The Bath area has long been recognised as one of the UK's most creative centres alongside London, Manchester and our near neighbour Bristol. In Bath & North East Somerset we have a wealth of creative professionals often leading nationally and internationally across a huge range of fields, from traditional arts to publishing and digital content production.
Our region is home to recognised, award winning firms such as Future PLC, Dialect, Reach and Network N to name just a few.
Bath Film Office promotes Bath & North East Somerset as a filming location, working with productions of all sizes from small scale student projects to large scale production feature films and TV dramas such as Bridgerton, The Trial of Christine Keeler and Wonka.
Bath is also home to Bath Spa University and the University of Bath. Both universities host a variety of research and development programmes, as well as providing spaces that support collaboration between creative content producers and technologists. You can view these facilities here - Studio at Bath Spa University and CAMERA at the University of Bath.
The area's creativity is also reflected in an array of events, festivals and exhibitions that take place locally, including the Bath Children’s Literature Festival, Music and Comedy Festivals, Bath in Fashion Week, the Keynsham Music Festival and the annual Bath Digital Festival.
Visit TechSpark's cluster map to see where companies from our flourishing creative and digital industry are located.
Get connected
The following organisations within Bath & North East Somerset provide useful networking and knowledge sharing opportunities:
- Bath Digital Festival is a showcase for the area's diverse digital and tech community.
- TechSpark is the tech business and information hub in the Bristol, Bath and West of England region.
- Centre for Digital Entertainment (CDE) provides doctoral researchers to research and development support for businesses in the games, animation, VFX, simulation and cultural industries.
- Bath Spa University's TV Studio and Post Production Complex is a new studio for commercial use outside of teaching time.
Bath & North East Somerset is home to a thriving ecosystem of technologists, engineers and creative thinkers who collaborate to solve problems and improve how things work.
Large firms like Altran are based locally, as well as digital publishing giants Future PLC. Also based locally, The Filter counts NBC, Sony Music, Warner Brothers and Nokia as clients for their content relevance optimisation software.
The University of Bath is internationally recognised for its teaching and research strengths in computer science, engineering, and design, and was named 'University of the Year' by the Times and Sunday Times 'Good University Guide' 2023.
Visit TechSpark's cluster map to see where companies from our thriving tech and innovation industry are located.
Get connected
The following organisations within Bath and North East Somerset provide useful networking and knowledge sharing opportunities:
- The University of Bath Innovation Centre combines work space, business support and inspiration. Virtual membership is available.
- TechSpark is an information hub for tech in Bath and Bristol, bringing the community together through informal meetups
The Bath & North East Somerset area has a distinguished track record in engineering design excellence. This is, in part, to do with the University of Bath's successes in the physical sciences and mechanical, electronic, and electrical engineering. It makes the area a popular location for businesses who want to access the university’s world leading knowledge base and recruit its highly qualified graduates.
Technological advances are also being driven by research at the University of Bath, undertaken through IAAPS, a world-leading centre of excellence supporting the transport industry in the transition to net zero.
Cutting edge defence equipment and engineering services are also being developed by locally based firms such as BMT Defence Services, Rotary Precision Instruments, Horstman Group and Rotork. The local towns of Midsomer Norton and Radstock are also known for their strong engineering base.
Our region is at the heart of the largest cluster of microelectronics firms outside of Silicon Valley (Source: Future Horizons) This has attracted world-leading research organisations like HP Labs, Motorola, and Toshiba telecoms Research Europe. Brands like Intel and Broadcom are also based locally.
Get connected
The following organisations within Bath & North East Somerset can provide useful networking and knowledge sharing opportunities:
- West of England Aerospace Forum is a membership organisation offering training, networking, and links into funding streams
- TechSpark is an information hub for tech in Bath and Bristol, bringing the community together through informal meetups
Including accounting, legal services, insurance, financial services and management consultancy, our professional and financial services sector plays a crucial part in our local economy.
Bath and the surrounding area boasts some well-known names in the legal profession including Stone King, RWK Goodman and Mogers Drewett. Wealthtime and M&G Wealth have both developed award-winning fund management platforms and are major employers in Bath. The area is also home to a thriving community of small consultancy firms and independent business advisors.
Get connected
The following organisations within Bath & North East Somerset can provide useful networking and knowledge sharing opportunities:
- The Bath Chamber of Commerce and Initiative for Bath and North East Somerset are trusted lobbying and networking organisations
- West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) aims to deliver growth in this sector by creating a range of beneficial projects for businesses.
The City of Bath has an international reputation as a cultural destination and is the only English city recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A combination of our World Heritage status and natural spa facilities draws in around 4.5 million visitors annually. The estimated total value of tourism to the local economy is around £350 million every year.
The City of Bath is a centre for hundreds of retailers, combining internationally known brands, with wonderful independent shops that line the streets. Southgate Bath has a broad range of high street and top branded shops, finest restaurants, and cafes., whereas Milsom Street is home to many independents. Milsom Quarter is particularly known as Bath and the South West of England's “go-to” fashion and homeware destination.
Our market towns including Midsomer Norton, Radstock and Keynsham are thriving towns and all in the process of benefiting from regeneration funding to enhance the local trading environment.
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The following organisations within Bath & North East Somerset can provide useful networking and knowledge sharing opportunities:
- Bath Tourism Plus promotes the World Heritage City of Bath and the surrounding area, they also operate a membership scheme for accommodation providers, retailers, tour operators and activity providers.
- Bath Independent Hospitality Association is a collective of over 100 guest houses working together to ensure Bath is offering the best quality, choice and value accommodation.
- Bath Business Improvement District is a business led and funded organisation delivering improvements to Bath City Centre's environment.
- West of England Local Enterprise partnership (LEP) Retail Sector Group is a group that aims to deliver growth in the sector by creating beneficial projects for business.
- British Retail Consortium is the lead trade association representing the interests of the full range of retail organisations.
- Traders' groups and local chambers of commerce are active in all of our market towns and represent business interests in their respective areas.
The low carbon and environmental goods and services sector covers many fields, such as transport, construction, and energy.
The excellent technology and engineering skills present in Bath and Bristol are contributing to keeping the West of England at the forefront of environmental and low carbon developments.
Sustainable construction, retrofit and micro-energy installation firms have a strong presence in the Bath area, helping domestic and commercial customers to cut carbon and save energy.
The University of Bath's Institute for Sustainability combines academic expertise with industry to carry out research, training and outreach.
Get connected
The following organisations within Bath & North East Somerset can provide useful networking and knowledge sharing opportunities:
- SETsquared Innovation Centre provides workspace and business support for tech start-ups, including those developing LCEGS
- Southwest Net Zero Hub runs a series of networking and learning events across Bath and Bristol and send a newsletter about policy, technological developments and funding streams
- Regen is a membership organisation which helps local authorities, communities and businesses develop and deliver renewable energy solutions