An Interview With: Maya Ellis from Lancashire County Council
Here at Lancashire Digital Hub, we love checking in with Lancashire’s leading people in the digital and tech space!
We recently caught up with Maya Ellis, Lancashire County Council’s Innovation and Digital Lead. Keep reading to hear why Maya is passionate about Lancashire’s thriving digital ecosystem and how Lancashire County Council are working hard to create a supportive environment where digital and tech businesses flourish.
Introducing Maya Ellis from Lancashire County Council
Maya Ellis heads up the Innovation and Digital team within Lancashire County Council’s Economic Development service. In her role, Maya drives forward the development and delivery of economic policy for Lancashire County Council, working closely with Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool councils, and the Lancashire LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership).
Everything Maya does is centred on making sure every person and every business across Lancashire has the tools, skills and infrastructure they need to make lives and products better through technology and innovation. Maya has been involved in some pivotal projects and I really enjoyed catching up with her to hear all about the projects she has been working on and how Lancashire’s digital and tech scene is gaining momentum.
To kick start the conversation, can you tell us about the work you do with Lancashire County Council?
Maya: I’m the Innovation and Digital Lead in Economic Development at Lancashire County Council. I’ve been in this post for about four and a half years now. At the time of starting, it was a new post that was established as Lancashire was starting to look more at the digital sector and innovation.
The county had written an innovation plan with the LEP in 2017 when the term “innovation” and what that stands for had really started gathering momentum around the UK, especially in the bigger cities. Off the back of that plan, the LEP and the county council both saw strong opportunities for developing the digital and innovation economy in Lancashire.
So, when first starting, my role was focused on putting that innovation plan into action. We’ve spent the last four years trialling various things to see what works while also moving bigger projects forwards. So, for example, on the innovation side of things, the Innovation Plan put forward a recommendation to create an Innovation board as a sub-board of the LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership). That board has now been in place for about two and half years.
After establishing that board, we agreed to refresh the strategy which we started working on around a year and half ago. From that strategy, we have developed a five-year plan that gives us some tangible targets and plans to run with. We’ll be publicly launching that five-year plan very soon, probably around April once budgets are approved.
Going forward, that plan will incorporate a lot of other sectors, making sure we aren’t just looking at the digital sector on its own. We’ll especially be looking at the plan called “smart specialisations” where different sectors currently exist and where they crossover to create new, innovative areas of exploration that brings those sectors closer together and supports their growth. Everyone’s goals and outcomes are interconnected so we’ve really focused on the key stakeholders, assets and organisations to find a common ground that can support everyone’s mission. One of our main roles in the public sector is to act as convenors and align people so they can work together to achieve their outcomes.
That’s the broader picture of what I do as Innovation and Digital Lead. Within that, there’s been lots of projects which are focused on building the digital and innovation ecosystem, bringing people together, and building a buzz.
“If your company is already working on something and you want to further grow it, come to us and ask how we can support you.”
One of the big projects I led was the development of Fraser House Hub. To me, the Fraser House Hub project was critical. It’s not just a physical building; the community managers and all the people working behind the scenes there are critical for building the buzz and excitement around Lancashire’s digital ecosystem. All of which helps those businesses and the wider economy thrive.
One of the big motivations for building Fraser House came from a report commissioned by local businesses called Nowhere to Grow. This research looked at businesses in Lancashire and why they were leaving and ultimately found that they needed growing space. So one of the main aims of Fraser House was to make sure businesses in Lancashire had a dedicated Grade A office space that was big enough for growing businesses.
Now that some of those projects are completed with other projects still underway, we’re starting to see the proof that they work with investment groups now looking at Lancashire, where previously they may have overlooked our county for larger cities in the North West.
A big mission for us at the moment is to prove the market and mitigate some risk for property developers by showing that Lancashire does have an established digital community and property demand… which is already starting to happen. I want to make sure people, including investors, look at Lancashire and Fraser House and think “Wow, this is actually working in Lancaster and there’s something successful there” and use that as proof of the market and motivation to explore Lancashire more as an option.
What makes Lancashire such a great place for the digital and tech sector?
