What we’re doing
Our missions to turbo-charge the West Midlands creative content sector
Our extensive conversations with industry, public sector and individuals have allowed us to identify five priority areas, listed below, that would benefit from Create Central action and provide the most effective interventions to enable us to reach our vision for the West Midlands creative content sector of 2030.
Shape the Future: 2030 and Beyond
Find out about our five missions
-
IP Content Fund
Future funding for the West Midlands to help develop ideas. READ MORE…
-
Monetising Content
Making it easier to sell creative content. READ MORE…
-
Future Media
Making the West Midlands the future of content creation. READ MORE…
-
Games Sector
Finding new ways to support the West Midlands games sector. READ MORE…
-
Sustainability
Making the West Midlands the home of sustainable content creation. READ MORE…
Skills, equity, diversity, and inclusion are cross-cutting themes through all our five missions, and we have been selected as one of the BFI's skills clusters to support this activity.
Create Central is delighted to have been chosen as one of six UK BFI Skills Clusters, which aim to build local skills bases by helping people across the West Midlands, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, find viable routes into the screen industry and effective career development support.
“Our hugely successful industry-first model, pioneered through Create Central’s bootcamps, seeks to fill existing gaps, providing real opportunities to diverse local talent.
With this support from the BFI, awarding funds from the National Lottery, and West Midlands Combined Authority, I’m delighted we’ll be able to deliver a range of activities over the next three years which will create a skilled local workforce to meet our growing production needs.
”
West Midlands Create Growth Programme
Funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and delivered in partnership with the West Midlands Combined Authority, Creative UK and Create Central, the Create Growth Programme supports creative businesses to explore and secure commercial investment opportunities. Selected founders gain access to a rich programme of activity including tailored workshops, one‑to‑one mentoring and opportunities to connect directly with investors.
The first year of the programme, running from May 2024 to March 2025, saw 50 creative businesses benefit from personalised mentor support, specialist workshops and curated introductions to investors through pitch‑and‑dine events and larger‑scale summits. We've seen 83% of participating businesses apply for investment or pitch and 72% have developed or launched a new product since joining the programme.
At The Big Creative UK Summit: Investment in the West Midlands, held in Birmingham in January 2025, nine Create Growth Programme businesses exhibited to an audience of investors, partners, creative networks and local business owners. Five founders were selected to pitch, showcasing the ambition and innovation emerging from the region’s creative sector.
The West Midlands IP Fund is funded by West Midlands Combined Authority and delivered by Creative UK in collaboration with Create Central.
Innovation
Virtual Innovation Team
Create Central represents the creative industries on the Virtual Innovation Team, which comprises business facing innovation experts hosted by a range of regional cluster/sector bodies.
Between them they support businesses in all the sectors and major market opportunities of the West Midlands Plan for Growth to recover and grow through innovation.
Our innovation projects
Find out more about some of the exciting innovation projects we’ve been working on to provide opportunities for creative businesses in the West Midlands.