MORE than 120 guests attended the pre-launch of Design Brighton at the Brighthelm Centre on North Road.

The week-long festival in October 2019 will be officially launched in October 2018, once an outline for the programme has been developed.

Richard Wolfstrome, Design Brighton Executive Team member, said that the purpose of the event was to collate ideas and gather support from the business community to help shape the programme.

The festival will encompass five key areas:

• Local: promoting local talent, producers and resources for local developments supporting the localism and sustainability agenda

• Talent: highlighting the wealth of talent and resources available for local, national or international projects

• Move: positioning Brighton and the surrounding areas as fertile ground for new and existing businesses to thrive in a creative and diverse community

• Improve: analysing the sites and opportunities to improve Brighton’s living and working space

• Educate: profiling Brighton’s education experience and encouraging those in education to stay and work in the region’s creative and technical industries

Festival co-founder John Cowell said: “We were delighted by the level of attendance achieved at the event.

“Everyone we speak to is extremely positive about the festival and we’ve already received a lot of interest from potential supporters and sponsors.

“We’re looking forward to developing a programme which helps put Brighton and the surrounding areas on the map in terms of fantastic urban design, both nationally and across the globe.”

Go to www.designbrighton.org