Logging on to business advice

Business delegates from across the world have taken part in a BBC Wales conference with a difference.

A stream of the conference will be available here soon.

BBC Wales hosted the event to help industry use the media more effectively and create innovative programmes for television and radio.

Those unable to get to the event at the Cardiff, which was chaired by Wales Today presenter Jamie Owen, in person participated using the internet.

"BBC Wales is taking its coverage of business very seriously," says Head of News and Current Affairs Aled Eirug.

"This is the first opportunity we have to bring together journalists and producers with people in the business world who are on the front line of business development in Wales.

"But there is only so much room or delegates, and sharing our knowledge online will mean the wider community can have access to the conference."

Conference organiser Martyn Ingram said, "The morning sessions are analysing where Wales is at, and the afternoon will look at how we can best explain that to the public.

BBC Wales is hosting the conference

"Traditionally, business programmes have been a turn off for viewers - there is a culture that it's for someone else.

"But if we can get people excited about business and industry through more innovative programming, we hope that excitement could rub off on the Welsh economy."

Presentation

He added: "Wales does not have a culture of entrepreneurship - we tend to be the workers for someone else.

"But if it's suddenly cool to set up a business, it may entice new companies to start up."

BBC Wales' Controller Menna Richards introduced the conference, while the BBC's Business and Economics Editor, Daniel Dodd, gave a presentation on broadcasting and business coverage.

Other speakers included Akmal Hanuk of Waterwell International; Brian Morgan, formerly senior member of the Welsh Development Agency and now at Cardiff Business School, on the future of indigenous industry and Adele Norval, a leading financial adviser with Campbell Associates Personal Finance, on the accessibility of personal finance.

Others included Evan Jones, the WDA's expert on e-commerce, on the prospects for new e-companies in Wales and Angela Gidden, one of the UK's premier furniture designers and manufacturers, on creativity and business.

---

Your comments

I would like to reply to Mr Wood on his assertion that there is "a near total lack of emphasis on protecting intellectual property" in Wales. The Patent Office is based in Newport (just 12 miles along the M4 from Cardiff) and is very active in promoting a greater awareness of intellectual property throughout the UK. In Wales, we support a number of projects aimed at getting the message across to schools, universities and businesses. We support the Wales Student Innovation Awards, give seminars on intellectual property to teachers throughout the principality, give advice to universities, participate in the Business Week Wales Event and give numerous seminars to the business community. Yes, more needs to be done, but Wales is not the IP desert he suggests. Incidentally a quick check of the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents' guide reveals there are two patent agent firms in Cardiff.
Alison Brimelow,
Chief Executive of the Patent Office

Why are those programmes already made and exported eg Cardiff Singer of the World not used to promote Wales as a tourist destination.
Jeff Rees, Finland

Does the panel think that the talk of encouraging enterprise in Wales is going to work, and is there a role for the media to promote enterprise heros? It would seem useful to focus on business leaders, looking at the story of how they got to where they are and their path to success.
Jonathan Fogg, UK Steel Enterprise Ltd, Wales

Business coverage in Wales tends to concentrate on the larger commercial organisations and the enterprise agencies - the same comments from the same people. There is a thriving SME sector in wales with tremendous success stories to tell. However, these rarely seem to get the coverage they deserve. The reasons for this in my view are twofold. Firstly, media tends to concentrate on the "great and the good" rolling out the rhetoric in an all too predictable way. Secondly most successful SME's in Wales do not court media attention - they are too busy doing what they do best- running their businesses!! If the BBC wishes to encourage Welsh businesses to use media more effectively it needs to broaden its horizons on who and what can /should be covered and make the process more accessible. Perhaps todays conference can be a postive start?
Gareth Lynn - Owens Thomas, Wales

Creativity is at the heart of new business and creative industries can be a major driver in the new economies. Wales is rich with creative people. Can the BBC look at profiling some of the more innovative businesses with some in-depth case studies? As part of my work at the WEC in Brussels, I run a profile-raising Wales Week every year. I would like to be able to profile new ways of communicating successes and in particular looking at Wales partnerships across Europe. Southern Italy has used Objective 1 money in profiling the strong new media cluster in Catania. Wales could work more with other regions to ensure that its profile raising is not "Boosterism" but deeply rooted in high quality techniques and expertise... the BBC could help by producing a series of programmes that look both at cultural industries themselves and at creativity in indigenous industries.
Yvette Vaughan Jones, Belgium

I have moved from Cardiff in part because of the near total lack of emphasis on protecting intellectual property in the form of obtaining patent protection. There isn't a patent firm in Cardiff, the Welsh Assembly appear to be unwilling or ignorant of the important of protecting Welsh intellectual property (e.g. Cardiff University merely does well in protecting IP as measured against other UK universities, but hopeless when compared against research universities here in the USA). Is this wilful and crassly stupid lack of real emphasis on patenting inventions going to continue in Cardiff, Wales?
Chris Wood BSc (Hons, Wales) MSc JD PhD, Wales (currently living in Chicago, USA)

Part of the BBC Wales's portfolio of business programmes is the weekly Radio Wales Thursday evening series "Business Week Wales", presented by Grahame Lloyd. The programme aims to present a comprehensive and lively digest of the week's main business news - covering every type of enterprise from the largest Plcs to the smallest kitchen-table start-ups. We aim to provide an even spread of geographical coverage too with stories from north, mid and west Wales receiving as much attention as those in the most heavily populated areas of south east . We try to provide a sounding board by which businesses can speak to businesses and pick up ideas for new products and new ways of working. We welcome all moves to increase the airtime devoted to business and enterprise throughout the country.
David Morris Jones Editor Business Week Wales

Does the panel think that the talk of encouraging enterprise in wales is going to work, and is therte a role for the media to promote enterprise heros? It would seem useful to focus on business leaders, looking at the story of how they got to where they are and their path to success.
Jonathan Fogg,
UK Steel Enterprise Ltd - Wales