John O’Rourke, Publisher and MD of Clash MagazineBack to Dundee Ambassadors

John runs the Dundee-based Clash Magazine, an award-winning publication which is on sale in 30 countries, as well as www.clashmusic.com

Working in a female environment was different. It was strange as first coming from a traditional corporate environment in Edinburgh although I much preferred the creativity and how positive it was and how community orientated, this led me into the creative industries marketing and media.

If you do something different here, it can resonate more because there's potential and there's always room for new ideas in Dundee. Starting Clash, we didn't have any real experience in publishing or media but we had a good idea and a bit of a gung-ho attitude and it has paid off. Since then we've won Music Magazine of the Year and PPA Scottish Magazine of the Year. It's amazing what you can do in five years with a band of people who have a sense of camaraderie and a can-do spirit.

Having a Dundee base gives us an extra dimension. Clash started in Dundee but we also have a London office because that's where the labels and head offices are based and you've got to be there, speaking to them. But it's great to have retained the Dundee link to the thriving music scene here and the rest of Scotland.

Dundee has so many positives. You've got the city life but it's also so easy to connect to the outdoors, the beaches, the countryside. There's also the fact it gets more hours of sunshine that any other city in Scotland! 

There's a lot of pride in Dundee - and rightly so. For a relatively small city, Dundee has some outstanding achievements. And while it's got a great history, we need to celebrate what's going on right now. The creative industries are really strong in Dundee and I think the marketing agencies here deserve special credit because they have to work extra hard to realise the opportunities.

There's a survival instinct in this city which bodes well for businesses here, even in times of recession.  We've got an energy and instinct to adapt to change and I think that's what people here do well. They show grit and determination and they work with what they've got. At Clash, our product is different to our competitors - the leading industry magazine has only half our online traffic because our demographic is the one that's online. We make the most of that.

Dundee's quite an honest place to live. There's definitely a feeling of people wanting to get value and doing what they do with a sense of fairness. I think there's also a sense of realism about what it is to be young in the city now. If you grow up here, like people anywhere, you'll probably want to leave at some point - to travel and see other places. We just need to make sure people have something to come back to Dundee for.

I'm always surprised by what goes on in Dundee. It's easy to take for granted or just forget about the amazing stuff that's going on here - the world leading research at the universities, for example. The fact that we have two really well regarded universities and the college is great for the city and brings a real vibrancy.

Dundee is a bit of a discovery. It's less obvious that other cities. You have to dig a bit deeper - get in about it - to find the best bits of the city. Yes, there's the history and fascinating facts about Dundee - the jam, jute and journalism - but there's much, much more than that which you can find out about if you want to.