Unit 51 played host to Baltic Creative’s annual summary with some of Liverpool’s influential names attending.
Starting the night off with an array of food, beer and processco, Baltic Creative played images of their crisp new website design. Guests where left to mingle with the proud Baltic Creative team and nibble on the food before the progress report started.
Glossy, new booklets were handed around for everyone to get an in-depth and physical representation of the annual report.
The evening continued with two fantastic speeches; introduced by managing director Mark Lawler and shortly followed by chair of the board Erika Rushton who both proudly praised the Baltic Creative team, their tenants and supporters. Erika gave special thanks to the management team of Mia, Chris, Alison and Mark and labelled them the driving force for the Baltic Creative as well as highlighting their hard work from the last two years.
It was pretty clear the whole team at Baltic Creative have had a hectic but very impressively positive 12 months.
Baltic Creative Growth is the Sector Growth
Mark Lawler stated that Baltic Creative had a 26% growth in the last year and tenant revenue turnover had increased at a rate of 7% PA. They have also tripled footfall in the Baltic triangle, successfully bringing new people to the area which ultimately gives the triangle the exposure it needs to thrive.
Focusing mainly on the last two years, Baltic Creative have hosted 230 plus events and funded/part funded 50 plus events. They have also increased international trade by 90% all without compromising their excellent customer service report with a still extremely commendable 85% customer satisfaction. The team really have made leaps and bounds for the area and you could undoubtedly see both Erika and Mark were extremely proud of their hard work.
Regardless of these encouraging numbers, Mark focused on the idea that the Baltic Creative were anything but complacent. He explained that they are always evolving and working harder to move forward for the area. Mark also ran through some of the aims they wanted to see completed in 2018 which included working with partners to grow business support and create even more jobs in the area. Push the Northern Lights scheme further which Baltic Creative has launched earlier on in the year.
More partnerships and collaborations will be made in the new year with the annual report stating that:
‘collaborations continues to underpin the creative and digital community.’
There will also be a push on the new Binary Festival which brings the digital and creative communities together in the Baltic Triangle.
New Tech Spaces
Mark also touched on their idea of a three year plan which will instate two new digital tech spaces and two new schemes. These schemes and spaces will provide 50 new digital tech companies places to work in the Baltic triangle as well as offering business support and a sense of community.
Baltic Creative will focus on keeping the bespoke and unique styling of the Baltic Triangle to these spaces to stay true to the quirky character of the area.
Erika cleverly touched on Liverpool itself and the growing confidence within the city. She explains the idea that for generations Liverpool has always been the city that pushes the idea of not waiting for opportunities. Instead the community in Liverpool is what rolls its sleeves up and does it for themselves. It was pretty clear that this is the same basic principle for the Baltic Creative team and it looks like they are only pushing this further in the future.
Overall, Thurday night was a great success and a brilliant evening. Gathering creative minds, tech heads and business-likes to show and celebrate the hard work and determination of one of our abundant and thriving businesses. Baltic Creative is on the way up and it is amazing to see how they have developed over the past six years and extremely exciting to know their future plans for the following years to come.
Read the report here
