Mediasmiths are sponsoring The Media Festival in Manchester this week.  The Media Festival is new, this is only its second year, and that freshness is one of the key reasons why we have chosen to support it.  The Media Festival captures two trends that we see emerging in media: the first is the greater emphasis on creative communities working outside of London, and the second is the need for a better understanding of creative production and changing technology.

There has always been a vibrant media scene outside of London, but too often it has been seen as secondary to London or acting as  feeder channel to London based media organisations.  Despite the BBC's past efforts, and maybe because of ITV's, there remains a concentration of money, talent and decision making in London.  It is questionable whether this is a good thing . Some economists may argue that such a concentration of people produces a strong "network" effect , where the proximity encourages more collaboration and the generation of better ideas.  Given the isolation in which many media professionals exist, and social networking technology enabling more virtual communication, this does not sound compelling. More likely is that the people who hold the purse strings like their flats in London, and homes in Oxford a bit too much.