The Sussex And The City Podcast
– Episode 7:

It's Time For A Sussex Digital Strategy

Host: Richard Freeman
Guest: Rose Tighe – Innovation strategist, product leader, and co-lead of Brighton AI

This episode is brought to you in partnership with:
Magenta Associates – A Sussex-based, B Corp certified and employee-owned PR and communications agency using responsible communications to drive social and environmental change - including athical AI adoption.
👉 magentaassociates.co

🔍 Episode summary

In this future-facing episode, Richard Freeman sits down with product innovation heavyweight and grassroots organiser Rose Tighe to ask: is Sussex and Brighton already a tech region – and if so, why isn’t anyone coordinating it?

From leading product strategy at Amazon and Sky, to co-creating Brighton AI (a 1,800-strong community of digital doers), Rose has spent decades navigating change – and building systems that make it useful. Now, she’s at the heart of a regional conversation about what good digital infrastructure actually looks like.

This episode explores how devolution could help shape a bold, collaborative, regional tech strategy - if we get it right.

Topics include:

• What Brighton’s tech community already knows – and what it’s missing

• The power of low-code and no-code tools for new ideas, careers and equity

• How to make sense of fragmented innovation – and avoid duplication

• What a Sussex-wide digital strategy could learn from elsewhere

• Why coordination trumps chaos: Sussex as a live testbed for civic innovation

• Making sure digital decisions are data-informed – and community-owned

• How AI, ethics and public purpose need to grow hand-in-hand

• The need for a shared voice across local authorities, not competitive silos

• What tech professionals aren’t being told about devolution – and why that matters

This is a pragmatic and passionate call to action - for mayors, freelancers, policymakers and product teams alike.

👉 Want to help shape a regional tech strategy?
Start by exploring Brighton AI and other tech meetups supported by Silicon Brighton

👉 Stay up to date with the wider project at sussexandthecity.info

📚 Further reading and links

• Brighton AI: A community exploring the impact of AI, ethics, innovation and skills

• techUK’s Local Digital Capital Index: A framework for understanding tech readiness and digital infrastructure

• techUK’s Mayoral Manifesto: To support vibrant digital economies and better public services

• Silicon Brighton: Community-led digital events and learning

• Greater London Authority: London Datastore: An open data platform as referenced in the episode

• Local Skills Improvement Plan (Sussex): Strategic roadmap for skills planning across the region

🎧 Production credits

Host: Richard Freeman
Guest: Rose Tighe
Sound design / editing / original music: Chris Thorpe-Tracey
Production management: Letitia McConalogue
Recorded at: Projects: The Lanes, Brighton

📣 Get involved

Devolution isn’t just a government thing. It’s a people thing.
👉 Share your ideas, explore resources and shape what’s next at sussexandthecity.info