What’s Next for Stoke-on-Trent: Guardian Live Panel

At Wavemaker, we care deeply about Stoke-on-Trent and those that know us know that we're passionate about promoting the area as a place full of creative and passionate people with big ideas, hopes and ambitions. We are proud to be a small part of this city’s exciting future.

It's because of this passion that we got involved with the City of Culture 2021 and got to speak with John Domokos, video producer at The Guardian. John spent over a year capturing the progression of the area and interviewing some of the people and local residents supporting the bid. The end result were 8 short documentaries of the area, Made in Stoke-on-Trent.

The series, like all good films should, divided option and provoked discussion. We spoke to John and asked, “what’s next?”. It was a question that a lot of people were asking, especially after we came so close, yet missed out, on becoming the City of Culture that it was decided we should hold a special evening to discuss that very question and see what the people of Stoke-on-Trent had to say.

The Q&A panel was held in the theatre of the Mitchell Arts Centre, where we are based, on 19th September and gave everyone an insight into where we, as a city, needed to go as well as reinforced the pride and community of the Stoke-on-Trent people.

Ben McManus, CEO of Wavemaker, was on the panel and spoke about his experience as a student moving into the city and all of the reasons that he decided to stay. “In the 20 years I have lived and made memories here, it has continued to surprise me. The positive changes in the city and the mindset of the people make me feel that anything is possible.”

The city is evolving, becoming a place of exciting possibilities and growth while embracing its history and how far we've come. We can't wait to be along for the ride and to watch the city continue to develop into the place we know it can be.