The BBC has commissioned Just-b. Productions to deliver a Yorkshire-wide scheme to offer local companies the opportunity to develop new media applications to meet a BBC brief.
The Yorkshire Innovation Lab is one of a series of creative workshops for interdisciplinary teams of professional creative technologists, application designers, software developers and interactive media designers. Selected teams will develop ideas for public facing innovative applications and services which could be commissioned by the BBC. Three labs are being held: one in the North West of England, one in London and one in Yorkshire & Humber.
Who can apply to take part in the Lab?
The Yorkshire Innovation Lab is open to companies based in Yorkshire & Humber. The labs in London and the North West will similarly be open to participants from that region.
We anticipate that most applications will be from digital media agencies, games developers and independent producers.
Individual freelancers and researchers can take part if they are invited to participate as members of a company’s team.
Why is the Lab limited to participants in Yorkshire & Humber?
The first series of Innovation Labs is jointly financed by the BBC and economic or media development agencies. The Yorkshire Lab is supported by Yorkshire Forward, Screen Yorkshire and Objective 1. This funding must benefit companies in Yorkshire & Humber.
What are the benefits for companies taking part in a Lab?
• Participation in an intensive creative workshop with peers and expert mentors
• An opportunity to pitch a project to BBC New Media commissioners
• Access to business advice, mentoring and development finance from other sources
• Retention of any IP that they develop
• A £5,000 fee for each of the selected teams
What kind of project is the BBC looking for?
How many teams can participate in the Lab?
Up to 10 teams.
How many people can there be in a team and what skills should they have?
We would expect a team to be made up of two people, but three would be considered in exceptional circumstances.
There is no typical skills profile; the Lab will be made up of people with a range of technical, production and creative skills: writers, coders, producers, directors, interaction, interface and sound or game designers, information architects, musicians and artists.
You may choose to nominate an existing team from within your company or take the opportunity to experiment with a new collaboration and invite someone you’re interested in working with to join you for the Lab.
Since one requirement of the Lab process is the production of a visualisation or concept prototype, it will help if at least one member of your team has the skills to build it.
When and where will the Lab take place?
The residential Lab will place 6-10 March 2006 at Swinton Park, Masham, North Yorkshire. Swinton Park is a 30 bedroom luxury castle hotel set in 200 acres of parkland, lakes and gardens, situated 5 miles from the A1 North of Leeds.
What will actually happen at the Lab?
The Lab period will extend from preliminary meetings for successful applicants in early January to the end of the financial year. The main focus will be the five day residential workshop in March but there will be additional workshops and mentoring sessions offered on the creative, technical and business challenges facing each team.
The residential aspect of the Lab will be structured to meet the specific needs of the development teams and their projects, with time divided between individual and group sessions with the mentors, peer-to-peer collaboration between teams, and unstructured time for teams to develop treatments, pitch documents and visualisations. Teams will work towards a ten minute pitch of their projects on the final day. The pitch must include a visualisation or prototype of the project. This might be as simple as a wireframe model or a series of screens in Powerpoint; it may be a more complex presentation which demonstrates aspects of the functionality
Creative and technical mentors will have relevant, recent experience of production for interactive media with the BBC or other major developers, publishers or broadcasters in the UK and abroad.
See The Lab for more information
Additional Activity
Business development mentors will be nominated by NESTA. They will offer:
Pre-Lab 1-2-1s – sessions in January with selected project teams to advise them on their business model and capacity to deliver beyond the Lab
Half-day sessions during the Lab – opportunities to explore the potential business models of the ideas as they develop, and to follow up issues about corporate growth
Post-Lab support – sessions for projects after the Labs, regardless of whether they have been commissioned by the BBC or not to offer Corporate Growth advice and help the SMEs develop their ideas into a deliverable product.
What will happen after the Lab?
The BBC will retain first option to commission projects developed at the Lab until June 1st 2006.
If the BBC decides to commission a project, it will negotiate a contract for a joint development arrangement with the company which brought it to the Lab.
If the BBC decides not to commission a project, any IPR will remain the property of the company which brought it to the Lab.