First cup of tea of the day is a must

CREATIVE industry specialist Kevin McManus is the director of Merseyside ACME and sector director for the region’s creative industries. He has responsibility for ensuring the sector remains at the forefront of the city’s economic strategy.

As director of ACME, Kevin and a team of five offer support and advice to creative businesses and entrepreneurs across Merseyside. He was born and brought up in Liverpool and says he is “totally passionate” about his home town, second only to music and his beloved Liverpool FC. He hopes that through his work he will have played a part in the renaissance of the city he loves so much. This is how he spent Wednesday, June 27:

6.30am: The alarm clock goes and my first job of the day is to feed my cat, Fox. She is an American tabby and is normally already awake and looking for her breakfast at this time. After feeding Fox, I get washed, dressed and prepared for the day ahead.

7.30am: I leave my house in Walton and take a stroll to the station.

7.40am: The train arrives and now I feel my day is really under way. I normally read the morning papers. If I didn’t catch up on the news at this point, I am not sure when I would find the time again during the day.

8am: I arrive in the city centre with just about enough time to grab some breakfast before going into the office. My first cup of tea of the day is a must, before tackling the dreaded email mountain.

8.30am - 9am: My colleagues start to arrive. As we are such a small team, we always try to have a very informal briefing at around 9.30am and discuss what each of us is working on during the day ahead.

10.30am: I leave the office for a meeting at BusinessLiverpool, the city’s coordinating body for business support and investment. Then it’s a dash across town to meet a local consultancy company who have been commissioned by ACME and BusinessLiverpool to undertake a major piece of research. The research will give us the most up-to-date and accurate picture of Liverpool’s creative business landscape, so there’s much to discuss.

1.30pm: Just about manage to make it back in time to the office in Fleet Street for lunch with David Parrish. He is one of our main business advisers and has worked with us for around seven years.

I meet David on a regular basis to update him on where we are up to with various clients. On this particular day, I needed to speak to David about a business I had met earlier in the week. The business has recently secured a major contract and the owner feels they could benefit from some specialist advice.

3.40pm: I receive an unexpected phone call from another business. We have a telephone conversation for around 20 minutes. All seems to go well, so we arrange a business meeting for the following week.

4pm: At last I can try to catch up on some of my paperwork for the final two hours of the day.

6pm: On many evenings during the week there are business meetings and networking events which I attend. Tonight it’s a Kin networking event at Microzine. Supported by ACME, Kin is the largest online creative network on Merseyside, with members getting together at regular events. Tonight James Barton, the managing director of Cream, is the keynote speaker.

10pm: Arrive home, and it is a quick shower before pouring myself what I believe to be a well-earned glass of wine.

11pm: I am starting to feel quite tired by this stage. After a quick catch up on the day’s news, I retire to bed with a couple of chapters of Ian Rankin’s latest. Roll on tomorrow.