[BNM] Brighton the next Silicon Valley?

[Andy Budd]

> Well, it's been said before, though I think I frame it as Brighton
> being the closest thing the UK has to San Francisco, rather than the
> Valley. The Valley is a flat souless plan of former fruit-farms turned
> into office real estate. You want that for Brighton?


Definitely not SF, but I'd say Brighton is the closest thing we have  
to Austin. We've got a great little web community here, with an  
excellent mailing list, an increasing number of organised meet-ups  
and some excellent (ahem) web design conferences. We've also got a  
burgeoning games industry, which will welcome the addition on firms  
like Linden Labs. However what we don't have is the infrastructure.  
Brighton is small so it's difficult to find good office space and  
qualified staff. Also there isn't the VC money floating around the UK  
(let alone Brighton) so star-ups are mostly self funded and pretty  
short on the ground.


Yours

Andy Budd
Creative Director, Clearleft Ltd
+44 (0)845 838 6163
+44 (0)7880 63 66 77