The Creative Database

Night Time Economy Solutions has become a market leader in night time economy (NTE) consultancy and management. Working with our many clients across businesses, local government, BIDs, charities and the Police during and after the pandemic, we saw the effect of these turbulent years on workforces. Many businesses struggled to keep 100% of their pre-pandemic workforce and creative jobs were often the first to go. However, this is not to say that these jobs were not needed, in fact we regularly get asked by our clients to recommend freelancers.

Conversely, we see that most word-of-mouth recommendations benefit industry veterans, a small un-diverse group who tend to be located in major cities (often London). There are no current platforms for new, diverse freelancers to have access to the thousands of projects being recruited for at any given time.

This led us to identify Resynk as a potential tool to help support the recovery of the Creative Industries and address many of the societal and economic pressures it faces.

Resynk will create the plans and wireframes for an online SaaS database where organisations can meet excellent freelancers based across the UK. This prototype will form the base research and development of a platform that will become a comprehensive source of talent for organisations wanting to hire freelance creative experts. Freelancers will have access to interesting projects and will be competing for each project on a level playing field, removing the industry's reliance on word-of-mouth referrals which traditionally favour a few industry veterans. Resynk will ensure new market entrants, diverse freelancers and those from levelling up areas are seen by organisations.

Once launched, this innovative project will support the recovery of the UK Creative Industries (theatres, creative spaces, nightclubs, festivals and arts centres), a £115.9bn industry where 33% of its workers are freelancers. The industry can build back better with a more inclusive and diverse approach. Our database will ensure that all UK-based freelancers get access to more economic opportunities and are paid a fair wage for their services. In return, organisations will have access to an excellent, diverse pool of talent who have passed our quality control requirements, which we hope will help them build their businesses better and faster. By giving voice and expression to more diverse talent, Resynk has the potential to create a richer tapestry of artistic output in the UK arts sector.

Innovate UK Funding will support the development of the prototype of plans for the build and development of the SaaS database with commercial requirements. At the end of the project, we will have developed a comprehensive set of wireframes, performed extensive consumer product testing and focus groups, and a delivery and engagement plan, we will also be ready to start developing the back-end programming needed for a minimum viable product.