In a paper for NESTA (What’s App?) David Rowan, the editor of Wired magazine highlights the rapid increase in the potential customer base for mobile apps: “in Western Europe, 3G mobile penetration has risen from 17 per cent in 2007 to 29 per cent in 2009 and is forecast to reach 67 per cent in 2011; in Japan it is already 91 per cent.” In fact, total shipments of smartphones are forecast to be c230M in 2010, with Western Europe accounting for 20% of these.

A paper by Mediateque for the BBC, taking a broad view of the app economy, translates that device penetration into potential economic impacts: “There is large variation in revenue outputs among the various forecasts, although unsurprisingly the general consensus is one of significant market growth. These consensus forecasts suggest that total worldwide apps revenue will reach somewhere in the region of $15-20bn by 2013/14; this compares to total apps revenue of less than $5bn currently.” At the top end of that range Gartner estimates that total apps revenue will reach $30bn by 2013, with advertising revenues contributing $6.5bn of this amount.

Now in its third year Vodafone has launched Mobile Clicks 2010, a competition to identify and reward innovative mobile starts ups. Open to businesses across the Netherlands, UK and Portugal a total of €150,000 is available for investment into two projects – the call for applications closes August 22^nd.

The packed event introduced by Sam Michel from Chinwag, features Bill Thompson, Digital Planet presenter and Internet Veteran, with detailed information from the TSB’s Maurizio Pilu and a case study from TSB-funded project, MirriAd.

Check out the stream at: http://creativeindustriesktn.org/live/

More than 150 organisations gave swift elevator pitches about their business, the problem they were using technology to solve and the feasibility study they had carried out and what it aimed to achieve. They also explained what they needed to do next to get closer to a marketable product and the sort of people they were looking to work with.

It really was great idea after great idea and you can download the directory of the organisations who took part and get a flavour of the work they are doing and the great ideas they have. And most importantly their contact details if you would like to talk to them about collaboration.

This was just one of the suggestions that came out of the final workshop in the Unlocking Knowledge Transfer Beacon Project in Oxford today. The idea came out of a discussion about companies, particularly SMEs wanting to protect ideas but at the same time wanting to share the idea with other people who may have a valuable contribution to make.

It was one of a host of ideas that prompted a lively discussion.

Led by Prospect, the workshop brought together people from a wide range of businesses and academia to share their thoughts on how KT can be used to drive value for creative businesses.

The spread of people taking part produced a spread of ideas and suggestions around a number of scenarios. Prospect will now take all the material from the workshop to feed into the final report.

One thing that was clear however was that everyone felt KT offered a powerful tool for creative businesses. The next stage is to see how KT can be harnessed over the next five to seven years and what needs to be done to make it happen.

The scenarios report and baseline report are available on our web site where you can spark off discussions or share your experiences.

The final report will be published next month.

Manchester has a great history as a business and industrial centre but more importantly it has some really exciting developments going on at present and is recognized globally as leading city for creative businesses.

So we were delighted to have the opportunity to talk about the Creative Industries KTN and the Digital Beacon projects. There is no doubt that Manchester “gets” the importance of digital technology to creative businesses and the shows presenter Richard Stead was keen to understand what our work would mean for Manchester businesses.

The programme also has a team of “volunteer presenters” who come from local businesses who join the BBC presenter each week. They bring a voice from the front-line of business that gives the show an interesting perspective.

You can hear the interview here:

John Cass on the Future of Digital Content – BBC Radio Manchester Business

The panel debating this idea included Peter Cochrane, ex-BT and now running Cochrane Associates and writer and broadcaster Bill Thompson. Both touched on the role of the Internet in creating or preserving a free society.

Peter touched on the idea that freedom fuels creativity and the importance of using technology and rewarding organisations that enable people to be free. Bill talked that one of the greatest challenges we face is how the network will mature and how it becomes something that is at the very heart of freedom in our society.

One of the key planks of a free society is a free press and the journalists that produce material for it. This is an industry that is under great pressure from the online world that the Internet has made possible and there was a feeling that the “old” forms of journalism where dying and the only question was how would new forms of journalism developed and what will they look like.

One other idea that Peter through out was that the Internet will become sentient and live. Now that’s an interesting thought.

