| Sita Brand from Settle Stories met with the Chief Executive of the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority last week to discuss a creative and digital centre for this area, offering practical support with digital skills and AI, studio and workspace, as well as training for young people. He was encouraging and clear about what comes next: before anything else, we need to show that local businesses actually want this.
We have agreed to be part of this process and Settle Stories have put together a short survey, about five minutes, open to anyone working for themselves, from larger employers to freelancers, artists and people running something alongside another job.
Settle Stories are collecting responses until the end of September, so that the findings are ready for a meeting here in November with the Combined Authority.
Why are we involved? Rural businesses are usually invisible in these decisions, and investment goes where the evidence is. A strong response from Settle puts local businesses directly into a regional conversation about digital skills and connectivity. Sita will share the full findings with the Chamber either way, and they should be useful to us regardless of what happens to the centre. |
