Tonight as I passed through Newcastle on my weekly commute down to London, the local media was alive with news of plans to turn old shipyards on the Tyne into manufacturing yards to build massive offshore wind turbines.

That the news came on the same day that Corus announced the prospect of redundancies at its steel plants throughout the UK including the North East acts as a case study for the need to re-skill and recalibrate during periods of economic turmoil.

Last week Geordie cheerleader and entrepreneur Charlie Hoult noted on his blog that the high tide of economic prosperity has always reached Newcastle last and gone out first. The demise of local bank Northern Rock in September 2007 was a lousy omen.

But economic downturns and re-skilling are life experiences in which Geordies are well-versed.

When Adam Hart-Davis visited Newcastle for his upcoming programme on Sky’s History Channel (16 February) he said it was a fighting city of invention and reinvention. It’s the birthplace of the light bulb, cheap electricity, and the fastest ships in the world.

Today its wind turbines and a thriving digital community. UK Maker Faire, a practical celebration of science and invention arrives 14 to 15 March and Thinking Digital, billed as the British version of TED takes place on 14 to 15 May.

As Hoult says:

Newcastle is reinventing itself as a world city – an Ideopolis – with embedded university, airport to anywhere… still the joie de vivre of a port town with sunny weather (remember the Romans didn’t settle Manchester because it rained too much!)

Tags: charliehoult, digital, geordie, newcastle, northeast, windturbine