1. A tale of digital disruption
www.watershed.co.uk
1999: 155Mb fibre begins to unlock the creative potential
2. Growing the Network through Trusting the Participants
2002 create www.DShed.net as shared publishing space
3. We become a cultural connector
artists, creative business, audiences, universities, technology companies…
Image from A Personal History of Corruption by Joe Magee
The network of participants grows exponentially
but this leads to complex issues of organisational identity.
Who creates the permissions?
4. Audiences tell us that
It feels relaxing & stimulating, familiar & risky,
entertaining & intellectual
above all a creative mix of events, activities & people
‘If it didn’t exist it would be necessary to invent it’
2006 : we shift focus to experience not just product
5. At last language which talks about what we have been doing
2007 Creative Britain
Watershed is a prime example of a highly connected, flexible,
porous piece of cultural and creative infrastructure. Watershed
is more than just an arts cinema. It is at once a cultural centre,
a business broker, a social networker, a research and
innovation facility, a café/bar, and a cultural tourist attraction.
This is because it has developed organically over the years to
become totally embedded in place.
2008 OfCom
Critical to Watershed’s core mission and to its subsequent
success is a commitment to putting the ‘user’, ‘audience’ or
‘market’ at the heart of its programming.
7. Navigating the dilemma between money & meaning
International Futures Forum research
We are most interested in collisions of experience and cultures, to create
something new. A laboratory for experiment, risk and disruption. We are a
router and amplifier of cultural ideas, creativity and technology.
8. Making Money £3.7m in 2011
custodians, not managers, of a shared cultural space
9. Making Meaning
Building relationships through cultural dialogue
Visitor experience – Bristol
Audience engagement - Region & Global
Talent development – National
10. Doing things with people not for people
Social space at the Heart of Connectivity and Innovation
Communicating and sharing our values
Ambitious, Connected, Curious
Generous and Open
Local and Global
11. Our Logic Model
SOCIETY Build relationships
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Production Participation Potential
Making Meaning Co-creating Public
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CULTURAL VALUE CREATIVE MULTI-
CONSTELLATION ECONOMY ECONOMY
13. the best small city of the future is Bristol in the UK, scoring
particularly well in the business friendliness category, due in part to
its concentrated high-tech and knowledge-based sectors
fDi Intelligence 2012
Be Authentic - Stay Relevant
