Presentation by Diane Milne of Dundee City Council.

1. Dundee: Discover Our Future
The Journey Continues
Diane Milne
Dundee City Council

2. Dundee’s History
• City is over 800 years old
• Famous in the past for jute, jam and
journalism
• Jute industry led to rapid growth in the
city
• At it’s height in late 19th century there
were 60 mills and over 50,000 staff
• History of reinvention and innovation

3. Jute

4. Journalism

5. Ship-building
Dundee Harbour 1948

6. Dundee: The City
• Population - 147,000
• Regional population – 330,000
• Post-industrial city facing many challenges
– Unemployment
– Poverty
– Low educational attainment
– Meeting urban infrastructure needs

7. Dundee: The City
• Students – over 22,000 FTE with many in
the creative industries field
• Key sectors – life sciences, healthcare,
creative industries, digital media, high
tech manufacturing
• £1B waterfront regeneration programme
• £80M V&A Museum of Design Dundee
• UNESCO City of Design

8. Dundee Partnership Vision
Dundee will:
•Be a vibrant and attractive city with an
excellent quality of life where people chose
to live, learn, work and visit
•Have a strong and sustainable city economy
that provides jobs for the people of
Dundee, retain more of the city’s graduates
and make the city a magnet for new talent

9. Cultural Regeneration
• 20 year programme of cultural
regeneration
– Dundee Rep Theatre
– Dundee Contemporary Arts Centre
– McManus Regeneration
– V&A Dundee
• Focus on community involvement

10. Cultural Strategy 2015-2020
• Develop people’s creative abilities
• Promote Dundee as a creative city
• Develop excellence in the culture of the city
• Establish Dundee’s reputation for culture & creativity as
catalysts for building a strong city
• Develop a city-wide infrastructure for creativity
• Maximise the use of cultural resources
• Ensure all children have a culturally rich & creative
education
• Use the public realm in the city as a space for culture &
creativity
• Ensuring city’s heritage has a role in its future

11. “To transform the City of Dundee into a world leading waterfront
destination for visitors and businesses through the enhancement
of its physical, economic and cultural assets.”

12. Dundee’s Waterfront Regeneration

15. Dundee Railway Station

16. New Civic Space

17. Civic Blue space

18. Urban Lane

20. The
FIRST
DESIGN MUSEUM
ever to be built in the UK
outside London

21. The driving force behind V&A Dundee?

27. V&A Dundee – Economic Benefits
• Raising confidence
• Boosting tourism – locally and regionally
• Raising aspirations of local businesses
• Attracting talented students and retaining them in the
region
• Emphasis on design-led business innovation with a focus on
SMEs – design as a driver of economic change
• Making designers more strategic and business more creative
• Inward investment – hotels, professional services, property
• Job creation – direct and indirect
• Working with SMEs to develop their performance

28. UNESCO City of Design
• Dundee bid to join the UNESCO Creative Cities
Network in 2014
• Became a member of the network in November
2014
• 2015 sees the city focus on its aims for the
UNESCO status – with a potential focus on design
for social use
• 2016 will be the first full year of activity
• 2016 is the Year of Innovation, Architecture and
Design in Scotland

29. Games Sector
• Long history of games
design in the city
• Abertay University first in
world to develop a degree
programme in computer
games design
• Famous games from Dundee
include: Lemmings, Grand
Theft Auto and Minecraft

30. Games Sector
• 40 gaming firms based in Dundee
• Many now focusing on mobile platforms
• Companies such as Waracle, EEGeo, Outplay
Entertainment, YoYo Games
• Games for Good –
– Play to Cure – Genes in Space
– Dare Schools Challenge
– Minecraft
– Digital On the Move

31. Changing Perceptions
• City Development involved in a city
branding campaign for over 20 years
• Dundee: City of Discovery
• Dundee: One City, Many Discoveries
• Important tool in promoting not just the
city but also key sectors

36. Our Journey Continues
• Retaining graduates
• Supporting companies, creative individuals
• Developing creative workspace
• Raise awareness of Dundee’s creative sector
• Deliver projects such as V&A Dundee
• Encouraging & harnessing tourism growth –
curious traveller, food loving culturalist
• Marketing the city, changing perceptions

37. Our Journey Continues
• Engage our creative sector – use the skills
we have in the city effectively
• Look at initiatives such as design-led
business innovation