We are working with Prospect Design on this project and they outlined how the project will run, this will include other baseline workshops and an online survey. The aim of this initial stage is to understand what drives Knowledge Transfer and innovation in the creative industries and what is the context in which KT takes place.
The starting point for this workshop was to break those attending up into groups to explore six themes and discuss the impact of these on KT and possible constraints.

The six themes are:
1. What do we mean by KT?
2. How does KT work for the creative industries?
3. The impact of technology on knowledge sharing
4. Demographic and people issues, the language of KT
5. The role of Intellectual Property?
6. Money and metrics.

All of the discussion where very lively with great input from people. Prospect will now take this information away to begin building the baseline picture.

We will have regular updates on the project, how its developing, plus contributions from Beacon members on our website creativeindustriesktn. We will also be announcing how to get involved in our survey in the near future.

Speaking at Innovate 09 Lord Mandelson said as a nation we need to get past the idea that innovation comes from a “cappuccino drinking creative class.” He told the audience that innovation was something that everyone needed to take a stake in. It was not the preserve of a “layer of people called creative’s who sit around eating gourmet sandwiches and sparking good ideas.” He wants to see innovation coming from a wider pool of people.

So the real question is, what are the best sandwiches to spark innovative ideas and is there a direct link between cappuccino and innovation?

At Innovate Lord Sugar – famous for telling people they are fired – told the audience that entrepreneur was a title that others gave to you and not one that you should use to describe yourself. But he did add that since he took on his new government role he had met quite a few good up-and-coming business people.

A session on Digital Britain did bring two successful entrepreneurs to the stage. Anthony Lilley, chief executive of Magic Lantern Productions and Sara Murray, founder and MD of Buddie and a member of the advisory board of Seedcamp , a micros seed fund. Both faced the question: “why don’t we have more entrepreneurs?”

Anthony suggested that what we need is an environment in which kids where as likely to grow up wanting to be Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, as a rock star like Justin Timberlake. Sara suggested that as a country we are still not as proud of entrepreneurs as some other nations.

She also raised the question of how available funding is for small start-ups, suggesting that when businesses need funding in their very early stages it was often difficult to find. She said this was a gap that Seedcamp helped fill but also suggested that the UK needed a network of angles that would support people with good ideas.

This was theme that Lord Mandelson, took up when he gave the keynote address. He echoed what Sara had said about early stage funding, telling the audience the UK’s financial markets had under delivered in supporting start-ups and that risk aversion must not stifle the growth of innovation in the UK. He added that the government is helping create a fund that he hopes will help tackle this problem.
He was quick to add that investment professionals and not politicians or civil servants would manage this.

So are we on the brink of a new wave of entrepreneurs? Perhaps the problem is that we get too hung up on the idea that you have to be Richard Branson or James Dyson, or Larry and Sergey, to count as an entrepreneur. The UK has many successful businesses, albeit on a small scale than Virgin or Google, which are profitable, innovative and create jobs. This is particularly true in the creative industries.

So lets not be afraid to use the word entrepreneur about the people running these businesses. They might not become as high profile as Justin Timberlake but it might make us realise just how entrepreneurial the UK is.

We have had a great response to the launch of our Beacons for Innovation report, which you can read at creativindustriesktn.org

The report sets out the 14 Beacon Projects that we will carry out over the next two years. These tackle some of the big challenges being faced by the creative industries and will bring people together to share ideas and shape the future.

The creative industries span 13 sectors including architecture, design, fashion, advertising, TV, film, music, publishing and video games. We will be working with people from all 13 sectors plus those from organisations that develop technology, academics and policy makers. to accelerate innovation.

Three Beacons have been launched. The first two will tackle the future of digital content, looking at how people will experience it and how it will be distributed. The third Beacon looks at creative industries and Knowledge Transfer and will particularly focus on how the creative industries can fully exploit KT.

The creativeindustriesktn.org site is at the heart of this work, building communities around each Beacon. We will be staging workshops and other events around the UK as well as driving debate and discussion on the social networking site.

Becoming a member is free and means people can meet other innovators, connect with funding opportunities and help organisations imagine and develop successful ideas.

We will be providing updates on our plans and activities but want everyone who is passionate about innovation to get involved by registering at creativeindustriesktn.org.