In a very short time, regional digital organisation Codeworks is set to become independent from One North East. But how did the group find its feet amid questions over the economy and the value of the sector in the region? John Hill talks to CEO Herb Kim.

HEY, anybody want to see a party trick? Remember that stunt that your uncle sometimes did when he pulled away a tablecloth but left the plates and glasses standing? It’s like that, only we’re using an entire region.

Back in the early days of the coalition government, it was increasingly obvious that the big One North East tablecloth would be whipped away at some point. For organisations and businesses perched on top of it, now was the time to brace, hold their breath, and hope they weren’t going to be the ones that messily shattered all over the floor.

Among these bodies was Codeworks. The not-for-profit public-duty company was set up by One North East just under a decade ago: a centre of excellence designed to “achieve long-term structural change in the region’s economy”.

It was tasked with supporting the digital technology and media sector, while Cels would handle life sciences, Cenamps would cover emerging technologies, NaREC would be responsible for new and renewable energy and the CPI would support process innovation.

With the North East’s tech scene now attracting interested glances from beyond the region, there are signs that the work of Codeworks has had some impact. Conferences such as Thinking Digital remain popular, and groups such as GameHorizon are now attracting members nationwide. And, at some point in the next week or so, it is set to sign the papers that will make it a self-sufficient body.

CEO Herb Kim says: “We’re a couple of weeks away, if not sooner, from being able to sign the final papers that dissolve the stepping rights One North East has over us.

“One North East retains the right to take over control of the membership of the company, sack the board and appoint its own. It’s meant to be a nuclear option but, regardless of what conditions exist, it’s tough to operate effectively with something like that hanging over your head.

“Because the conferences have been quite big successes it’s allowed the agency the comfort and confidence to say: ‘We’ll let the guys go out there’. They don’t want us to go out there as an independent and fall flat on our faces after three months.”

Codeworks has arranged all three of its major conferences this year since the funding stopped coming out of One North East at the turn of the financial year. Thinking Digital, DIBI and GameHorizon all attracted delegates and speakers from several countries to the North East.

However, the end of regional development agency funding has prompted hard decisions to be made. While there were 24 staff at Codeworks last year, there are now 12. Staff have been let go, while others have not been replaced. Resources have been stretched and, by Kim’s admission, employees have “had to produce world-class levels of quality, but with far fewer resources against a backdrop of huge change, uncertainty and a weak economy”.

Kim said: “I feel we’re one of the more positive legacies to come out of the whole RDA experiment. Our success will always be footnoted by people saying we achieved what we did with significant public support. Now the challenge is to continue to do things at a high level, and to do them sustainably.”

Over the last few years, Codeworks has assisted with software prototyping through Codeworks DEV, launched the Gateshead Digital Summer festival with Gateshead Council, and forged close links between many of the region’s digital businesses. And Kim rules out completely ditching the public service element of the body’s work and becoming a completely profit-driven group.

He said: “The way to survive is often to become a consultancy organisation, which is fine, but then we might as well just work for one of the commercial consultancy firms already out there.

“If we were to be purely profit-seeking, we could move this whole thing down to London or to New York. If we did that, we might as well quit. It wasn’t set up to do that.

“It’s not even a matter of ethics. I don’t think there would be that much enthusiasm for becoming a profit organisation and moving to Manchester or Liverpool. It’s about doing what we did before, in a way that still fulfills our organisational purpose but relies less on an agency.

“I don’t think you can do what we’ve done and suddenly flick a switch. It would go against the grain of what we’ve set up and built up, and create a lot of bad blood in the community. Just because you can make money out of it, it doesn’t necessarily mean you should do it.”