The place to be

Like Myrtle the fertile turtle - about whom my mother used to recite me a mildly rude rhyme - The Place To Be seems to give birth to a tremendous number of projects and ideas. Or just play home to them.

The energy and the ideas keep on pouring in. Some really unexpected. For instance, this week I was sent two specially-composed singles. One was on cassette, but sadly arrived without a name, and the other was on a demo CD and was written by Johnny Wakelin, who had hits in the Seventies, such as In Zaire. Remember? Thanks, Johnny.

Also the manuscript of a book of short stories arrived. It turns out that there is a little cluster in town of what used to be called sci-fi writers and are now called writers of speculative fiction - New Labour, New Name?

Maybe it's because down here is the home of the blockbusting authors James Herbert and Peter James - the latter has contributed a story to the collection - but there are two national SF magazines in town. One is Scheherazade, edited by Elizabeth Counihan who can be found at shez@mistral.co.uk

The other is Interzone, which is edited by Dave Pringle, who can be found via shez.

The book is called Fabulous Brighton and when I told someone I had written a preface, they said that wasn't a news story and would I be likely to write the preface to a book called 'Brighton and Hove The Place To Flee'? Ha ha.

But it is wonderful that people want to use The Place To Be to launch ideas and make things happen. Not only are the summer programme and the Small Projects Fund both being a bit of a hit, but there are a number of other projects that will carry on beyond this millennium year.

As I mentioned last week, we didn't just put in a paper bid for city status but used it as a jumping-off point. And it is demonstrating not just the level of creativity in the town, but that the projects people are dreaming up are innovative in national terms.

There has been great progress on the internet project - theplacetobe.net

The plan has been to bring together all the major internet players and the major holders of information in the town to create a real portal to Brighton and Hove.

This means that there should be a one-stop shop for Brighton and Hove for everything from council services to what's on to classified ads to business support.

We would, for instance, be able to concentrate all the listings of events in the town and create the Uberlistings, as I have started to call them. At a click of the mouse, you would be able to get the reviews of restaurants and clubs. We are negotiating with the Argus, Virtual Brighton, Surf and all the magazines. And with Cable and Wireless to provide it all through your telly, we can reach people without PCs.

It is a collaboration on a grand scale in the town's interests. And the exciting thing is not just that people have agreed to come together on it, but that already other towns are looking to copy it. Part of that portal will be an enterprise hub, which will bring together every business service and support for entrepreneurship available in town.

It's the place to help you make your dream into a reality. If you want to start a business, whether you're 16 or 60 and thinking of retiring from the job you've had all your life and yet knowing that you have so much left to contribute, it will be the place to be.

It is driven by several local business people determined to attract funds to provide the business site to end all sites. More news of these as they develop, but there is one project that needs your input now.

Are you a creative? Are you in internet design, graphic design, choreography, film-making, theatre, pottery, glass, creative software development . . .are you a camera operator, director, editor, composer, writer, actor? Well, we want to hear from you. We have set up a major research project which is trying to establish the scope and size of the creative industries in town and what people involved need to enhance their work and sharpen its impact.

So if you're either working on your own or in a small creative business, contact us at theplacetobe@brighton-hove.gov.uk

We want to hear from you and further prove that this really is the place to be creative.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.