Stow College gives start-up businesses a boost with incubator hubs
Published by Anne Marie Hughes on Wed 27 Jun 12 @ 17:36
David Hughes, Head of Creative Industries at Stow College.
A pioneering partnership designed to help small digital businesses through the tough economic climate has been launched at Stow College.
The istart@Stow project will provide businesses - primarily working in sound and music - with facilities and expertise to help them get their fledgling enterprises off the ground.
As well as rent-free office space, businesses will be able to tap-in to the resources and skills available at Stow College, which has a wide variety of courses and teaching staff focussing on the digital sector.
The initiative has been created in a strategic partnership between Digital Enterprise Glasgow (DEG), Glasgow City Council and Stow College and is targeted specifically at early stage, growth-oriented companies.
David Hughes, Head of Creative Industries at Stow College, said: "Glasgow is internationally recognised as a UNESCO City of Music. We have some of the best talent in the world and as we now enter a digital era that presents great new opportunities for start-up businesses. As a provider of music education, it's incumbent on us at Stow College to work with young entrepreneurial talent and develop an already booming creative sector in the city."
Two local businesses will be the first to benefit from istart@Stow - TLG Magazine, which is the UK's first underground music magazine aimed at women, and AV9 Ltd. The firm specialises in the development and promotion of the Japanese music industry in the international market.
AV9 C.E.O, Grahame Smith, commented: "Our business really got started three years ago but it's taken a lot of time to build relationships and get the necessary backing and legal framework behind us. Now that we're ready to go we're delighted to have access to Stow College's great facilities and support network. The Japanese music industry is the second largest in the world and we're confident that we can gain international exposure in markets such as Europe. We're also hoping to tap in to the skills here at Stow College by working on future projects with some of the talented students that study here."
A cluster of incubator hubs have already been launched for other sectors in the city with 26 businesses currently benefiting from the service.
Glasgow City Council's Executive Member for Business and the Economy, Baillie Liz Cameron, added: "This is now the fifth incubator hub to be launched in Glasgow and I'm thrilled. It's hugely important to develop new businesses in the city and I believe today's launch ticks all the right boxes. We recently launched an incubator hub at Cardonald College, which focussed on the fashion sector, and it's been a huge success. At Glasgow City Council we're advocating more and more partnerships with education and enterprise, particularly in the digital and creative sectors. These are industries that have earned Glasgow an excellent international reputation and I'm proud to play a role in their development."
