London's answer to Silicon Valley

[PAH]

Silicon Roundabout.

BBC News - Can 'Silicon Roundabout' challenge Silicon Valley?

Looks like Nathan Barley is alive and well. If you pop down say hi to 15Peter20 for me. Don't forget, you don't shake hands when in this zone, you give them gestures.

Maybe I'm taking the piss because I have no intention of working in London, no matter what bollox they market it as. Best thing about technology is you can work from anywhere. Someone explain that to these muppets.

Off to ladbrokes to see what odds they offer on London Becoming The Next Silicon Valley vs Blackpool Becoming The Next Las Vegas.

[PropertyCrashUK]

It is not just London is it - it is the grotty East of London which is damn hard for most people from elsewhere in the UK to get to. I would not want to live there and I certainly would not wish to buy a home in that giant flood plain - one day the North Sea is going to come in there big time.

If it had been somewhere between London, Bristol and Brum then it might have stood a chance but, frankly, I can't see many wanting to go there.

By the time the Olympics have come and gone this idea will have been conveniently forgotten by Cameron. No one is going to want to rent in that part of London in Olympic year due to the costs and hassle. So by 2014 it will be long forgotten IMPO.

[cojak]

Good. So feck off and leave Whitecross Street to the rest of us...

[PAH]

If it had been somewhere between London, Bristol and Brum then it might have stood a chance but, frankly, I can't see many wanting to go there.

That's why they're trying to attract all the Nathan Barley types who have more bulltulip brand awareness than business sense.

You just have to look at some of the daft brand names the article mentions and it's like being back in 1999 again.

[PAH]

Good. So feck off and leave Whitecross Street to the rest of us...

What's your brand name 'LollySuckers.com', an advertising agency offering models that suck lollies?

Guaranteed to improve click through rates when those adverts are placed on sites normally trafficked by geeks.

[you can have that idea for free, if it allows me to escape a ban ]

[doodab]

If it had been somewhere between London, Bristol and Brum then it might have stood a chance but, frankly, I can't see many wanting to go there.

By the time the Olympics have come and gone this idea will have been conveniently forgotten by Cameron. No one is going to want to rent in that part of London in Olympic year due to the costs and hassle. So by 2014 it will be long forgotten IMPO.

I disagree. Firstly, the area is attractive to young people, such as recent graduates, who are likely to go and work for a small startup without expecting to be paid a fortune. It's also a prime location for anyone looking to provide services to either the city / financial services industry or the media / advertising industry.

Secondly it's something that has flourished by itself since the collapse of the dot com boom. There are a lot of slightly older people who worked through that and now have experience, maturity and contacts and who have started companies clustered in that area, and it's really those sort of people who are making it happen. The government "initiative" is pure bandwagon jumping in order to try and take some of the credit.

[lilelvis2000]

I disagree. Firstly, the area is attractive to young people, such as recent graduates, who are likely to go and work for a small startup without expecting to be paid a fortune. It's also a prime location for anyone looking to provide services to either the city / financial services industry or the media / advertising industry.

Secondly it's something that has flourished by itself since the collapse of the dot com boom. There are a lot of slightly older people who worked through that and now have experience, maturity and contacts and who have started companies clustered in that area, and it's really those sort of people who are making it happen. The government "initiative" is pure bandwagon jumping in order to try and take some of the credit.

I thought the government bit was just the recycling of the Olympics park buildings.

Besides, considering that a substantial portion of salary would be eaten up the high cost of living in London I would only imagine that new graduates who live in that part of London would be interested. Older guys would on the whole, IMHO, not be interested.

Plus, I've been to Stratford at night and its not a place I'd want to go again.

[TestMangler]

Good. So feck off and leave Whitecross Street to the rest of us...

I thought 'swearing' even with happy smileys and miss-spelled words was unacceptable behaviour ?

At least that's what you said in my last infraction.

Bloody chicks, eh ? No consistency

[eek]

Silicon Roundabout has grown organically without Government help. It will thrive simply because it works (young people arrive, work in startups and some eventually start their own).

Silicon Stratford is Government trying to find a solution to a problem that doesn't exist and interfere in a working solution for their own ends. I believe it will suffer the rapid death of most government interference when everyone simply ignores anything that doesn't give them money for no real effort.

[AtW]

It may survive and even do well, but it will never challenge Silicon Valley.