Create Growth is a DCMS-funded programme to support West of England Creative Industries companies, ranging from freelancers to large organisations.

Over the 6 years it has run, Create Growth has supported 3 mixed cohorts and, more recently, a createch cohort run by The Studio in Bath and the Noods Levels programmes for creative founders.

Beyond Create Growth

To keep the community together and build collaboration, transparency, and mutual support, we are running monthly sessions for peer-to-peer support and events driven by the interests of the community. These sessions have been run by Gill Wildman until the end of 2025, and will be led by Briony Phillips for the next 6 months.

The sessions are intended to help founders and business leaders to connect, learn, share challenges, and support and inspire one another.

Meetings in 2026

From March 2026 until August 2026, we will meet in Bristol on the second Tuesday of the month (apart from June). We want these sessions to be as useful and accessible as possible, so we’ll mix up the venue and timing to suit the regular attendees:

Tues 10 March - 17:00 Bristol Beacon ground floor Bristol Loaf cafe

Tues 14 April - 17:00 Bristol Beacon ground floor Bristol Loaf cafe

Tues 12 May - 17:00 Bambalan Bristol (after the West of England Combined Authority Cultural Summit)

Tues 16 June mashup with Bristol Walkabout - meet outside Arnolfini bookshop at 12:30 for a walk around the harbour with creative and innovation colleagues

Tues 14 July Session cancelled due to ill-health

Tues 11 August details tbc

>> Join the community by sharing your details here

We will then add you to the distribution list and share details of the WhatsApp group.

If you’ve got any questions, contact Briony directly via [email protected]