BBC Birmingham and City Partners to host Birmingham’s first Digital Week
From 14 to 20 March 2015 BBC Birmingham and partners are joining forces to showcase the wide range of digital industries in the creative and business sectors – one of the largest programmes of training, events, workshops and panels ever to be held for those working in broadcast, digital agencies, games, arts and creative industries.
Published: 9 March 2015
We are very pleased the BBC has been the catalyst in creating Birmingham’s first Digital Week. Birmingham has the largest cluster of digital businesses outside London so it makes complete sense to have a Digital Week of this scale.
BBC Birmingham, home to The BBC Academy, will work with The Arts Council England, Birmingham City Creative Partnership, Creative England, Creative Skillset and Birmingham City University to deliver a packed schedule of networking, training and knowledge exchange for the creative industries.
Joe Godwin, director of the BBC Academy and BBC Birmingham, says of the event: “We are very pleased the BBC has been the catalyst in creating Birmingham’s first Digital Week. Birmingham has 3,975+ firms in the digital and creative industries – the largest cluster of digital businesses outside London * so it makes complete sense to have a Digital Week of this scale.
“BBC Birmingham is committed to playing its part in moving Birmingham’s media sector forward and this is a great example of working together to become bigger than the sum of all our parts.”
Each day has a different theme and focus:
Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 March: Weekend Hack, a two day event for under 19s supported by Coding Brum, a club for young coders based at BBC Birmingham.
Monday 16 March: Games Day and BBC Birmingham Access All Areas, hosted by Creative England Games Lab and featuring cutting edge games industry talks with a focus on the West Midlands as a game industry hub. Guests include TIGA, Microsoft, Deco Digital and Radiant Worlds.
BBC Birmingham Access All Areas is a unique online opportunity that offers a day-long glimpse behind the scenes of the BBC Mailbox premises.
Tuesday 17 March: Skills Day, Creative Skillset and BBC Birmingham offer a day of free expert sessions offering practical tips, masterclasses and workshops on the skills and tools you need to thrive within digital industries.
Wednesday 18 March: #Rethink Media 2015 conference organised by Birmingham City University, looks at both the digital landscape of multiplatform content provision and highlights the new talent behind the scenes.
Rethink Media has been established specifically to support emerging media and the development of new business models and tools to enhance content creation, maximise distribution and support audience engagement.
Thursday 19 March: Digital Arts Day is being hosted by The Space and Arts Council England. The day will unite digital artists and key influencers and create an environment to explore new commissioning opportunities. Creative innovators and tech specialists will be given opportunities to participate in digital art.
Friday 20th March: Business Day is a showcase of events coordinated by Birmingham Creative City Partnership demonstrating and explaining the use of Digital Technology in the creative business climate.
There are many other exciting events taking place across the city over the week including events with Birmingham’s Flat pack festival and The Equinox Festival.
Anyone interested in signing up should visit http://bit.ly/bdw2015 or follow the hashtag #BDW2015
*figures provided by Marketing Birmingham.
BG