to share best practice and adopt new innovative working practices to help the creative, digital and IT sector become more resilient and encourage growth, creating more and better jobs for the region. The project also looks at how skills in the creative, digital and tech sector can be used to stimulate innovation in many of the region’s other key sectors.

To find out more about Get Ready to Innovate or enquire about future sessions, please contact northumbria@creativefusene.org.uk. We welcome enquiries from all sectors, not just those discussed above.

Below is a short film providing more information about the approach to innovation within Northumbria University’s Creative Fuse team.

Creative Fuse: Get Ready to Innovate at Northumbria from Creative Fuse North East on Vimeo.