Maya: There’s two main audiences — those who are looking to locate their business in Lancashire or open a branch of their company here. Then there’s the audience on the employee-side, who want to know if they should look for a job here.
On the employee-side, Lancashire offers a strong quality of life in terms of being near the hills, beaches, family-friendly environments and exploring opportunities. But, for me, it is also a great county for being in the mix of things. Lancashire is really well connected to other parts of the county. It’s only a 2-hour train from Preston to London — which we don’t market enough, and the M6 goes straight through us.
That quality of life and connectivity is crucial on the business-side too. For a lot of people, where we work and how we work is a lot more flexible so you can build that into your company. There are so many reasons for why you should choose Lancashire for your business.
“Lancashire is worth taking a risk on.”
There is a growing amount of talent here in Lancashire. Big cities are getting saturated with a lot of technology companies. There is potential for companies locating to Lancashire to find more talent as there is less competition. With Lancashire’s digital economy being up-and-coming with a growing critical mass, it puts businesses in a strong position to attract talent and makes sure those employees still have a choice of companies to work for.
Lancashire is worth taking a risk on. The digital economy here is clearly growing. Cranes are going up in places like Lancaster and Preston in a way that they were in Manchester 10-15 years ago. So that growth is definitely here and there are lots of companies who will want to be on the precipice of that growth as they nurture talent and their place in the community.
There’s the economic side of things too. The offices and properties available in the likes of Preston and Lancaster will be at lower rates with just a 2-hour train ride in London or 40-minutes to Manchester. For international companies that are looking to set up a UK office, Lancashire can be a viable option thanks to its great connections.
There’s already a lot of great things happening here and so much more growth and potential on the horizon.
How can businesses get involved in Lancashire’s tech community?
Maya: Different businesses have very different needs, which is something I’m very aware of working on the public sector support services side of things.
We have some great business support services including long-standing support through Boost, our growth hub which is always evolving. We’re starting to add to that with more specialist support around digital and innovation. There’s some really exciting stuff to come in the next couple of years there.
Networking and the events, like the ones run by Lancashire Digital Hub, Innovate Lancashire and at Fraser House Hub, talks and lectures are always good from an inspirational perspective for leaders who aren’t sure what they want, need inspiration or want to have conversations with people they can bounce ideas off. Those networking opportunities can be really powerful.
One thing I would encourage businesses to do more now is to drive themselves forward. Public sector can only really be there to catalyse or support. If your company is already working on something and you want to further grow it, come to us and ask how we can support you. Reach out and share it with us because we may be able to link it with other projects and support.
A great example is the Electech Innovation Cluster in Morecambe that started out as a group of companies. One of our early interactions with them was that they didn’t have enough of the skill set they needed so we were able to support them in putting a bid in for the Fast Track Digital Skills fund, which was the start of Tech Lancaster and has now evolved.
The original Lancashire Tech Talks at Graham & Brown is another programme we, alongside the LEP, backed with sponsorship to help them plan a year worth of meetings.
If you take the initiative and have already started something that has clear passion and energy, we will be there to see how we can facilitate your growth.
There is more we are doing now than we have done in the past so if you have previously reached out to us looking for support, please reach out again. There’s a good chance we will be able to help you in some way or point you in the direction of support.
What can companies do to foster greater diversity in the digital and tech sector?
Maya: This is something that I am really passionate about and I’m also aware that it’s very nuanced. When looking at increasing representation within companies, I like to look at the business case and the fairness case.
A lot of businesses and SMEs may oftentimes find it hard to justify hiring for what may seem like hiring for diversity-sake, which isn’t the case at all. The business-case for hiring diverse talent is that it fosters positive and productive cultures where new ideas are welcomed and there is an innovative mindset. If you have diverse voices, opinions, and people, it’s going to improve that environment and make it more innovative. But, that isn’t always easy.
Getting a diverse workforce isn’t hard. The challenge comes with making sure you have the right culture to start with. Creating an innovative culture in which diversity and new ways of thinking can thrive is hard. So, businesses first need to challenge themselves to improve their culture — which I think all businesses need to be doing if they want to survive in 10-20 years.
