impact report 2019 - newcastle startup week · now in its’ third year, newcastle startup week is...

newcastlestartupweek.com

IMPACT REPORT 2019

Now in its’ third year, Newcastle Startup Week is an annual five-day (and night) festival that takes place in multiple venues across Newcastle and Gateshead in May. Our 2017 and 2018 events both attracted more than 600 delegates each from across the UK, Europe, USA and Asia and at the time of writing, our third event on May 13-17 2019 will be even bigger! Year 1 was all about shining a light on all the great entrepreneurs, businesses and support networks available for new and growing businesses in our region. I wanted to create a platform where people could come together and find all the best help, advice and funding in one place – giving them in five days what it would normally take them five months or even five years to find on their own. Year 2 was about repeating and refining the event, and trying to attract more people from outside the region (including 33 people from Manchester and 25 from London). This year, although the primary focus is on helping more people start and grow a business in the North East, we also want to give the event more of a national and international focus and have been building bridges with and tapping into other startup communities around the world. In particular I think there’s a huge opportunity for the North East of England to connect to the South East of Scotland and have been making regular trips there to encourage more exchanges and collaboration. A great example of this is Edinburgh-based FreeAgent (voted the UK’s no.1 accounting software for small businesses), which has come onboard as our new Headline Sponsor this year.

02 0313-17 May 2019newcastlestartupweek.com

WHY THIS MATTERS


Although we have many examples of how the event has helped people start or grow a business or project, I wanted to get a better understanding of what meaningful impact it has had on people, businesses, the city and region. To do this, I worked with the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS) through Newcastle University’s ‘Arrow’ project which has led to this ‘Impact Report’. I’m pleased to say the findings are extremely positive and although beneficial to businesses, the biggest impact of Newcastle Startup Week seems to be on the people themselves and their perception of our region with 80% feeling more motivated or inspired and 75% more likely to say Newcastle/the North East has a vibrant business community. If we can encourage more people to attend events like this from every part of our region, the positive impact on our local communities, villages, towns and cities could be enormous.

This year’s festival will also have more speakers and delegates from Scotland, the Nordics, Canada, China, India and Pakistan so the opportunities for national and international growth are there if people want them. We’ve had huge support from the North East business community from the very beginning, which I’m eternally grateful for. To go from a standing start to 600+ delegates in year one and again in year two would have been impossible without the support from our past and present sponsors who have enabled us to keep our ticket prices as low as possible.

Myth 01: Newcastle Startup Week is just for young males in the tech industry.

Last year more than 40% of the people who attended Newcastle Startup Week were female. Nearly 75% of NSW attendees were over 30 and almost 40% were over 40 and only about a fifth of people who attended were from the tech, digital and IT industries.

Myth 02: Newcastle Startup Week is just for people in Newcastle.

Less than 40% of last years attendees were from Newcastle. NSW has a reach that goes beyond the boundaries of the region and even the UK.

Myth 03: Newcastle Startup Week is just for startups.

Just 16% of people who attended last year were in the process of starting a business and over 20% have been running their business for more than three years.

Myth 04: Newcastle Startup Week is only for freelancers & micro businesses.

More than half of last years Newcastle Startup Week attendees had a business that employed one or more people and of those, 30% employ more than ten people.


AFTER THREE YEARS WE THINK IT’S TIME TO DEBUNK SOME MYTHS ABOUT NEWCASTLE STARTUP WEEK.


Last year a handful of staff and Gateshead College students attended Newcastle Startup Week with the sole intention of inspiring the next generation of startup entrepreneurs.

Gateshead College’s whole purpose is for its students to be the most highly prized in the jobs market. They describe what we do as giving them an “employment edge” and that’s not just giving them the qualifications, but also the skills need to succeed in work. And for a lot of our younger people; who knows what those jobs will be in the future? So those transferable skills and insight spoken about at NSW are really important.

