I have been involved as researcher, teacher and policy-advocate in the cultural/ creative industries since 1989 when I helped conduct one of the first ‘mapping’ exercises for the sector in the UK, for Greater Manchester. In 1996 I became Director of Manchester INstitute for Pupular Culture. I was actively involved in the promotion of the ‘cultural industries and urban regeneration’ agenda in Manchester, leading up to the establishment of the Creative Industries Development Service (CIDS) of which I was first chair. I was also involved in the development of the Northern Quarter and the 24 Hour City programme. 

In the wake of New Labour’s Creative Industries initiative, I set up Forum on Creative Industries (FOCI), a leading network of academics, consultants and policy makers, in the UK between 2001 and 2008. I advised a number of European city governments on cultural/ creative industries strategies–in Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Italy and Russia. The latter involved a four-year EU-funded partnership project between Manchester and St Petersburg.