AS BUSINESS Week draws to a close, it is well to recall the US astronaut Commander Chris Hadfield busking David Bowie's Major Tom in outer space for two reasons.
First, because with all the earth to choose from, the Humber stuck out way above the rest. Second, Bowie's Spiders From Mars were from Hull and there is more we can learn from those masters of shifting focus and adapting to fresh circumstances.
We have heard a lot about wind farms and Siemens. We need to move on to Plan B.
No one can deny that renewables is the future. By 2020, the UK has to grow its use from 3 to 15 per cent of the energy mix and this means more than turbines.
I was in Liverpool last week. The ports are building capacity to be the port of call for biomass imports of wheat and wood chips from North America – they are targeting the shift from coal to renewables-fired power stations across the UK.
In parallel, Liverpool is opening up a second container terminal to cope with bigger container ships after the Panama canal expansion comes on stream in 2015 and, their marketing is focused on the need to land far more containers in the north rather than more than 80 per cent in southern ports and then 65 per cent of those moving to customers in the north by road. There is more to Humber Ports than Green Port Hull and our own Spencer Group are working hard to develop innovative ways to cope with the demands of renewables cargoes.
Staying with this bio-massive agenda, through the Humber, we export millions of tonnes of RDF (refuse derived fuel) to Germany and Scandinavia – that means household waste.
Biomass imports are growing fast. Why not grow the technology to use RDF in our own power stations? Every tonne of it should be used here.
And what about growing our own horticulture industry to develop willow and wheat cultivation and maximise agricultural land around the Humber? Currently, this low- profile industry contributes more than £9bn to UK GDP and yet the average age of employees is over 45 and most of the new workers are migrants – which is a relief for the industry because UK residents are not interested in the jobs in any case. Why not raise the profile of this major global industry and push career prospects across all schools?
For years, the four councils around the Humber pushed to attract big corporates – the sort of companies that seem to sell everywhere and pay tax nowhere if they can help it. Globally, more than 90 per cent of jobs created are by SMEs or micro-firms.
Hull is the cheapest place to live. Just ask students how their costs compare with other cities all over the UK. It follows that this is the cheapest place to set up a business and survive those tough first few years.
And yet, the number of start-ups lags the UK average.
This is where the creative industries come in and it is encouraging to see Hull's strategic plan adjust accordingly.
We are starting to hear a lot about Hull's bid to become City of Culture 2017. Other cities are leading with celebrities; Hull is hammering home the message that culture can make a difference. Across the UK, more than two million people work in the creative sector – banking is no more than one million.
Dave Stewart, of the Eurythmics, gave a talk at Business Week a few years back. He told the story of flying to Nokia in Finland with Annie Lennox to record a jingle for a new mobile phone. He asked the CEO what this was all about and the answer was – a smaller phone with more features. Dave Stewart went away and returned with a video. It started with stars in a night sky and zoomed in on a number of universes – the first one was Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United. A whole constellation of products and services floated around the stadium from credit cards to mobile phone apps. This was revolutionary thinking. He had imagined the future – much more than a jingle to sell a phone.
I started with Bowie and, in the month that Trevor Bolder, the second famous Hull musician to have played with the Spiders From Mars died; the others were Mick Ronson on guitar, Mick Woodmansey on drums plus John Cambridge and "Hutch" Hutchinson – all from the East Riding. Hull's most-famous band were part of the formula that changed rock music utterly.
There is a story of how Bowie took them all to see the ballet in Covent Garden. He wanted them to see how lights were used as a key part of the performance. Innovation is the lifeblood of any economy and Hull and the Humber has to be like Bowie and the Spiders: make connections across boundaries and move fast.
We have had many false dawns in these parts. The future was going to be digital but a clear lead did not spawn any of the real movers and shakers of today.
We have heard a lot about wind turbines but, we should be more aware of building our place in the energy mix as a whole. That means everything from fossil fuels to renewables. Diversity is in our DNA. We have never been dominated by any single industry. Fishing played a role but timber, paints, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, foods and a range of manufactured goods have all played their part.
In fact, you could build and fill a house with products exclusively from these parts. What an image that is.
Even the liquid crystal screens that run the world of today were invented at the University of Hull.
Humber Street is shaping up to be the innovative hub – I was there the other day talking to local artist Martin Waters, playwright Dave Windass and theatre director Andy Pearson about ideas building around the centenary of the First World War across the world; discussing ideas about the migrant story with Paul Dennis at Gallery 1 Humber Quays – the millions who moved through Hull on their way to North America from Europe; ideas on music with Mikey Scott at Fruit Studio and thoughts on a virtual museum with a video games developer from the University of Hull.
I was with Tom Bremer, Norwegian CEO of Axon, a company that makes simulation and simulator technology for the Energy industry. We were at Thieving Harry's and he loved the way everything and everyone sparked off each other.
Industrial estates of the future are not going to sit on the suburbs – Hull has to lead the way in moving to the inner city and build the momentum 24/7.
This is the message behind Wykeland's Centre 4 Digital Innovation opposite The Deep and, the annual Platform for the video gaming industry. Innovation is not a nine-to-five job and we need Humber Street to thrive – yesterday.
We need to build on the platform of the freshly built schools across the Humber and build skills for the future as well. We don't want our future to be just blowing in the wind.
We need a Plan B and a range of options that will make this place the place to be – a museum of the future not the past.
