Another engaging event by North West Business Insider, who seem to me, to be trying that bit harder recently. It follows a recent ‘Leaders Dinner’ at the Lowry Hotel which featured a rather entertaining speech by Mr Dave Whelan, owner of our client DW Sports. He was on great form, full of tales about starting up his first market stall, then his discount stores and taking the captivated audience up to the point of buying JJ Bradburns, the single sportsstore he then grew into the once mighty JJB Sports empire -  stories that mostly took place just a short stroll down the road from our offices.

The Business of Media event took place within the brightly coloured and very curvy interior of the Lowry Centre, as opposed to the completely unrelated Lowry Hotel, I suppose if it’s in Salford it seems it has to be named after Lowry. Compered by Insider’s editor Michael Taylor, in his usual robust fashion that never shies from interjecting a Yorkshireman’s style ‘a spade’s a spade’ comment or forcing speakers to meet the agenda, it featured a solid mix of subject matter from an array of appropriate presenters.

It kicked-off with some scene setting by Deloitte’s Media and Communications partner Ed Shedd, who had the good grace to make fun of his own name [but left me wondering if the full version was Edward Sheddward?]. He ran through some of Deloitte’s sector research, which can be loosely summarised as TV is still the media king, especially in emerging markets; that the UK leads the way in adopting digital media; and virtually everyone still prefers to get their hands on an old fashioned printed newspaper or magazine rather than an e-version.

You expect to see the odd bloke [in both senses] with a pony tail at these events, but it’s usually a geek who’s so busy with geekery that he hasn’t seen the Armstrong and Miller Show. It was a little surprise then when the pony-tailed next speaker turned out to be the money man from White Horse Capital although his CV revealed he’d made his money in publishing and media, which still doesn’t justify a pony tail. Then again, being loaded, he doesn’t need to. He delivered an excellent precis both of what investor finance is [angel investors and VCs at least] and what the ramifactions of trying to engage with them are. And he managed to pull off that rare combination of simplifying things for the uninitiated without being patronising.

The MPA has recently relaunched and its new Chief Exec, Cindy Simmons, tried to reassure us all that it was still up for the legendary parties of the past, but was also a serious vehicle to bring together people from the media, film, creative and digital industries to do serious things. And to party. It seems harsh to ask if we need another one of these when the MPA was one of the originals, but do we? There seems to be so many industry representative associations all with slightly different angles and agendas, all very well intentioned but all overlapping to a greater or lesser extent. And all too Manchester centric?

This was followed by a Dragon’s Den style series of pitches by various businesses to a distinguished panel of experts for their consideration and advice. Starting with Simon Sinclair from new ad agency ‘Waggledance’ who, dressed in ‘It ain’t half hot mum’ shorts, Dunlop Greenflash tennis shoes and bright pink chequered linen shirt had either assumed that there’d be far less suits in attendance or had suffered the inverse of losing his suitcase at the airport when returning from holiday – lost all his work clothes so only got holiday clothes left? Some of the creative was imaginative and highly amusing however, and the company’s ethos was a good one; I especially liked the idea of finding a brand’s ‘nectar’ – the sticky bit that attracts customers and their friends and keeps them. The business side was a bit vague however with more work won and completed than seemingly feasible for a start up, leaving one with the assumption that this was some kind of phoenix.

Al Mackin from SEO agency The E Word recounted his business’s impressive growth from start up to 16 people in double quick time. Seems like a great business but probably one that needs to diversify further from pure SEO and PPC as its work will no doubt be eroded as clients build their knowledge and do it themselves, that the low cost of entry allows cheaper competitors to undercut them [even if the service is not like for like, will clients understand the added value?] and then there’s Google’s drive to level the playing field for natural search and sideline the manipulators.

Scream management are a talent agency for young actors built up by MD Tracey Bell who gave a charmingly understated account of the business and outlined its ambition to develop a ‘Fame’ style school in Manchester. An early occupant of space in MediaCity, Scream would seem ideally placed to exploit the new opportunities there and is already working with an impressive array of clients including Disney and Nickelodeon. Add the right advice and some solid business support to this and Scream can no doubt continue to grow and to open its school, which is great if you like spending time with loads of precocious kids.

Most interesting, at least from my perspective, was the presentation by Tony Foggett from Code Computerlove, the recognised leading digital agency in Manchester. Their projects and client list are enviable and Tony gave some great insights into how their business operates and how Code have achieved success with a strategic approach which has had to adapt to the ever-changing media landscape and has, in turn, led to a greater emphasis on collaboration.

The event finished with a Q&A session with Philip Coen, CEO of In the City, who gave us the advantage of his considerable experience. Overall then, a stimulating and motivating event hosted just across the water from the guilded temple of the new MediaCity which, in theory, provides some fabulous opportunites for creative media businesses in the region. Although I couldn’t help feeling that I was looking across a moat without a drawbridge, and this might be closest I can get to it.