More from Universal, and the boss of Universal Music International, Lucian Grainge, has been appointed to a new government panel which will plan a big conference on the global operations of UK creative businesses, and on the global dimension of the entertainment industry, in October 2009. The event is called the Creativity & Business International Network, or C&binet for short. Grainge, and other leaders from UK entertainment and creative businesses, will meet in Liverpool next month to discuss the agenda for the 2009 shindig.
Talking about C&binet, the government's chief culture monkey Andy Burnham told reporters that he wanted the event to become an annual event for the world's creative businesses, on par with the world's big economics junket Davos, which takes place in Switzerland each January. Burnham: "Britain has always been the natural home of the creative industries and we aim to cement that by establishing this prestigious international conference, which in time we hope will be the Davos for creative businesses. While the last decade has seen the UK's creative industries grow at twice the rate of the wider economy, there are real pressures both from international competitors and wider economic conditions".