The Baltic Triangle - Business In The Liverpool City Region

In episode 43 of the Baltic Triangle podcast we hear from two businesses who used the lockdown period after Covid to re-calibrate their companies and are looking to the future with fresh optimism.

In episode 41 - We chat to two Liverpool based business people, Chief Exec of Baltic Creative CIC Lynn Haime and Paul Webley from Blaze Media.

Lynn has recently taken the vacant Baltic Creative position after Mark Lawler left earlier in the year. Lynn who has an impressive resume in property with positions held at Matthews & Goodman and Manchester's Media City.

Paul heads up a relatively young digital agency in the Baltic district and this year won the Creative and Digital Agency of the Year at the Downtown in Business Awards. Now celebrating their 5th Birthday, Paul talks about hiring the nest talent and how more businesses are looking outside London and Manchester for support.

In the latest Baltic Triangle podcast, we chat to Jayne Lawless, the Merseyside-based artist who runs the North End Sketch club and the 'roaming' Dead Pigeon Gallery and whose work has taken her to Poland, Slovakia, Portugal, USA, Cyprus and London Rd, to name just a few.

She's about to embark on a major commission in Cheshire.

Jayne's working-class background in Everton underpins her work and she's as much an activist as an artist.

In the second part, we tap into the analytical mind of Jim Quail who along with his business partner Alison Johnson produce conceptional prints. These prints focus on modern culture and are famous around the world, featured in magazines such as Wired, DJ Mag and Mix Mag.

In this month's Baltic Triangle podcast we take a deep dive into the local and national economy with Professor Michael Parkinson CBE ambassador for the Heseltine Institute at the University of Liverpool and a man who's been commenting on Liverpool City Region for 40 years.

He gives his unique take on our prospects for the next few years, taking into consideration the political turmoil we find ourselves in locally, nationally and internationally. Believe it or not, he remains quite optimistic despite all the bad news in the media!

Our next guest is Rebecca Taylor who is the Chief Executive of innovative Liverpool-based medical equipment supplier, Aquarate. They've developed a smart Hydracup which is being used in the care sector to better monitor the hydration levels of elderly patients.....innovation at its very best from the heart of the city region."

If you're interested in reading more about our guests please follow the links below.

Beer, bees and glass..............in this episode we visit 2 businessmen who are reviving some ancient skills and traditions right in the heart of the Baltic Triangle.

The first one is a much-missed Liverpool beer and the other the art of glass-blowing. 

We all love beer right...? If there's one thing that's been missing from Cains' Brewery Village - its freshly brewed Cain's Beer. However, the wait is over with a brand new venue and brewery (inside the old brewery} ready to serve up some of the old classics - including the infamous Raisin Beer!

Our next guest is John Fenn who has been creating sublime art from glass and honey - something you would expect from the Baltic! John keeps his own Bee's that produce the honey and runs is workshop and Glass blowing courses in Northern Lights, an artist led studio in the Baltic Triangle.

The Baltic Triangle podcast is dedicated to delivering stories about people and businesses within the Liverpool City Region doing extraordinary things. 

In this months episode we speak to Say it with Diamonds entrepreneur Charlotte Donoghue and business consultant Garth Dallas.

Garth is managing the good small business programme in next month's event across Liverpool.

The festival has been in the mindset of the city for over two years but due to the pandemic has been postponed. Finally, the city-wide event is due to launch again in March over three days.

The GBF 2022 will cover good practice topics in venues from the British Music Experience on the world famous waterfront to Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral to the Baltic Triangle.

In this episode, we focus on Liverpudlians who are involved in TV and Film, introducing you to Tony Schumacher and Liverpool Locations. 

Starting with Tony who is the writer of the new BBC Drama staring Martin Freeman called The Responder which starts on 24th Jan 2022. 

In this month's Baltic Triangle podcast we meet the Executive Chef from the Lu Ban Chinese Restaurant and academy in Liverpool, Dave Critchley,  who says they're taking Chinese cuisine to a new level....

Having most recently starred in TV's The Great British Menu, Chef Dave has worked in kitchens since the age of 15 and has led some of the North West’s premier restaurants. These include Alma de Cuba (Michelin Guide), The Noble House (Michelin Guide) and Australasia (Michelin Guide). 

He was the Executive Head Chef at The London Carriage Works, fine dining restaurant of the highly decorated Hope Street Hotel (2AA Rosette, Michelin Guide) before opening Lu Ban, Liverpool as their Executive Chef Director. 

He has catered for the Liverpool Football Club team for four years as well as a wealth of other professional sports stars and local celebrities.

We also hear from the  Daily Mirror's Liverpool-based,award-winning columnist Brian Reade whose new book Diamonds in the Mud celebrates not Kings and Queens and aristocats but working class heroes like the iconic trade union leader Jack Jones and the great Mohammed Ali -- both of whom Brian met in his journalistic career.

In Episode 31 - We talk to Sophie Wilson who is the CEO and founder of PR and Marketing Company Tuesday Media. Sophie relocated back to her home city of Liverpool after suffering from long covid for 17 months after being based in the south for 20 years. She talks about what it's like being back in the city and starting her business afresh.

