Creative Futures 2013 - Opening Address

This talk started off my third and final Creative Futures week at Glyndwr. Dr. Stuart Cunningham (who walked in with a rock/wrestling style introduction playing) gave a brief introduction, welcoming us all to Creative Futures week, and explaining it's purpose; these being to help improve our employability, and our professional development. It is also there to help us gain a network with other working individuals. After a brief introduction, Sarah Mair Gates came on stage, and talked a bit about what the CCS (Creative and Cultural Skills) did, and how they help graduates get a job in the creative industry. This was a very brief talk, with a lot of statistics, just informing us of the work they do, and that they can help us get a job when we graduate (which is always a good thing!). The next speaker was unable to attend, so Dr. Stuart Cunningham talked through their powerpoint, which was about the work that the Creative Skillset Cymru do. Again, very statistic based, but there was some surprising statistics in there; e.g. there are 1.5 million people employed in the UK creative industries, and that the UK creative industries is worth £36billion per annum.