Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

Mike Butcher from TechCrunch has started a campaign for a central hub for startups in London called TecHub.

Rather than reiterate what Mike has in mind, here’s what he has to say, in part:

So I am hereby serving notice that TechCrunch UK is going to start campaigning for a Digital Hub for the UK.

The working title for this concept is “The TechHub”.

Unfortunately this is going to sound boringly London-centric. But I think it ought to be in London. Why? Simple really. Money, access and the networks inside London. Startups can make use of the amazing access to the wealth of mentoring, venture capital and talent here. I know there is an argument for creating other centres around the UK. But the classic clustering effect created by Silicon Valley would be replicated by concentrating efforts on one geographical area.

Read his full post.

I read from the update he posted that a guy called Ian Forrester disagrees and thinks it’s a waste of time. I have to say, for someone who runs and attends a lot of events, I have never once seen Ian. I’ve heard he runs good events himself but it’s time to support others and the ecosystem. His opinion is typical of the BBC; try to build innovation in-house.

I’m up for supporting this initiative, even if it doesn’t happen. Why? Well because it’ll get a lot more people connected and potentially introduce more budding entrepreneurs to the scene.

I’m delighted to see Mike take it by the horns and state London as the location of choice. It makes perfect sense to try to cluster people where the numbers make sense and they’re supported by the business, telephony and transportation infrastructure. I’ve been saying we need to cluster for a while, so it would be nice to see something more solid happen.