Bl-nk canvas: Hackney Council finds new way to push high tech businesses

Freebie: Bl-nk is completely funded by members and partners

Has Hackney Council found a new way to support local businesses?

During the Olympics in 2012 Hackney Council opened Hackney House to showcase the borough’s enterprising offerings.

The show then hit the road, travelling to Austin, Texas, and New York City.

In September the council launched Bl-nk, Hackney House’s spiritual successor for startup companies and local artists, all without spending a penny.

How? Bl-nk is completely funded by members and partners.

No tax has been spent on it.

In fact, nearly all its benefits are derived through association rather than monetarily.

‘Financial loss, but net gain’

For example, one of the benefits for the council is having prime real estate on East Road in the Silicon Roundabout ecosystem it shares with neighbouring Tower Hamlets and Islington.

“It’s not a money making thing. It’s more to be involved with these amazing people,” say Hackney-based husband and wife team Melissa and Tim Sperryn.

The Sperryns run Cube Space, a three-person events management company, along with Marianne Walker.

“Tim has an arts background and I have an events background, so what we get is to be in here as the daily managers of the building,” says Mel. “We do the sales, we do the marketing, we do all the event management and we have a profit share with Hackney.”

The couple expect to make a financial loss on their involvement, but a net gain for their business.

“Even though we do have to invest a lot of our time, and, as Tim said, to a certain extent our own money, it’s a fantastic opportunity for people like us to be involved,” says Mel.

Kensington’s finest comes east

One of the most high-profile partners is the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), which sprang on board to document digital art – a rapidly changing art form, maybe too rapidly changing for a large cultural institution to handle.

Bl-nk offers the V&A an opportunity to plug into the scene from a more dynamic space than that of a museum.

“The V&A is not local, but what they’re doing here is local,” says Tim. “They wanted to have a presence in the east, and this is it.”

After a slow start for the gallery space, the V&A now has a dedicated coordinator curating the space.

Whereas many small businesses only speak about the council to recount their war stories, for Mel it is “completely the other way around.”

“We have weekly meetings with them and three members minimum of the Hackney Regeneration Team. The Shoreditch Town Centre Manager is here every week” she says “They’re really proactive, really open to anything we suggest. They’ve kind of worked with us as a partner.”

Will the road show now be parachuted into other promising and exotic destinations, in booming Asia perhaps?

Jenny Leighton of the Hackney Regeneration Team says: “We are interested in talking to any cities who have a strong creative tech sector where our local business base feel there is a good opportunity to create new business.”

The council’s love affair with the many young start-ups and artists that comprise the trendy and telegenic face of the local economy has not been universally welcomed however.

Earlier this year Hackney resident and Conservative London Assembly Member Andrew Boff said the council should focus more on helping longstanding small businesses with deeper roots in the borough.

“They should invest in the businesses that are already here,” he said. “The trouble is, they’re falling over themselves to be high tech.”

Related:

Destination Texas: Hackney Council leads US tech trade mission