Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone is waiting for you

An amazing event was organised this evening by Second Chances, one of the art projects commissioned by Bristol Temple Quarter to highlight the cultural fabric underpinning the Enterprise Zone. The evening started off with two short films devoted to the Zone and the real people living in the area. "Scratching the Surface" had a great impact on everybody present leading to the ultimate "gem" of the gathering - the debate carefully steered by Watershed's Dick Penny. The event titled 'Second Chances: the remixing of your city for good' attracted a very diverse group of people with a manifold of points of view about what the Zone should become. It was a great representation of Bristol and the community living around the Zone. Discussion about the future of the area emphasised everybody's concern for preserving this diversity and some passionate comments were aimed at panelists who included Colin Skellett, the Chair of the West of England LEP, UWE Professor Robin Hambleton, Carolyn Hassan, Director of Knowle West Media Centre, Nathan Hughes, film director, and Dominic Murphy from Creating Excellence representing the local community. Everybody without exception seems to be devoted to the idea of a diverse and vibrant Temple Quarter. City's key organisations have been working and are keen to support a culturally led transformation. However what appears to be some great achievements to professionals looks slightly different from the streets of the Zone and from the tables, counters, garages, and green patches of small local businesses. The most passionate comments today reflected the usual philosophy of the societal divide: "we want people in power to support us", "we create jobs more efficiently compared to large corporations, so we want to be supported further in this and more than those corporations", "our jobs are unstable, and what kind of jobs are going to be created here?", and so on and so forth. I was impressed by the job creation ability of the Severn Project, a truly green business at the back of the station. However the strongest impression was left by the Aardman's story of humble beginnings from a small shed, in which two people started working to make their dreams come true. And aren't all great stories the same? They all have humble beginnings. They all have heroes who follow their dreams with passion. People who do not ask those in power to support them. These people simply bring to life their own power and make things happen. I was interested to learn more about the Enterprise Zone from the economic perspective, yet as always it looked like the only solution for a happy Zone of the future were people themselves and the only support necessary was that of empowerment. There are a lot of resources out there for good ideas, good intentions, amazing projects, and wonderful people. Everybody who's ever started doing something comes to understand it. So times and again I get to one conclusion that the only missing or weakest element of regeneration projects is always support towards making people understand that they have the power. So many who try to make difference at their doorstep do not realise that the same feeling of powerlessness can be found in the highest "corridors of power". If we want to change something we must create this change ourselves. The problem is not that "people in power" somehow do not wish to see small businesses in the Temple Quarter. The "people in power" would very much like that for various personal reasons: some of them want to help the small businesses, others would get a career boost for this achievement, whilst others would have more profits if the area turned out vibrant and full of footfall. Ultimately nobody wants anything or anybody to fail. We all want things multiplying and jobs being created more efficiently. It is simply all about how everybody can benefit. Yet it is also about working from sheds and not expecting things to be granted for free. They actually get granted for free themselves as has already happened! The only way forward is a sustained growth by small businesses and a proactive dialogue with those who lead the transformation of the area. A question was asked about the type of jobs that will be created in the Zone. Colin Skellett provided a detailed description of the sectors expected here. I couldn't help but think that the question was raised to understand the quality of jobs or their accessibility - something that is impossible to answer without getting into personal contexts. Somebody said earlier that people increasingly would have to create jobs for themselves. This may seem to be unreal for many of us or even scary, but I subscribe to this same idea. I believe that we are at the start of the most amazing trend when more and more of employees will be converted into business owners. It is all due to astonishing technological advances that we are going through: from ubiquity of the Internet to 3D printers, the new technology brings opportunities of achieving economies at small scales. We are heading into an era of personal empowerment and self-expression. Temple Quarter faces an enormous challenge in responding to this profound shift: is it going to be yet another office development or will it become a true hotbed of innovation and free spirit? This is something for local businesses to think about. How can they adapt so that they fit into the new fabric of the Zone? Should the Severn Project move onto a roof of a building as somebody suggested? Why not if the salad will be as fresh and full of vitamins? Or should the project secure an investment for a pretty city farm in the middle of all this glass and stone? Why not, too? Diversify, hide those greenhouses in the middle of a flourishing garden and it will be an integral part of the Zone's green infrastructure. I believe solutions exist out there whereas divisions are always imagined.