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Digital Week 2009 beginning on 9th November, has now announced the official line-up of events which will see digital hubs across the region showcasing what Yorkshire’s creative sector has to offer.
Last year’s event attracted more than 500 industry professionals to a week of events, seminars and networking, and Digital Week 09 is growing up and spreading out across the Yorkshire region with events taking place in Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, Scarborough and Sheffield.
Digital Week is organised by Holbeck Urban Village, Leeds Media and Marketing Leeds with continued investment from Yorkshire Forward to bring the DADI awards back to the region for the next three years under the banner of Leeds Live It Love It. This year’s event also welcomes new sponsors Montpelier Chartered Accountants and City Inn, Leeds newest hotel which launched last week.
The 2009 event sees each city taking on a particular theme to examine and discuss new technologies in every area of the digital and creative sectors. Leeds is hosting events on sound and music, celebrating the city’s rich music scene with key seminars including a round table event on 9th November entitled ‘Audio evolution: Music in the digital age’ which will see four views from leading specialists in the sector about how music can survive the digital boom and stand up to giants such as iTunes and the pirate traders.
To raise the profile of some of the best up and coming talent the city has to offer, Old Chapel Studio and Sponge Studios are joining forces with Sharing the Success, the Leeds LEGI programme to launch a unique one-off album celebrating the Leeds music scene. Fresh local talent has collaborated to make the 16-track CD, entitled Us & Them, which be showcased at a special event Thursday 12th November at City Inn Leeds.
3D technology is a hot topic in the media right now with 3D Television already being showcased at exhibitions around the globe and 3D films including James Cameron’s new movie, ‘Avatar’ and Disney’s ‘Up’ hitting our cinema screens over the coming weeks. But Digital Week in Sheffield will take the discussions further with a look at 3D technology’s role in design and architecture on 9th November and a special workshop looking at new 3D technologies in the gaming world on 10th November, taking place Workstation / Showroom.
Huddersfield heads up the social media focus, with an event at the Media Centre which will see its new media clients discuss and divulge the best way to use online networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Whippet on the Wire, Flickr and Audio Boo, to name but a few, at an informal ‘Open Coffee event’ on 11th November.
Scarborough will be taking a look at digital advancements on screen – and 11th November sees Woodend Creative Space and the Scarborough Digital Group revive a golden era with an evening of film screenings of movies which pioneered the digital movement.
Bradford, which is already home to the Bradford Animation Festival and Bradford Gaming Festival which are running in conjunction with Digital Week, will also be hosting BarCamp on 14th November, which will involve more than 130 attendees from Yorkshire and across the country who will link-up live to BarCamps in the US, Canada and India to look at new developments in film, animation and digital media and offer a special guest speaker – to be announced.
The week will culminate with the national spotlight back on Leeds as it plays host for the second year in a row to the prestigious DADI awards which recognises the work of the UK’s most creative digital agencies – and once again it’s the Yorkshire companies which have outstripped other regions with almost 30% of the nominations.
Leanne Buchan from Holbeck Urban Village said: “It is great to see so many areas running events even though we are only in our second year – Digital Week has already gone region-wide and is a celebration of the digital strides Yorkshire is making as a whole. Although it’s been a tough few months for many industries operating in a tough financial climate, it is the creative and new media sector that has continued to grow and Yorkshire is still at the forefront of this with more than 13,000 creative/digital industry businesses in the region. Digital Week is our chance to both showcase and celebrate Yorkshire’s continuing role as a key creative hub.”