Once that culture is in place, then gaining diverse perspectives and voices should be the obvious next step. But, if you don’t have that culture, just making some “diverse” hires will fall on its face as those people won’t be supported to thrive.
From a fairness angle, I think a lot of businesses in Lancashire are a part of their community. If you care about your employees and the people around you that care needs to extend to the inclusion-side of things. Companies need to make sure they are creating family-friendly and religion-friendly, for example, policies. If you have a company that wants to make a broader contribution to the world than just making profit then some of that contribution comes down to how you treat your employees and how you embrace different types of people and ways of working or living.
One other thing I challenge myself and our services to do is to think more innovatively and broadly so we can grow more diverse talent and business owners.
For example, we have a Manufacturing Growth Fund which in the past has gone to very typical manufacturing companies in an industrial park.
We did an event where we had Steve Wilkinson from the Manufacturing Growth Fund talk to The Growing Club where at least one woman got grants for her company. Many people in her cohort came from non-typical manufacturing work environments like working from their kitchen and that event was really eye-opening to make sure we weren’t falling victim to our biases.
That event helped align those women with funding opportunities that they may previously have dismissed as not being for them, or that they may have been overlooked from as they didn’t fit the “typical” manufacturer stereotype. As a public sector support service, it’s on us to remove those blockers from those businesses and help them grow.
I really think we can support women and diverse groups by meeting them where they are and making sure they have access to business support.
Are there any exciting digital/innovation projects or develops on the horizon that you can tell us about?
Maya: The 5-year plan we’re working on will hopefully be published in April which will detail more of the actions we are doing.
There will be a lot of focus on property and how we are aligning interested property developers and investors into some of the schemes being developed like the Lancaster Canal Quarter and Preston Station District and other towns across Lancashire. And, of course, we have Fraser House Hub’s expansion which will create even more space for digital and tech companies.
The learnings we take from the work done in Lancaster is so valuable for continuing to build the community across Lancashire. In the next coming months, we also want to make sure we have more people on the ground to create those connections around innovative businesses.
We are starting a startup pitching event for Lancashire, which we have done in different capacities before, but we’re going to create a more established, further-reaching event series to help get more Lancashire companies in front of investors. We are also investing more in marketing, particularly a PR plan, to make sure we are being vocal about all of this great stuff that we’re doing and pulling all of that together into innovation marketing coverage, reports, events and campaigns.
Before we go, do you have any final words of wisdom you want to share with Lancashire’s digital/tech community?
Maya: I am proud and excited to be in Lancashire’s tech community. I have spent time in both Manchester and London’s tech communities, but I grew up in Lancashire and I love seeing it evolve here.
For anyone who works in tech or any businesses here, if you like being at the start of things, Lancashire is a really exciting place to be. I can’t wait to look back in 10-15 years and see how it evolves… in the same way that I love looking back at Manchester now and thinking how I was there quite early on and how things have changed since then.
I’m also really excited to see what the uniqueness of Lancashire is going to bring to how we grow our businesses. I have talked to a lot of people about this and I feel like our strength is the fact we have lots of small areas, we don’t just have one centre or one leader. The way the world is going it’s leaning towards dispersed power, coming to agreements as a collective, and making sure everyone can play to their strengths rather than one central leadership. I think Lancashire has an opportunity to be an area that makes the most of having dispersed power and talent, and I believe that technology can actually feed into that and make Lancashire a stronger place.
Final thoughts — Lancashire is the place to be for digital & tech
From speaking with Maya, it is clear that Lancashire County Council are committed to building a strong digital and tech community. The digital and tech sector in Lancashire is growing at a rapid pace right before our eyes, which makes it an increasingly attractive location for businesses, talent, and investors alike.
Thanks to work facilitated by the likes of Lancashire County Council, the LEP, and connectors within our community, our red rose county boasts a skilled and diverse workforce, as well as a thriving digital ecosystem, and a wide range of support networks and services.
Keep up to date withMaya on LinkedIn to be the first to hear about the projects she is working on and follow Lancashire County Council for more updates and opportunities.