Leeds Digital Festival Launched (08/10/2010)
The initial line-up of events has been announced for this year's Leeds Digital Festival, which aims to showcase the Leeds City Region as a centre of digital and technological excellence and celebrate the talent and work from the region.
Developed by Leeds Media, in partnership with Marketing Leeds, Screen Yorkshire, Leeds College or Art, Leeds Chamber, Holbeck Urban Village and Carbon Imagineering, the festival is taking place from 08 - 12 November 2010 and is a week of events, seminars, socials and showcases, featuring speakers from some of the world's leading brands and the region's leading digital experts.
The festival will act as a catalyst to bring together the existing digital activity within the region. Individuals and organisations with involvement indigital are also being invited to boost the festival line up by hosting their own events, which will be promoted alongside the existing festival programme.
The week culminates on Friday 12th November with the DADI Awards, organised by industry magazine, The Drum, in association with Leeds Live It Love It, and aims to attract national and international audiences, as well as businesses and individuals from across Yorkshire.
In addition to the DADI Awards, the festival will feature three key events taking place at The Mint, in the city's creative district, Holbeck Urban Village. On Wednesday 10th, Screen Yorkshire and CARBON: Imagineering present TedxLeeds 2010: The City as a Platform, which will bring together speakers from IBM, Orange and Pachube.com.
On Thursday 11th, Marketing Leeds presents the next in their national thought leadership series, The Business of Digital. This question time style debate focussing on how digital can boost business will feature a panel including First Direct, industry expert Dr Norman Lewis and social networking entrepreneur, Buddy Ye. This event will be followed by Leeds Media's monthly social which will bring together the region's creative, media and digital practitioners.
On Friday 12th Leeds College of Art, University of Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan University will host an event with Leeds Chamber of Commerce and Screen Yorkshire to improve links between the city's students and media businesses to showcase and retain creative talent in the region.
Gary McCall, Chair of Leeds Media Steering Group says:
"The Leeds City Region is fast becoming a rival to London as a leading hub for the digital industries and is home to some outstanding businesses at the forefront of creativity and technology. We want the festival to showcase the wide range of expertise within the digital and creative sectors, whilst raising the city-region's profile to national and international audiences.
"We already have some fantastic events taking place, but the festival is about engaging with the whole business community and embracing all aspects digital. This is why we are encouraging people to develop their own events. We need everyone to work together to ensure that the festival is a resounding success and that it encapsulates the fantastic digital activity already taking place in our region."
The full events programme and booking information can be found at: http://www.leedsdigitalfestival.co.uk/.
