David Shepheard is one of a handful of practitioners in the world who has spent a career not just advising on inward investment in the creative economy. But doing it, on the ground, in multiple countries, at the highest levels of government and industry.
Inward investment attraction in the creative economy is a specialist discipline. The core of the work is straightforward: listen carefully to what a business or production needs, assemble a support package that makes the investment decision easy and then guide the investor through landing and expansion in the territory.
In practice, that requires deep relationships across government, industry and finance; an intimate knowledge of how creative economy policies are designed and how incentive programmes actually work; and the credibility that comes from having run these operations yourself, not merely studied them.
We have led inward investment strategies and discovery programmes in every location he has worked (London, Vancouver, Abu Dhabi and Bristol) building the pipelines that turn international interest into tangible economic activity. He understands the investor’s perspective because he has sat across the table from studios, governments and financiers on every side of those conversations.
In each of the following roles, we were responsible for attracting international investment into the creative sector of a major city or nation, building the relationships, programmes and infrastructure that made those cities credible destinations for global production and creative business.
“Inward investment in the creative economy is built on trust, expertise and presence. We have spent 25 years building all three.”
We have briefed ministers, MPs and senior government officials at provincial and federal level in Canada and regularly speaks and moderates at international industry forums. He serves on the boards of the Association of Film Commissioners International and creative sector organisations in Canada and internationally.
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