Did you catch any of FutureEverything? – a cutting edge festival of music, art and all things digital held in Manchester now in its 17th year? It’s a great event with a host of fascinating sessions – including one this year on The Space, so I popped along to find out more.

A panel introduced by Susannah Simons, Development Director for The Space/BBC included Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries at DCMS, Alison Clark-Jenkins, Regional Director, Arts Council England, Mo McRoberts, Technical Lead, The Space/BBC, composer Peter Gregson and Tom Barker, Director of the John Peel Centre.

We were reminded that The Space was created to harness Arts Council England’s commissioning power with the BBC’s technical and broadcast expertise, and it’s an experimental open access platform designed to work across all devices – mobiles, tablets, laptops, internet to showcase this wonderful summer of music, dance, drama and the visual arts – placing some of the glories of the UK’s cultural scene in the hands of the widest audience possible.

But it’s not been easy. Susannah reminded us that at the launch Mark Thomas of the BBC had described the process of the Arts Council and the BBC working together as ‘two whales mating’ – although she added that they were quite nimble whales in that the whole thing has come together in less than 12 months. Minster of Culture, Ed Vaizey chipped in that he was a great fan of whales mating – and that projects where large organisations work alongside each other should happen more often (when challenged later about whether this approach should only involve the large organisations, he did state that he was a fan of minnows mating too).

So is the Space the future of everything?

Ed Vaizey stated that some have described the Space as ‘the most significant cultural intervention since the creation of the Arts Council’ – taking the UK arts firmly into the public digital space and providing both resources and exposure to the arts sector at a scale that has never been done before.

Alison Clark-Jenkins reminded us that it was an experiment – a space to try out new ideas and work in new ways. The range of applications had been huge – from the simply naïve to the ridiculously ambitious. She stated that The Space has the potential to impact on the way the arts were funded in the UK in the future.

Mo McRoberts spoke about developing a platform in the dark – until the commissions were determined in late February 2012, no one knew what the Space would have on it. His team are now working non-stop to create the additional elements projects require to enable each of the commissions to make best use of the space that The Space provides.

Finally, we heard about two projects – Peter Gregson’s composition of tweets and The John Peel Centre’s ambition to place a selection of the great man’s record collection online (this to date is The Space’s most visited element) – the former led by an artist working in partnership with an orchestra and the latter a voluntary organisation learning loads as it upscales for The Space.

It seems as it really is time for minnows to mate. And in these uncharted waters, the PUSH ME team are minnows, and we are up to mate with anything that helps push access further into the mainstream – any other fish or marine mammals out there want to party?

To read more on access and The Space – see Is The Space the future of everything? (part two) – coming tomorrow!