Students have already attended a number of warm-up events in the weeks building up to this years Newcastle Startup Week and they’re already coming away with ideas. Staff can already see them building in confidence. Newcastle Startup Week was conceived for many different reasons but one of the most important is inspiration. We want to inspire people to follow their passion or business idea and give them the insight, knowledge and support to make it happen.

INSPIRING THE NEXT GENERATION

“ Finding opportunities to link up with somebody like NSW really allows us to deliver that promise, it exposes students to businesses, to industry, to role models who faced various challenges and overcome them. They leave feeling inspired and they can apply that to projects or experience as part of their qualification”Debra Murphy, Gateshead College


This year Sintons are growing with momentum and building a great profile within the region. They are also shouting from the rooftops about the work they do supporting startups. So partnering with NSW was an absolute no brainer. Lucy Described her first experience of NSW as ‘fantastic’ and she was blown away by the number of people who attended. She saw a lot of familiar faces at the event from the contacts she had at Universities and the regions business community. She was surprised to see such a diverse range of businesses in one place and the networking potential it could bring to any business. Newcastle Startup Week offers businesses a chance to build an instant network, both in and outside of the region and this is something we are really proud of. These connections with other like-minded people and businesses can help elevate, define and inspire everyone who attends the event.

Lucy Carlin is a lawyer specialising in startup businesses. Lucy works for Sintons, a full-service law firm based in Newcastle upon Tyne. She first attended Newcastle Startup Week for the first time last year and thought the buzz was amazing. Since then, Sintons has come onboard as a ‘Premium Sponsor’ of NSW 2019 and our monthly Founders’ Friday events which we launched in July 2018 too!

A NETWORK OF POTENTIAL

“ You’ve got lots of groups and lots of great stuff going on. But without knowing much about each other, and this is a great opportunity to bring it all together under one roof. I think that really needed to be done, and I am so glad that the team has done that.Lucy Carlin, Sintons


THE NUMBERSHeadlines from survey findings (conducted in February 2019 and answered by 76 people who had attended one or both NSWs)

Existing businesses were more likely to find new customers/markets, meet collaborators or organisations that can help. These were also least likely to say NSW had no impact (= most likely to say it did). Startups were more likely to say they improved their business plan.

Almost half those not currently thinking about or in the process of starting a business said as a result of NSW they were more likely to start one in the future.

Found new collaborators or partners

Met organisations that can help their business

Found new customers or markets

Improved their business plan or strategy

Business impact

40%

28% 20%

33%

As a result of attending Newcastle Startup Week:

People running a business were more likely to make contacts and feel more confident. People starting up were more likely to feel motivated. People not starting or thinking about starting were more likely to gain new knowledge or insights.

Personal Impact

Made valuable new contacts

Gained new knowledge or insights

Felt more motivated or inspired

Felt more confident

75% 80% 61%82%

People who were in the process of starting or had not yet started were even more strongly positive. We assume people already running businesses know this, so it’s a great platform to showcase the region to new/emerging businesses

Regional Impact

were more likely to think Newcastle/North East is a good place to start a business.

were more likely to think Newcastle/North East is a good place to grow a business

were more likely to think Newcastle/North East has a vibrant business community

were more likely to think there is good support for business in Newcastle/North East

People who attended four or more days were more likely to report a positive impact on them, their business and their attitude to the region as a good place to start and grow a business. They were also more likely to attend again and to recommend NSW to others. People who attend one day had the least positive response on almost every question.

Newcastle Startup Week Experience

attended both day and evening events.

attended three or more days.