We also speak to Max McDonough who is the proprietor of Raw Hide Custom. 

Max creates handmade leather goods from his base at Make Liverpool on the North Docks and has had his work featured in magazine such as GQ. 

In this episode Mark speaks to Sue King who is a 7th Dan Japanese Jui Jitsu Sensei, who’s also a Zen Buddhist Monk.  She’s established her dojo, Mushin Academy, right in the heart of Norris Green.  Sue has been doing amazing work to support children in her community, who’ve had a tough time throughout the Covid Pandemic.

In episode 28 of the Baltic Triangle podcast......'How a Liverpool restaurant chain is fighting back with a vengeance after lockdown and we visit the award-winning Baltic Triangle furniture workshop which has taken quality craftsmanship in wood to another level & about their ambitious plans to expand.

In this month's episode we focus on two ground-breaking Merseyside companies fighting plastic pollution in very different ways.

After a difficult year, you would be forgiven for missing the LCR Creative & Culture Awards 2020 - it passed us by too!

However, when we eventually got wind of these prestigious honours - the team sought to find out more about the winners, especially when so many are associated with Baltic Triangle. We're proud to say that Baltic Creative and Paul Curtis became holders of category accolades! 

However, we know all about these Liverpool success stories, so we dug a little deeper into the Winners you may not know a lot about...

In this month's Baltic Triangle podcast we focus on the issue of mental health - how it affects NHS workers fighting the pandemic.

We hear from NHS consultant Dr Terry McLoughlin from the Royal University hospital in Liverpool about their staff well-being programme and from Phil Bridges, the founder of The Mind Map, the one-stop-shop for young people seeking support for mental health issues.

We talk to Liverpool writer Jeff Young whose new book Ghost Town -a Liverpool Shadowplay has just been published. 

Jeff Young is a renowned writer for theatre, radio, TV and film. His theatre work has been produced internationally and he has had over 35 radio productions. TV work includes Eastenders, Casualty, Holby City and CBBC. 

We talk to Jeff about the new book which is a memoir unlike most, it may be a recollection of what could have been or what had been. By Jeff's own admission, all recollections are subject to change?

In this month's Baltic Triangle podcast we hear two very different views on the state of our national sport from grassroots to professional football.

The tv presenter, actor and environmentalist believe there's no reason why the city can't become a world leader in traffic management. Liverpool city council is to set up a £4m fund to pay for a 65-mile network of lanes creating seven new pop-up cycling routes around the city.

Joe Anderson also discusses the future of the Littlewoods building and Ten Streets and also how the digital, creative and hospitality sectors will be at the forefront of Liverpool's economic recovery.

Eastwood Guitars are a international - and unique - company based in Nashville, Chicago and Liverpool. We meet Carl Cook, the Scouse boss of the European operations, based here in Liverpool's Baltic Triangle to hear their story.

And keeping with the musical theme we hear from a Merseyside-based music promoter about the thriving grassroots music scene locally and why it's essential to support it.

In our latest Baltic Triangle podcast our intrepid duo Mark Reeson and Mick Ord visit Liverpool's first vertical farm which is based in the heart of  the Lifescience UTC academy on Jamaica St.

The team at Farm Urban are doing genuinely groundbreaking work growing vegetables that are pesticide-free in highly controlled conditions deep  in the crypt of the school.

They aim to get their food out to all the schools in the city in a bid to improve the quality of the food they - and we - eat.

TV Producer and screenwriter Phil Redmond explains why he wasn't surprised by Channel 4's decision NOT to put Liverpool on its shortlist to be for it's new out-of-London headquarters.

A recommendation on the National HQ and Creative Hubs will be made to the Channel 4 Board at the end of October .....with Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester vying to be the top prize.

Redmond who created tv soaps Hollyoaks and Brookside say the Channel 4 process wasn't rigorous enough comparing it unfavourably with the UK's City of Culture bidding process in which he has been closely involved since its inception.

 In this month's Baltic Triangle podcast, Mark Reeson visits the owners of one of Liverpool's most iconic (and hard-to-find) pubs and which is fast achieving cult status among the area's pub-goers, and Mick Ord meets the Chief Executive  of  a grassroots organization which supports community and social businesses in a unique way. 

In our monthly Baltic Broadcasting Company podcast we are keen to reflect the astonishing variety of businesses that are springing up in the area and proving to the world - if proof were necessary- that Liverpool is a great place to do business in the creative and digital sector as well as the traditional sectors.

Each month Mick Ord and Mark Reeson hear from the men and women who are helping to make the Triangle one of the most creative areas in the UK. They have compelling and revealing stories to tell and like any organization have faced challenges trying to make their businesses a success.

Some are startups and others have been running successfully  for many years. 

Hopefully their stories will inspire and challenge you wherever you live and work.

We are particularly keen to foster a greater understanding between the Baltic and the more traditional long-established businesses in the city region and reach out to the rest of the world to see how we can live and work together.

If you'd like to partner us or be featured in the next edition of the Baltic Broadcasting Company podcast get in touch and we'll reply before you can say BBC.

They’ve been speaking to two Liverpool and Baltic Triangle based companies at the sharp end of industries that have changed considerably over the past few years, a trend that is likely to continue.