January was an important month for MediaDev, the development arm for new media appended to the well-established Hereford-based Rural Media Company.

Stephen Broadfield took up the post of Media Development Officer late last year and, as well as the burden of having to spend a year's budget in one quarter, it has been his job to remove the enigma around the project.

Selling media services to boost the economy is what MediaDev is all about, and Stephen is very much the man with the thrust.

Eight workshops were held in the back room of Hereford's Spread Eagle public house throughout January, incorporating all aspects of media.

The meetings took the form of informal consultations and were aimed at people working within the county, often in isolation, in areas as diverse as PR, photography, journalism, film-making, music, advertising, graphic design and publishing.

It's the day after the final workshop and Stephen is very excited.

"We've had four times the response anticipated, bearing in mind nobody really knew what it was all about," he says.

"Debate has opened up and now we have to support it, follow it through and make it happen."

The aim is in the short-term to get a database together of countywide media practitioners.

"Some of the evenings were conflictive, with people being a bit cynical about 'what's in it for them'.

"I don't mind that - it stimulates communication."

The next step is an inaugural forum meeting, involving everyone who has attended - in the region of 200 people.

The money has come from the European Social Fund, and Stephen is very focused about achieving results.

"We have three years funding, with a possible extension of another two.

"That's a finite period, with finite goals."

Rural Media Company spent two years researching media potential within the county, it having been established that the sector represents 11 per cent of the country's GDP, before gaining funding.

RMC's main business is community initiatives and ideas - things the commercial world wouldn't touch because there's no money there. It's about education, increasing skills through project work and creating opportunities.

Thriving media

MediaDev is part of Herefordshire Council's wider raft of initiatives to develop creative industries within the county, with a lot of new funding being made available.

"Helping to support commercial operators in the community that we live in and increasing employment opportunities is what we're aiming for.

"I'd like nothing more than for Herefordshire to be known for its thriving media community.

"There have been some great ideas already, which is why I feel so passionate about it."

There are plans to create a 'critical mass' approach. To have a media centre where core facilities would be made available to artists who are threaded throughout the county.

A media body the size that he is talking about will carry a lot of weight.

Marketing skills outside of the county is another initiative that Stephen is keen to develop.

"We've got to create an identity, a profile, of a place associated with quality media services.

"The skills exist. It's just a case of bringing them together."

Aside from the inaugural meeting (March 5), dates on the horizon are for a seminar over March 20-21, also at Left Bank Village. Exploring all aspects of e-commerce, the event will incorporate web surgeries, e-strategy workshops, broadband technology and marketing.

MediaDev will also be running a fringe event at Herefordshire's forthcoming Borderlines film festival (March 29-30), to involve a scriptwriting course and media marketplace.

The plan is to hold three to four major media events per year.

"Everything MediaDev does should make a difference. We're not going to get another chance at this."