David Brown, Arts and Creative Industries Business Development Officer

Mansfield District Council

My Role:
I lead on the development of Mansfield District Council's activities in relation to creative industries, including business support, and arts development.

The Challenge, Why did you apply?
I applied for the Local Government Challenge because I believe I have so much more to give in my professional life. When I saw the challenge being promoted it just seemed to call out to me. This is the opportunity I have been looking for to stretch myself further than ever and will give me the opportunity to - hopefully - show people that I am the person they keep telling me I am.

What would you do with the £10,000 scholarship if you won?
I think my idea(s) for how I will use the scholarship if I win will evolve and change over the course of the challenge. At the moment there are two aspects of local government that I would be keen to research in the USA and Europe. The first is how they encourage their citizens to take part in the democratic process; from voting to taking a more proactive approach in seeing how local resources are used. The second is to explore attitudes towards being 'cost effective'. By this I mean how council's abroad wrestle with the tension between having to do more with less. Do they invest or simply cut back? Has someone got this balance right? If so I am keen to find them and share their best practice with the rest of the UK.