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We understand the transformational power of culture and the creative industries. With a 25-year track record of working across sectors, we work with you to plan, design and deliver sustainable cultural projects, demonstrate their impact, and identify opportunities for growth.

We see a world brimming with cultural and creative potential. Backed by a team of industry experts and experienced thinkers at the top of their fields, our bespoke tools give leaders and decision makers an unparalleled understanding of their cultural and creative assets and how to make the most of them.  

We operate around the world to build and support a new cultural and creative economy that prioritises sustainable development and people’s wellbeing.

We have worked in over 50 countries with clients from international agencies, national and regional government departments, to city leaders  and regeneration bodies, individual cultural and creative businesses.  

Known for our work with cities, we built and grew the World Cities Culture Forum with the Mayor of London over the last decade. This network brings together leaders from 40 global cities to understand the role culture plays in urban development. It continues to operate under the Mayor of London’s oversight and inspired us to develop our flagship data service BOP500, the first global interactive index dedicated to cities and their cultural and creative economies.

We believe that culture and creativity weave a golden thread through all sectors of the economy and areas of public policy. They should be treated with the same seriousness as other sectors. Our rigorous data and intelligence aims to do this. 

About Us

BOP Consulting

A global research and consulting practice for culture and the creative economy

BOP Culture & Creative Consutling

Meet the team

Meet the people who work with you to plan, design and deliver sustainable cultural and creative projects, demonstrate their impact, and identify opportunities for growth.

Paul Owens is a leading international advisor and practitioner in cultural policy and creative economy. He is Co-Founder of BOP, and alongside his fellow directors he has pioneered now well-established methods to measure the impact of cultural policy. 

Paul Owens

Co-Founder and Director

Callum leads the BOP team, its portfolio and strategic partnerships. His cultural and creative industries expertise is grounded in his work for major clients in the UK, Europe and Middle East.

Callum Lee

Managing Director

Richard Naylor is a world leading expert in research methodologies for the culture and the creative industries, having been an early innovator in the development of frameworks for measuring the economic and social impacts of cultural activities.

Richard Naylor

Director, Research

Rachel is an Associate Director at BOP. She leads our Strategy and Planning work, assisting clients in realising transformative initiatives, executing capital projects, and shaping destinations.

Rachel Kuhn

Associate Director

About BOP Consulting

About BOP Consulting

The transformative power of culture and the creative industries

BAFA - Festivals Forward

Festivals Forward

Arts festivals are a vital part of the UK cultural sector, with more than 1,000 taking place nationwide. Our research for the British Arts Festivals Association has found they are at a critical juncture.

BAFA

View Project
Creative Industries and the Climate Emergency

Creative Industries and the Climate Emergency: The Path to Net Zero

In 2022, the UK’s Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre published for the first time a sub-sector by sub-sector overview of the Creative Industries and net zero.

Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre

View Project
Re-shaping Policies For Creativity

RE | SHAPING POLICIES FOR CREATIVITY – Addressing culture as a global public good

This report offers insightful new data that shed light on emerging trends at a global level, as well as putting forward policy recommendations to foster creative ecosystems that contribute to a sustainable world by 2030 and beyond.

UNESCO

Night-Time Economy Report Download

Creating a Healthy Night-Time Economy

This report is specially prepared for the International Forum on Cultural Placemaking and the Night-time Economy. Its researched and written by BOP Consulting.

Nanjing Creative Center

Arts and Culture Capital, World Cities Culture Forum

World Cities Culture Report 2018

This is the most comprehensive report ever published about culture and the role it plays in shaping life in major cities worldwide. The report is based on extensive data and practice research to reveal how 35 major global cities are in the vanguard of policymaking.

World Cities Culture Forum (WCCF)

Urban Revitalisation Creative and Cultural Industries

Creative and Cultural Industries in Urban Revitalisation – A practice handbook

The creative and cultural industries are a powerful catalyst for place-based renewal. They have the capacity to animate public spaces, to attract new customers, to encourage collaboration and to bring communities together.

Inter-American Development Bank - IDB

Industry reports we've produced

We have a particular interest in cities and have pioneered innovative approaches to understanding and nurturing creative eco-systems in cities around the world using wide ranging research and data to guide our thinking. Browse some of our recent reports to get a flavour of our work.

Environmental Commitment 

We believe in culture and creativity as a powerful catalyst for innovation, social development, and environmental awareness. Developed by an internal team our environmental policy not only addresses BOP’s environmental impact, but also aims to raise awareness and support organisations, cities, and people in our network to achieve sustainability. Because of these beliefs and commitments, we have earned  ISO 14001 accreditation and are constantly addressing three core areas of influence:

 

  1. Our own impact: monitor our impact, minimise it, and offset what we cannot eliminate.  

  2. Our work with clients: anchor ecological principles into our projects and support our clients to do the same. 

  3. Our voice: raise awareness, promote, and share environmental sustainability good practice in the sector. 

As part of our commitment to the environment we also support the following organisations:  

Julie’s Bicycle: Mobilising the arts and culture to act on the climate emergency, we actively work with and support their work to meet the climate crisis head on.

The Woodland Trust:  As an organisation dedicated to constructing and enhancing woodland and biodiversity across the UK, while also championing accessibility, we have made the decision to annually donate to the Woodland Trust.

These donations serve to compensate for our carbon output and align with our commitment to maintain our ISO 14001 accreditation. To learn more about our environmental commitment read our environmental policy here

Social Commitment

We also support the following organisations and initiative's as part of our social commitment:

  • Accumulate: Helping young, homeless people in London to build their skills, develop their wellbeing and improve their lives through creativity

  • Achates Philanthropy Prize: Seeking to widen and deepen private support for arts and culture

  • Full Fact: Checking facts and fighting bad information because we all deserve information we can trust 

  • Hope not Hate: Striving to expose and oppose extremism

  • The Equality Trust: Working to improve the quality of life by dismantling structural inequalities

  • Work with the Social Mobility Foundation to host two pupils through their Aspiring Professionals Programme every year 

  • Support our team with a cultural allowance to enable them to enjoy their chosen cultural interests.

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Values and Responsibility

BOP consulting

Research, Data and Insight

We understand the transformative potential of the culture and creative industries (CCIs)

Our Services

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Evaluation and Impact Assessment

Helping you to demonstrate impact, test new ideas, learn and improve from experience

Our Services

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Strategy and Policy Design

Helping you to achieve your cultural and creative potential through shared visions, strategic plans and new policies

Our Services

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Cultural Master Planning

Helping you to realise new programmes, capital projects, urban renewal schemes, place shaping and capital development

Our Services

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We are passionate about the power of the cultural and creative industries. With a 25-year track record of working across sectors worldwide, our cutting-edge data and intelligence translates into insights that help you strategically deliver projects and programmes, giving any project a transformative impact.  

Expertise and Services

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