Anyone who has been to a personal development seminar or workshop will know the value of positive thinking and self belief in helping to make things happen. As a city Glasgow, recently voted the ''coolest'' city in Cool Britannia by a national newspaper, has taken that positive thinking a step further by launching the Glasgow Sphere of Influence.

The idea behind Glasgow Development Agency's initiative has been to enrol successful Glaswegians whether by birth or adoption, living at home or away, and committing them to ''talking up'' the city to generate business and jobs.

Bill Neish, general manager of Marks & Spencer's Argyle Street store, is an example of the calibre of the ''home'' team, running the company's most important and prestigious store outside London.

Another ''home'' team member is Stuart Cosgrove, who recently brought Channel Four to Glasgow. He is one of that rare breed of ambassadors who go away and impress the market enough to bring it back home with them.

The effect of Channel Four's setting up the Nations & Regions base in the city has enormous implications for the film and television industry in Scotland and will help to reinforce the developing media infrastructure in Glasgow, encouraging investment and creating jobs.

Cosgrove is confident that GSI will help mould the city's future. ''I'm involved in the sphere of influence because I live in Glasgow, I think it's a really vibrant city and I think it's vitally important that Scotland has a number of different centres of excellence that can attract people,'' he said.

''It's important that people make films in Glasgow, that people locate companies in Glasgow, and that people feel good about coming to Glasgow as a cultural centre.'' He explained how that sphere of influence works, not only through investment but through face to face promotion.

''When you're in the same room as people who are thinking of doing something then you can try to spin it Glasgow's way,'' he said. ''I do that a lot. It's like, if something's on the table, you're thinking: that film could be made in Glasgow and we could help.''

''However, in terms of the film industry, we have to start from a base supposition that Scotland's a small country and it's always going to be a minor kind of player on the international film scene. None the less, Scotland has a strong film culture and does much better than a lot of other small countries in terms of its ability to generate film.''

Television work is usually short contract, freelance, independent and often contracted out. With the exception of the BBC and Scottish there is no real studio facility. Nevertheless, the film and television industry in Glasgow employs a significant, and constantly increasing, number of people in a wide variety of roles.

Training is still a big problem. Previously the broadcasters took responsibility, offering an internal training system for trainee directors, producers and other production roles, but now that they have become more freelance-based, training was no longer seen as the immediate and direct responsi-

bility of the employer.

Channel Four spends 5% of its annual budget on training, but that's largely contracted out, for example, through our relationship with Skillset,'' said Cosgrove. ''Most people will tell you we're not doing enough and that people aren't investing in the training needed. ''I chair the Scottish Screen Training Committee and I think they have three or four courses that work very well indeed, specific to skills within the industry.

''This is a very attractive industry for young people to aspire to work in, but because of the privatisation of education there has been a need to attract students.

''One way of doing that is to run media film studies courses. But there have been huge numbers of people graduating every year, sometimes for disappointment.''

Given the breadth of the industry, however, Cosgrove is supportive of training that offers alternative opportunities for non-mainstream, counter-cultural, underground filmmakers.

''Glasgow Film and Video Workshop is an important point of entry for a particular tradition of film-making and is more likely to be encouraging people to make low budget dramas so that they can make their first short film, then their second, so that one day they can make their feature or documentary,'' he said.

''The convergence of film with other areas like music technology, is also important. Music in many ways has been 10 years ahead of film and television. The technology that came to music in the early eighties meant that lots of young people set up their own independent labels, distributed their own CDs, and now we have about 100 people in Glasgow making their own albums.

''That has only just come to television through the miniaturisation of cameras, the Sony DVC cameras and PCs with facilities for editing at home. There are probably about 20 or 30 people making their own television programmes in Glasgow.

''Cosgrove sees the indigenous film industry in Glasgow as fitting well with the emerging grass roots success culture epitomised in the new clubs, restaurants and hotels that have been opened.

He said: ''Younger people are growing up with the reality that Glasgow is a cosmopolitan city and they are not hiding away because they think they cannot do things.

''Attitudes have changed and young people today are not thinking we can't do that because we're Glasgow, they are saying we can do that because we are Glasgow. That is a really important change.''