STEAMHouse Design Enhancement Lab: Driving digital efficiency for creatives

STEAMHouse Design Enhancement Lab: Driving digital efficiency, for creative development, innovation, and growth.

Are you a business in Creative and Art, Publishing and TV or Digital, Media, Data and tech?

Are you wanting to improve the efficiency of your processes through Digital Gap identification?

Do you want to find new routes to market and grow your network in the process?

Connect with a central hub which supports your business development across multiple sectors. Come and join the UKSPF Government Funded Programme at STEAMhouse Create Lab! We have experts delivering sessions to support your creative strategy, and also to develop your network which will augment overall regional growth.

When you sign up to the programme, it provides you with 3 activities centered on knowledge exchange, co-creation, networking and collaboration. We recommend that you join us on all three dates for these activities to be effective for your business:

Session 1 - Launch, Learn and Lunch - Tuesday 11th June - 12pm-2.30pm

Join us for lunch and learn about the experts, about the design thinking process, and the network you will be joining.

• Take away a customer journey map to commence your learning on this programme.

Session 2 - Design Thinking Workshop for Creative Development - Thursday 4th July - 10am-1pm

• Develop a deeper understanding of gap identification and having completed your customer journey map.

• Discover the power of design thinking in driving your digital efficiency, for creative development, innovation, and growth.

• Work individually and in groups, kickstarting your network and knowledge-exchange journey.

Session 3 – Lunch & Learn - Regional Speed Networking - Wednesday 17th July - 1pm-3pm

Continuing B2B support for long-term growth, take part within a specific meet, greet and relationship building event with businesses across the programme, as well as emerging entrepreneurs.

Complete the programme with a group reflective discussion, looking back at learning and observations, allowing you to evaluate methods in innovating within your specific sector moving forwards.

About the facilitators

Zuby Ahmed, Associate Professor of Game Design, College Academic Lead in Employability & Mobility, Course Director in MA Video Game Development, Birmingham City University.

I am a ‘hybrid professor’: a practicing industry veteran and an academic. Specialising in Games Design and Enterprise & Employability, my passionate for Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity facilitates students, academics, and industry practitioners from varied backgrounds to collegiately collaborate, positively transforming practice, place, and people’s lives.

Dr. Mersha Aftab, Senior Lecturer in Design Management, Birmingham City University

My expertise is in human-centred design, and I explore the profound impact of empathy on organisational leadership and transformation. Embedded in industry practice, I have collaborated with companies like Philips, Unilever, and Airbus to drive meaningful change through design innovation. I currently lead an international network called Design-led Transformation, which brings together the public, private and higher education sectors to discuss and articulate the role of design in transformation.

STEAMhouse Forward is part-funded by the UK government through the – to support Birmingham & Solihull businesses to innovate, collaborate and grow.

This project is part-funded by the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a central pillar of the UK government’s Levelling Up agenda and provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills. For more information, visit

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

STEAMhouse, Belmont Works, Cardigan St, Birmingham B4 7RQ, Cardigan Street, Birmingham, United Kingdom