Glow interviewed on Radio 4’s Today Programme
06 October 2010
Radio 4’s TODAY programme interviewed Phil Blything during the Liberal Democrat conference. You can listen to the interview here.
Radio 4’s TODAY programme interviewed Phil Blything. You can listen here. Or read the transcript below:
Justin Webb: “Parts of Liverpool are of course simply wonderful. I'm looking across now at the Albert Dock where a mud flat surrounded by derelict buildings was transformed into a model of inner city development attracting private money and now adorned restaurants and shops and the Tate Art Gallery and Museums including one paying tribute to Liverpool’s enduring tourist appeal.”
Phil Blything: “On a nice day like today, it’s a good place to be. We can see one of Liverpool’s two Cathedrals sitting up on the hill there and we’re only a stone's throw from the Arena and Convention Centre which is where all of the conference activities are happening right now.”
Justin Webb: “Phil Blything runs Glow New Media, a locally based Digital Marketing Company. He’s realistic but optimistic about what could happen here when the cuts really bite.”
Phil Blything: “New Media for instance isn’t going to create enough jobs for all of the public sector cuts we’re going to see, but we’re in times of disruptive change. And disruptive change doesn’t just mean bad things, it also means opportunity.
If you consider – the internet is an interesting thing which is happening right now, and for the last ten years, but the automobile, maybe a hundred years ago, reconfigured the economy without precedent at that point in time. All of the people who were concerned with looking after horses and moving the water for the horses and the mews - all of that infrastructure had to change. But that created automobile manufacturers, petrochemical companies. Disruptive change also means opportunity.”
Justin Webb: “And this place is in a position to seize opportunity, you think, if it comes?”
Phil Blything: “I think these opportunities are revealing themselves and for people who choose to go and get them, it’s all to play for.”
Justin Webb: “It’s fighting talk...”
The Today programme visited Liverpool as part of the BBC coverage of the Liberal Democrats conference at the Liverpool Arena & Convention Centre.