Creative Economy Programme - almost here....

At long last it looks like we'll see something tangible come out of the Creative Economy Programme consultation. The DCMS CEP website announces that the strategy document launches this Friday 22nd February. For advance word on it take a look at this article in the Times.

It's worth noting that this process began with a meeting on 29th November 2005. That makes Friday's launch the culmination of an 815 day process. You could probably usefully fill the time between now and Friday by looking back over the results of that consultation:

• the summary of the working groups;
• the full reports from each of the working groups:

• Education and Skills; Competition and IP; Technology; Business Support and Access to Finance; Diversity; Infrastructure; Evidence and Analysis

• the online discussion that ensued (scroll down to comments);
• last summer's holding paper from Will Hutton;
• the proposed changes to how we count the Creative Industries;
• and of course the latest Creative Industries stats.

You're probably wondering if the new paper bears any relation to the conversation the government has had with the creative industrues over the last three years. We're wondering too and we'll be digesting the strategy document here when we get a chance. Can't wait.