Mashbo founder outlines Creative Kitchen as International Festival for Business kicks off in Liverpool

Gavin Sherratt, founder of Liverpool-based digital agency Mashbo, is part of the Knowledge, Creative & Digital week at the Festival, and is running the Creative Kitchen, which runs from 14-18 July, and will be a hub for those involved in the creative and digital industries. The Drum caught up with Sherratt as the IFB2014 kicks off and he puts finishing touches to his week-long series of Creative Kitchen events.

Q. What will the International Festival for Business bring to the city of Liverpool?

A. The International Festival for Business has already brought a global mindset to the city that has enabled small and large firms to have conversations with potential new business opportunities. However the key aspect for me are the learning opportunities it will bring, with some great events and seminars from the likes of Wayne Hemingway at Accelerate 2014 talking about breaking the rules and seeing things differently through to the 300+ events and networking opportunities in and around the festival, which includes the IFB Business Club and IFB Hub based at Mann Island on the Liverpool waterfront.

Q. How do you hope it will impact on the creative industries in Liverpool?

A. I think IFB2014 will help to re-establish Liverpool as a centre of excellence for creative and digital, but closer to the ground I think it will develop stronger working relationships with brands and organisations who are attending the festival.

There's a massive opportunity for agencies and creatives to engage with a global network of successful people and organisations and it's up to us to showcase the talent that is based in the city and that is something we are aiming to do during the Knowledge, Creative & Digital week of IFB2014 and at the Creative Kitchen which starts from July 15th. There is a packed week of the events in the city including Designival, UKIE Games Expo and TEDx to name just few of the events happening in city.

Q. Who should attend the strand of events that you have created with the Creative Kitchen?

A. The Creative Kitchen has been curated as the essential meeting place for those working in and looking to commission from the creative and digital sector.

We are looking to attract people involved with the creative and digital sector from agency owners, managers through to the developers and creatives. It is a place to meet like minded people and it isn't just about the agencies we are looking forward seeing the mixture of creative disciplines through the week from games developers, fashion designers, craft makers, writers, marketers, architects and more, this is a place to meet, learn and collaborate. We have some some great events, talks and our Creative Kitchen Social on Wednesday 16th where everybody can relax and network over a couple of drinks whilst having a trip into the future with our keynote speaker Tom Cheesewright.

We have events like our Developer Breakfast which is aimed to develop working relationships between agencies, freelancers and organisations that rely on digital strategy to empower their business growth.

For ambitious agencies owners, freelancers and independent creatives we have our knowledge session in partnership with The Drum Network - Grow it, Protect it! which will get everybody thinking about business growth, whilst also thinking about legal and insurance side of running a creative enterprise.

But essentially the Creative Kitchen is open to everybody daily to build and grow their knowledge and connections, the venue will be set up for co-working and networking from 15th to 18th July.

Q. What speakers are attending and what key themes will the Creative Kitchen cover?

A. We have some great speakers coming to share their knowledge at the Creative Kitchen, these include Chris Merrington from Spring 8020 providing some great insights into how we can all improve our creative businesses whilst Steve Kuncewicz from Bermans will be discussing the legal side of collaboration which has become very important as we are now seeing more agencies working together on projects and what the legal aspects of the freelancer/agency relationship.

Mike Henderson from Risk Box will be highlighting the importance of having the right type of insurance cover for the work that you are carrying out. And the BBC's & Book of the Future's Tom Cheesewright is going to take us on a trip into the future of tech and the connected world that we now live in.

Q. Why should anyone running a creative business come to the Creative Kitchen?

A. The main focus of the Creative Kitchen is to build new connections and having a space where creative business can network together. But we also want the Creative Kitchen to be a place where other industries will come to meet and engage with the creative digital sector to talk about commissions and potential future projects, whilst also learning from our peers and the keynote speakers.

Q. What legacy do you hope that the Creative Kitchen and IFB will leave behind?

A. Post IFB2014 I hope that we have helped to develop more working relationship and awareness of the talent that is based in Liverpool and new connections beyond the city boundaries. The legacy has to be the growth in the awareness of the offering of the what Liverpool's creative and digital sector can offer as a collective and the building of the global portfolio of work that is already coming out of the city. The benchmark will be the levels of revenue generated by the sector over the next year compared to recent years.

For further information and to book tickets to the Creative Kitchen events visit the Creative Kitchen website.