Club provides right medium (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Club provides right medium

11:34pm Sunday 16th March 2008

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It's a simple concept. If your business is small and going places but doesn't have the resources to train and acquire necessary skills in-house, then club together with others in a similar position.

That is the basis of bmedia, the Bradford network for creative, new media and digital firms which, from small beginnings, has spread its influence well beyond the district's boundaries.

The organisation was founded in 2001 following a series of seminars which developed the concept of a networking club for like-minded businesses. The following year it was launched as a limited company.

It was established to provide a range of networking and practical support services to media-based businesses in key West Yorkshire centres, including Bradford, Leeds, Halifax, Huddersfield and Wakefield.

Since its launch, bmedia has grown to about 600 members and even reached as far afield as Newcastle and Bournemouth.

The fields it covers are many and varied and include animation and 3D development, CD-Rom duplication, copy-writing, translation and editorial services, creative and design services, e-commerce, education and training, film and video production, financial services, games development, internet security, IT services, legal services, marketing and public relations, web design, presentation skills and public speaking.

Although bmedia has progressed well since its launch, it has not all been plain sailing.

For its first three years, it received funding from Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency, but this came to an end in 2005 leading to a difficult period of belt-tightening and some job losses among its small team.

That left chief executive Steve Ding, who joined in 2003, as the only full-time employee and with the major headache of finding alternative sources of income.

A former IT training manager with Bradford & Bingley, responsible at one point for training 8,000 people, Steve moved the organisation down a more commercial route.

He said: "After the Yorkshire Forward funding ended we had to seek other ways of earning our keep and the only way was to become far more commercial and market our services more widely and more aggressively.

"It was tough going at first but we are finally moving back into the black. Although we are a not-for-profit business, we need to be financially sound."

Training forms the backbone of bmedia's operations. And it's not all focused on high-tech creative stuff, but it helps its member firms with bread and butter skills such as preparing and writing tenders, presentation skills, legal issues and project management techniques.

It was for its success in tender writing training that bmedia won a Skills Fit award from the Skills Fund Partnership. The awards recognise training providers who have excelled in their delivery and over-achieved on targets.

Steve said: "We put a terrific effort into ensuring that our members have access to some of the best training courses around that help them develop their business. So it was great to be recognised by this award for all the effort people have put in."

The Skills Fund, which operates throughout the Objective 2 areas of Yorkshire and the Humber, aims to support individuals and companies to develop skills which meet specific business and individual needs that are not being met through existing resources.

One of the key advantages that bmedia offers its members, which are mainly small or new start-up operations, is affordable access to training courses which would otherwise be beyond their means and yet which provide valuable skills for their future success.

Overall, bmedia's tendering support has helped its members win about £800,000 worth of work from contracts featured on its website.

One of the companies which took the tender writing course won a £100,000 contract mainly for the quality of its written tender.

Steve said: "The quality of the tender made all the difference in the pitch process. The firm awarding the contract obviously checked out the company's ability to deliver the goods, but the deal was clinched mainly due to the way the contract was priced up and the tender was presented.

"That was a direct result of attending one of our courses and that's very satisfying for us, as well as a success for the business concerned."

The other key arm of bmedia's operations is regular networking events.

Every third Thursday of the month, an event is held where members can meet, make new contacts and discuss issues of relevance and importance to their businesses. These events are free for member firms.

Membership of bmedia is banded and focused on enabling new and young businesses to join its network and benefit from its services.

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