DON'T we all love to pigeonhole things? It doesn't matter whether it's the job that we do, the hobbies we have, or the music we like - people feel more comfortable if we fit into a nicely-defined category.

Similarly, when we refer to Science City York and the businesses that define it, there's usually a tacit assumption that we'll recognise a science and technology-based business when we see one and, in reverse, we will know which businesses don't fall into the appropriate category.

In reality, of course, life is not as simple as that and many businesses are not easily sorted into arbitrary categories but relate, as they should, primarily to the markets that they serve.

I say all this because you sometimes hear it mooted that the businesses that make up the Creative York cluster are in some way less relevant to Science City York than are the more obvious Bioscience & Healthcare and IT & Digital cluster businesses.

Nothing could be further from the truth and such a view reflects muddled thinking, in part confusing businesses that develop and promote commercial applications of science and technology with those that take advantage of the new opportunities as they develop.

Creative York is now one of three technology business clusters that are part of the Science City York initiative. It was established in 1998 as Heritage and Arts Technology York, and was renamed Creative York in 2004.

The chairman of the Creative York Cluster Group is Janet Barnes, chief executive of the York Museums Trust, and therefore ideally suited to lead this cluster which is characterised by creative applications of technology in visual, musical, digital and structural media.

York is well placed to demonstrate the creative use of technology in the context of its heritage surroundings, and in the use of historic creative skills and crafts. The cluster now represents more than 60 organisations, which together employ more than 1,000 people in technology, arts, and heritage enterprises.

Janet Barnes points out that many other cities have already recognised the importance of creative industries in helping to regenerate run down areas and that practising artists have often helped to "warm-up" locations before more rapid development has followed.

As she explained to me when we met recently, "Creative York is the fastest growing area of York's technology base, yet it is relatively unrecognised and has the potential to make a huge contribution to the city, both economically and aesthetically.

"Gathering together organisations under the banner of Creative York is stimulating new ideas and ways of helping the city to promote itself and raising ambitions for York as a creative City."

One of York's deficiencies is that there is no specific area associated with the cultural or creative industries although the forthcoming Hungate development is one that has the potential to provide exciting opportunities in this respect.

As you might expect, many of the activities going on within Creative York are exciting and innovative and I am going to return to some of these more specifically in a later report along with some indications of the successes already achieved by this important initiative.

Meanwhile, don't be misled into thinking that Creative York is in any sense less worthy or less important than the two other Science City clusters. On the contrary, and especially in the light of York's unique historic heritage, this cluster is of central importance to us and to ignore it or minimise its potential overall contribution to the York economy would be extremely foolhardy.

For more information about Creative York and details of the 2nd Annual Creative York Symposium, to be held at the Merchant Adventurers' Hall York on November 3, see: www.sciencecityyork.org.uk

Updated: 10:59 Wednesday, August 31, 2005