Firms 'must take advantage of MediaCity'

Last month, members of the media joined Peel's top brass for a topping-out ceremony and a behind-the-scenes look at building work on the project's £500m first phase.
Peel Media says that when complete the site will host 15,000 workers and generate an additional £1bn for the North West economy.
The BBC is the most high-profile organisation to commit to MediaCity, and will base 2,500 staff there.
Five departments, including BBC Sport and Radio 5 Live, are moving north, while the corporation's existing staff from Manchester city centre will also move to the new BBC North hub at Salford Quays.

The University of Salford is also creating a new higher education centre onsite, while Peel is actively recruiting other tenants from the creative and digital industries.
There's no question that MediaCity will cement Greater Manchester's position as one of the world's leading creative centres.
At first, that sounds as if it could present a threat to Merseyside's creative sector. But many of the industry's leading players say MediaCity will, in fact, present new opportunities for those companies ready and willing to take advantage.
They say it will bring decision-makers from organisations such as the BBC much closer to Liverpool, and so make it easier for Liverpool firms to win business from them.
Peel Holdings is one of the North West's biggest companies. It owns the Port of Liverpool, the Manchester Ship Canal and Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
Its Peel Media arm started work on MediaCity in July, 2007 after the BBC signed up as the anchor tenant.
The first phase will include 700,000sqft of offices and 250,000sqft of studio space, including seven high-definition television studios, two audio studios and a large central technical block. The complex will also include retail and leisure facilities, 378 apartments and a piazza capable of holding events for up to 4,000 people.
Peter Salmon started work as the BBC's first-ever Director North on June 1. He believes the BBC's move to Salford, bringing with it programmes from Blue Peter to Match of the Day, will help grow the whole region's media industry.
He said: "This arrival of a major BBC network production centre an hour away should bring many new opportunities to both established and new talent across Merseyside and the North West and will create hundreds of new job opportunities that talented people from Liverpool will have a great chance of accessing.
"The BBC has ambitious plans to boost out of London network programme spend to 50% by 2016 and BBC North is already in close consultation with independent production companies across the whole of the North of England, including those in Liverpool.
"The BBC is also working with Northwest Vision and Media on how to train and develop a workforce for the next generation of digital media and is excited by Liverpool's ambitious plans to invest in a £5m National Games Academy."
Jon Corner, founder of Liverpool-based production company River Media, was part of the project team that encouraged the BBC to move to Salford and is now chairman of the project executive committee for MediaCity, at the University of Salford.
He sees MediaCity as not simply a base for broadcasters but instead as a centre for excellence in the digital industries.
He said: "MediaCity itself will deliberately blur the dividing line between technologist and creative in response to an emerging global emphasis on quality of ideas, on new ways of communicating and reaching audiences, on newer and more environmentally-aware methods of knowledge transfer.
"This is great news for Liverpool because we are a natural talent pool - it seems to be in our genes to think differently and to experiment.
"The city has traditionally expressed these talents through music, comedy, writing and performance - now it has a chance to express itself further through digital content design."
That means IT and technical skills will be as much in demand at MediaCity as creative skills.
Mr Corner said: "When Mark Zuckerberg and friends created Facebook, they didn't have to think about the mathematics behind the idea - that bit was already at their fingertips.
"We have to get our schoolkids taking science as seriously as football and fashion - otherwise MediaCity might feel as far away as the moon, instead of 30 minutes down the M62."
Sean Marley, managing director of Childwall-based Hollyoaks producer Lime Pictures, agrees that MediaCity must become a hub for digital talent.
He said: "If we see MediaCity as competition for London and Soho Square, so we try to persuade the TV industry to move to Manchester, we're onto a loser.
"What we should be hugely ambitious about is creating a centre of excellence for new digital content here in the North West.
"Where this area is doing better than others is in non-traditional forms of content. The diversity of digital content that the North West has to offer is a big selling point.
"I don't think it's unrealistic that a graduate wanting to work in that area should see the North West at the top of the list of places to work."
Mr Marley says Liverpool firms should feel positive about what MediaCity could offer them.
"The positives outweigh any negatives," he said. "We need to embrace MediaCity and become part of it, rather than seeing it as just something down the motorway."
Mike Taylor, director of enterprise and investment at Liverpool Vision, says he and Merseyside ACME will be investigating how to help Merseyside firms get a slice of the MediaCity pie.
Mr Taylor is a former executive at Manchester-based Granada television, and welcomes the fact that some of the broadcasting industry's key decision-makers will now be based in the North. He said: "We need to understand how to turn MediaCity into a strong asset and opportunity for our Liverpool-based businesses, and not see it as a threat.
"Having this complex in the North West is a fantastic opportunity for us. It's not just about the BBC - it's about a whole raft of sectors from law to logistics, software and games.
"Even from a BBC perspective, this is more about the digital agenda than it is about broadcasting. That means fantastic opportunities for local and regional businesses.
"We've got to find ways of engaging with it and with what's being commissioned there."
Northwest Vision and Media is set to move its headquarters to MediaCity within weeks.
Chief executive Alice Morrison agrees with Mr Taylor that having the BBC so close to Liverpool will be good news for Merseyside firms.
"You're going to have a terrific buyer on your doorstep with a northern attitude," she said. "Liverpool companies will be looking to get a piece of that action.
"Does it make a difference whether the BBC is in London or in the North? I think it does, both in terms of proximity and in terms of relationship building.
"It's good news. I understand the competition between Liverpool and Manchester, but, in truth, if I had a creative business in Liverpool, I'd be absolutely delighted that this huge buyer was moving a lot closer.
"If you're a forward-looking company, you'll be delighted."
Peel Media chairman Bryan Gray agrees that Merseyside firms, especially those working in gaming and new media, must be proactive to take advantage of new opportunities at Salford Quays.
He said: "The whole raison d'etre of MediaCity for the BBC is to focus on content creation. They don't do all that themselves, they buy it from a whole range of suppliers, both for TV and other content.
"The reason they chose the North West was that the region already had a strong and active creative industry.
"You don't need to be physically based in MediaCity to win work. The people writing the cheques will be and the supply chain will build up around that.
"Let's not forget that this is MediaCity, not just TV city.
"The BBC is leading the way with multi-channel content for internet or mobile devices. Liverpool has a particularly strong presence in gaming so I would expect Liverpool to benefit from that. "