The pace of technology development has both inspired the emergence of significant new sectors, e.g. social media and at the same time challenged well-established business models, over a relatively short timeframe. A rapidly changing environment enables small agile organisations to take advantage of evolving opportunities to develop significant businesses. But established, small and even medium sized, often resource-constrained companies can find it difficult to keep up to date with emerging trends, explore potential impact and develop their business.

With technology there can also be cultural and language barriers which impede knowledge exchange between technologists and creative practitioners. Exploring the technology landscape and its potential impact, and disseminating this knowledge so that it can be easily interpreted and acted on, will be a key activity of the Creative Industries Technology and Innovation Knowledge Transfer Network.