BBC move a capital idea for the region.

Byline: Iain Laing

THE BBC says its plans to move several major departments out of the capital will create new jobs and opportunities for technology firms in the North East.

By 2011, the Beeb will move around half of its London-based departments, including sports programming, to a new centre in Salford, Greater Manchester, which will house 2,400 staff.

But the broadcaster yesterday told the Thinking Digital conference in Gateshead that the shift out of London will have a hugely positive impact on the North East, as well as the North West, as it looks to deliver new programming in the region.

The BBC announced last month that it will make the new series of popular children's TV show Tracey Beaker in the North East.

And at the conference at The Sage, Kerstin Mogull, Chief Operating Officer of the BBC's Future Media & Technology division said the organisation was keen to develop further shows in the region by partnering with North East tech firms.

She said: "We can do better at the BBC and I think this (shift North) will create a wealth of fantastic, creative technology opportunities in this part of the country.

"It can create lots of jobs for production and technology companies.

There will be significant opportunities for people in this area to get to work with the BBC. We want to work with partners from across the North to establish these new ways of working." She also called on firms in attendance at the conference to get involved. "If you have ideas of how you can work with the BBC in the North, come and see us and talk to us," she said.

According to Ms Mogull, research has found that for every pounds 100 the BBC spends on making programmes in the North East, a further pounds 100 is generated for the region's economy. By 2016 the BBC aims to spend over half of its budget outside of the London area.

The conference also heard from a creator of an online tool which could revolutionise the way students are fed information who called on the Government to make national statistics more readily available to the public.

In a live video link-up from Stockholm Prof Hans Rosling demonstrated why animation could one day replace graphs as the mode of choice to display information.

He is the man behind the Gapminder Foundation - a digital project that aims to make statistical data freely available and easier to understand. The software, which has now been sold to Google, allows any data to be shown in an easy to digest, animated form, rather than traditional X and Y axis graphs.

Rosling also used his presentation to call for more transparency from Governments by sharing statistics with the public, which he says would encourage more entrepreneurial innovation..

For full coverage of the Thinking Digital conference including a video log on to nebusiness.co.uk