54%

60%

66%

60%

75%

50%

Cindy started Vorsdatter Limited, in Newcastle, after attending the first Newcastle Startup Week festival in May 2017. Vorsdatter Limited creates digital wellness solutions and their first solution is an app, mySysters, that helps women experiencing perimenopause symptoms. Perimenopause is the time before menopause when a woman’s body gradually produces less oestrogen, possibly leading to hot flashes, night sweats, migraines, joint pain, anxiety and other symptoms. Coming to the North East gave Cindy and her team access to a tech startup ecosystem not available in the States. There isn’t much of a startup community in Minnesota, or in the US, especially for people who aren’t fresh out of college. Two years ago Cindy hadn’t even heard of Newcastle. After stumbling on a 2012 blog post titled ‘Why tech startups (and giants) should leave London (and move to Newcastle)’, she came to the first Newcastle Startup Week festival in May 2017. A few weeks later she transferred her company here. Cindy now has key partners in Sunderland Software City, Blu Sky Chartered Accountants and Muckle as a direct result of Newcastle Startup Week, plus connections in Newcastle, Durham, Darlington and all across the region.

Minnesota-based Cindy Moy Carr attended Newcastle Startup Week in May 2017 and found a close-knit and collaborative atmosphere that validated her business ideas before registering a company.

“ Right now we live in Minneapolis and travel to the UK every few weeks. We like Newcastle and the surrounding North East area very much and would like to become a permanent part of the North East business community.”

CREATING INTERNATIONAL IMPACT


Cindy Moy Carr, Vorsdatter Limited


Ammar Mirza (CBE) knows the importance of bringing people together particularly to learn from one and other. He also sees Newcastle Startup Week as a great opportunity to showcase the North East.

BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER

Ammar is a serial entrepreneur with interests and investments across a number of sectors and the Founder and Chair of Asian Business Connexions, a not-for-profit social enterprise that aims to connect, support and promote the Asian wider community. Ammar delivered an inspiring talk on Day 1 of Newcastle Startup Week 2017 about the ‘Power of 3’ – Communicate, Collaborate and Celebrate which is what Newcastle Startup Week is all about and so he has continued to be a great supporter, host and speaker in 2018 and again this year. Fundamentally, Newcastle Startup Week brings lots of different parts of the community together, providing both a platform and environment for people who are either thinking about business, who have existing businesses or are service providers under one roof. Newcastle Startup Week inspires, informs and connects everyone who gets involved, from flourishing business, people ready to take the jump, students just starting out on their journey and speakers alike.

“ So this year, against a backdrop of things like Brexit and various other uncertainty, hosting an event like this is really, really important and once again, it is going to bring lots of people together, to showcase what the North East has to offer; and also provide insights, opportunities to network, and advice and guidance around how to start and grow your business.”Ammar Mirza (CBE), Speaker at Newcastle Startup Week


Despite all our successes, running Newcastle Startup Week hasn’t been without its’ challenges. Running events of this scale on a shoestring budget is hard! From the very beginning, I didn’t want to make the event free to attend but at the same time knew we needed to keep the price as low as possible. Even so, the North East of England is still too heavily reliant on European funding which means that everyone has become addicted to ‘free’ and makes it difficult to persuade some people to pay for a ticket. There are also some people and organisations who could be far more supportive than they are because of the role that they have, it’s been difficult to get the 5 North East universities to fully engage with the event and the number of students attending despite heavily discounted tickets is disappointingly low. Finally, geography is still a barrier with Local Tribalism caused by football, politics and perceived poor transport infrastructure seemingly stopping many people from outside Newcastle and Gateshead from attending the event. After three years, we’d now like to ask the reader how they’d like to take things forward from here and welcome any conversations about how to build on what we’ve done so far. We’d also encourage you to visit newcastlestartupweek.com/impact/ where you can download this Impact Report, infographics, images and more in-depth case studies, then Tweet your thoughts with the #NewcastleStartupWeek hashtag. Thanks for all the support! Paul Lancaster aka @lordlancaster

Founder & Event Producer Newcastle Startup Week

WHAT NEXT?

newcastlestartupweek.com

@NewcastleStartupWeek @nclstartupweek @newcastlestartupweek

Research supported by:

The Arrow programme is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) sailcreative.co.uk

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impact report 2019 - newcastle startup week · now in its’ third year, newcastle startup week is...

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