Local work for local people?

Personally, I think not. If you ringfence contracts like this then you're inviting everyone else to do the same. This in turn stifles growth and reduces the audience for our work. Imagine if Birmingham's local authority started awarding only to local companies. It would be great news for us because Birmingham has the largest local authority in Europe. But it would mean we all have to stop pitching for work with the 433 other local authorities. Now apply the same model to big companies with big budgets to spend based elsewhere. Britain's bigger than Brum and we grow the local economy by bringing other peoples' pounds here. The question that is central to The Big Debate is whether the creative industries can revolutionise the flagging UK economy and how the Midlands can tap into this. I suggest we tap into it by getting our work seen by the widest possible audience. Protectionism was proven to be economically harmful two centuries ago.

Rather than complaining about the work not won we should be shouting about the national and international work our local companies have won and the revenue and jobs they bring to the region. Aquila TV on Broad Street are doing post-production work on a national BBC TV series at the moment, in a climate where the Birmingham broadcast television landscape is increasingly wasteland. A local design agency, Substrakt, have brought so much work up from London that they've had to open a satellite office in Farringdon just to manage it. But the creative, value-adding work is still done in Birmingham. The same applies to creative agency Clusta who have satellite offices in London and LA, all the creative work is done here.

Contracts are already loaded a little in the locals' favour anyway. First of all, life is simply easier if you give work to a local company. It's less hassle to pop across town to check progress, chat over lunch or give a supplier a kicking if they're not performing. Getting up to Leeds is a pain and its human nature to make life easy for yourself. Then there is the added PR value of the local victory. When we won a publicly tendered contract earlier this year we were told "we're proud to award this to a local company and see you win fairly against fierce competition, much of which came from outside the region". For Hatch to win, the quality of their pitch had to be not just better, but significantly better.

Notice I didn't say the quality of the work but the quality of the pitch? Your portfolio only gets you in the room; you've still got to win it. If contracts are to be won on merit and not on postcode then to keep this work local we have to improve the merits of local companies. Maybe we should start with the pitching process? It was a long time before I found out that creative is often worth only 5-10 points in a pitch versus 40-60 for delivery. I wish someone had told me that at the start. Perhaps there are training issues that regional bodies can help to address to improve the proposition of local companies and their ability to win work? Maybe we can find ways as a region to promote the local creative sector at a national level? Finally, are there ways we can make sure that as many local companies as possible know about these contracts with enough warning to pitch well rather than just the few who are connected and established enough to be in the know?

Marketing Birmingham didn't fail to award this to a local company. A local company failed to win it. Where Marketing Birmingham would fail is if they awarded the work to a local company with an inferior pitch. If we, as a region, want to take action then it shouldn't be to rig the game, it should be teaching local people how to play the game better. Not only would local companies stand a better chance of winning these contracts fairly, but they'd also be empowered to better compete in the wider arena.