THE man whose research led to Bournemouth being named the UK’s fastest-growing digital ‘hub’ is repeating the exercise.

Matt Desmier did four surveys of the area’s digital scene over four years.

His efforts persuaded the authors of the first Tech Nation report to include Bournemouth and Poole in their 2015 survey, which named the area the country’s fastest-growing digital economy.

Mr Desmier, of the consultancy Wise Old Uncle, said: “It’s safe to say the landscape has changed quite considerably in the past three years and it might be quite interesting to see what that change looks like.”

Writing at Medium.com, he said: “I’m expanding the search to include the whole South Coast too. The Tech Nation report highlighted some interesting things going on in and around Southampton and there’s some exciting things happening in Portsmouth as well. So I thought it might be interesting to see what the landscape looks like from Bournemouth in the West, to Portsmouth in the East and Winchester to the North.”

He is inviting businesses in the sector to fill in the Great South Coast Creative & Digital Economy Census 2018 at surveymonkey.co.uk until early February.