Bristol’s highly successful tech firms can play a lead role in building the South West into a global centre of excellence to rival similar hubs such as London’s Tech City, according to a new report.
Published today, the Tech South West report calls for a group of ‘ambassador companies’ to work together to showcase and celebrate the region’s many tech successes. 
They would also act as champions to build awareness of the South West across the UK and overseas, helping with inward investment, attract new companies and bring in people with the right skills for the sector to further flourish.
The Bristol/Bath area is already one of the UK’s top-five growth clusters by turnover, expanding by 53% between 2010-14.
Bristol, along with Bath and Exeter, features in the ‘top 20 digital salaries’ chart for the UK.
Bristol and Bath also have the highest productivity (sales per worker) in the country in the tech sector, at £296,340, the fifth highest total number of digital jobs (36,547) and the third greatest overall turnover (£8.16bn).
Yet despite this huge success, the Bristol area, along with the rest of the South West, is often overlooked and tends to have a lower profile than hubs such as Tech City and Tech North.
Against this backdrop, Tech South West wants the region to raise its profile on the national – and global – stage.
Philip Letts, CEO of Exeter-based technology company blur Group, helped to set up Tech South West and says the key is to play to the region’s strengths.
“We need an entity that represents, showcases and promotes our region’s tech sector and expertise, a voice and lobbying group within the South West, nationally and beyond that will help us become a truly world-leading technology centre,” he said.
“Organisations who have had their say already are telling us now is the time to act. Growth in the sector’s tech sector is accelerating and there is a strong foundation of companies and innovation in clusters around the region and in specific specialisms to build on. Now we need more companies to get involved and build momentum.”
He points out that the region’s tech sector growing at its fastest rate, is now worth 5.2% of the region’s entire economy, generates £3.3bn in goods and services a year and supports more than 135,000 tech jobs, according to latest figures.
The Tech South West report is based on contributions from a wide range of businesses making up the region’s diverse tech sector, from manufacturers, software and app developers, to digital agencies, finance companies, innovation centres and universities.
Other key priorities highlighted in the report include increased lobbying of Government to secure better incentives for tech businesses to encourage growth and innovation, making younger people aware of the exciting opportunities to live and work in a region with a fast-emerging tech sector and to do more to showcase the vital role technological expertise is playing in sectors where the South West is already a global-leader, including climate science, aeronautics, marine technology, meteorology and sustainability.
Director of Bristol’s highly successful Engine Shed innovation centre Nick Sturge said: “It’s important that we work together to celebrate the success of the many tech companies in Bristol and across the wider region.
“It’s a fast-growing sector, there are some fantastic tech hubs emerging and it’s great that Tech South West is emerging to help drive that forward.”
Productivity in the digital economy is outperforming other parts of the economy, with employees within digital tech industries found to be 90% more productive than workers in the economy overall, based on gross value added (GVA).
blur Group, an enterprise services platform that helps private and public sector organisations eliminate wasteful spending and inefficiencies in the purchasing of business services, is now calling on other companies to get involved.
Tech companies and entrepreneurs can become members of Tech South West at www.techsouthwest.org.uk, where the Tech South West report is also available.
The report follows a gathering of regional business and public sector leaders in December in Exeter.
An event to gather ideas and recruit ambassador companies will take place in Bristol in the coming months.
