THREE local digital entrepreneurs are highlighted in a report on how to unlock prosperity in Britain’s seaside towns.

The report by the Centre for Entrepreneurs identifies a generation of business people, investors, institutions and politicians who are finding fresh relevance for large and small seaside towns.

Bournemouth is among the five towns profiled in the report, which picks out three of the resort's entrepreneurs.

* Digital consultant Matt Desmier, of Wise Old Uncle, discovered there were 454 active, trading creative and digital agencies in Bournemouth. The town was subsequently included in the Tech Nation report, which said Bournemouth and Poole had the fastest-growing digital economy in the country.

The report describes Mr Desmier as “like an exuberant bumble bee, buzzing usefully between ventures”.

* Purbeck-educated Marc Biles joined James Benamor's Richmond Group in 2003 and in 10 years there, helped launch 12 companies that today have revenues of £500m.

He runs Ratio, the software company he launched at the Richmond Group and bought out. With co-founder Tara Flynn and their team, he has created the price comparison site choose-wisely.co.uk and the men’s underwear subscription club briefd.co.uk

* Tom Quay organised a conference, called re:develop, to meet the challenge of recruiting top-noch developers. His father ran an accountancy firm in Blandford and Mr Quay came through the Enterprise Pavilion at Bournemouth and Poole College. His business, Base, provided digital services, mainly to advertising agencies who were outsourcing more work, until he decided to move up the “food chain” by ditching his major client and becoming a digital product studio with clients of its own.

Base’s Westbourne office houses the largest open device lab in the world, under project director Sam Westlake, which allows developers to test their apps and responsive websites for free on almost 500 devices.

The Centre for Entrepreneurs’ report – called From Ebb To Flow: How Entrepreneurs Can Turn the Tide for Britain’s Seeaside Towns – contains a list of recommendations to boost entrepreneurship in seaside towns.

It urges the government to launch a new Seaside Challenge initiative in deprived rural and coastal regions and to support charities that are improving educational standards in seaside towns. It says the public and private sector should collaborate to forge unique identities for their towns.

Programmes that map out national and local economic trends, such as the government-backed Tech Nation project, should be implemented in a range of industries and regions, it says.