A Review of CultureTech Festival 2012
by Startacus Admin
Startacus member Gavin Strawbridge was in attendance at the CultureTECH festival that took place in Derry last week. Here is his review...
The first ever CultureTech Festival took place in Derry/Londonderry from 29th August to 1st September 2012. There was a great buzz around the city throughout the 4 day event and there was also a great buzz on Twitter too.
Over the course of the festival there were numerous speakers, showcases and workshopsheld at all sorts of locations throughout the city. There were several notable keynote speakers including:
Ben Hammersley the UK Prime Minister’s Ambassador to TechCity who made an exciting and significant announcement that Digital Derry has now been twinned with London’s TechCity. (More details on that can be found here)
Other keynote speakers included Sir Nicholas Kenyon, Managing Director of the Barbican Centre, Kath Mainland and Andrew Coulton from the Fringe Festival, Edinburgh, Anita Stokes from Lucasfilm and Niamh Reynolds from Google.
The theme of the first day was “Online marketing for the Rest of Us” and featured talks from many local Northern Ireland companies including Jill Robb from Ambition Digital, Niamh McElhatton from Digital Advertising NI, Ciaran Doherty from Tourism Ireland, Dr Larry Taylor from BT Ireland and Nichola Bates from Grow Sales Online.
This is just a few of the speakers who took part but there were many more. However apart from listening to the talks, there were so many other things to do throughout the festival - from participating in numerous Workshops and Gaming events through to attending one of the many Music events that took place over the course of the 4 days. I tried to attend as many of these events as possible; however it was quite difficult as many ran simultaneously. Some of the events that I did manage to attend were:
SeedComp - This was a competition to find the North West’s most promising digital business ideas. There was a £10,000 prize for the winner and 2 runners up prizes of £5,000. The SeedComp winners for 2012 was ROTOR. Rotor was an app that would allow you to record videos from live gigs and it would attach the music to the video.
Huub.It launch party - I am pleased to say that I was part of the special team for Hubb IT and attended their launch party with many others. This was a particularly exciting time for the Hubb.it founders, Catherine Morris and Breda Doherty as they were Seedcomp runners up last year and one year on they have launched their business with many people now actually using the site.
Liverpool Sound City – Niall from Liverpool Sound City organised a good night with a number of local bands from the city.
Secret Film – I attend one of the Secret Film events that took place during the festival. The film that I attended was the Rocky Horror Picture Show and it was an experience! There were people dressed up as various cast members and they in the usual spirit of these things, acted out their roles while the film was being shown.
CultureTech was not however just for the professional - there were many events for children to partake in as well; although most of these did take place on the final day, Saturday. Some of the main events that took place for children were:
Coder Dojo – This was an event for children aged between 10-14 who had an interest in programming. It was excellent to go and see children being so keen and getting actively involved in programming at such a young age.
Digital Funfair -This was a funfair for children that took place at the same time as a major music event that took place in the Guildhall Square in the centre of the city.The headline act was the acclaimed Belfast performer Duke Special.
Local startup Publishers, Dog Ears also held a launch party to mark the publication of their second book, Puffins’ Rock - again an excellent event for young children,
Overall, CultureTech was a good event and was good for the city. All those who attended do hope that it will return bigger and better in 2013; however we will have to wait and see. If it does come back as we hope, I would highly recommend anyone with an interest in digital technology, culture and the arts to grab a ticket and come along!
Subscribe to our newsletter
If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.
Stashbee, the online sharing-economy platform for storage space, has announced a £1.6m funding round on leading European investment platform Seedrs.
The lowdown on Talentful, the startup that's using your cultural fit and personality to match you to a job and employer...
Hot flushes affect around 1.5 million women in the UK alone. Step forward Grace, the world's first automated tracking and cooling bracelet that counters menopausal hot flushes
The innovative startup that empowers restaurant managers and owners to measure and improve their customer experience.
upSTART, the startup pitch competition at Digital DNA 2019 will see over 20 disruptive NI-based startups pitch to determine who will win an all-expenses paid trip to explore the New York tech scene.
If you've not quite scraped the pounds together to get your 1st startup idea off the ground yet, don't fret! Here's a few top funding tips to consider.
If you are running a business, it’s important for you to understand financial matters, too, Here's some handy accounting reminders!
Holland-based startup Active Cues has created a simple product to engage children and adults with cognitive challenges...
The startup that's empowering people to participate in their health and wellbeing decisions with easy-to-understand health insights.
The startup that's aiming to reduce loneliness and social isolation through warm technology...
Published on: 6th September 2012
If you would like to enable commenting via your Startacus account, please enable Disqus functionality in your Account Settings.
- Stashbee announces £1.6m funding round on Seedrs 17th Jun 2019 Stashbee, the online sharing-economy platform for storage space, has announced a £1.6m funding round on leading European investment platform Seedrs.
- The upSTART finalists at Digital DNA 2019 13th Jun 2019 upSTART, the startup pitch competition at Digital DNA 2019 will see over 20 disruptive NI-based startups pitch to determine who will win an all-expenses paid trip to explore the New York tech scene.
- Lloyd's Lab announces third round of applications 3rd Jun 2019 From data sharing to next generation claims, insurance industry focused tech startups are currently being sought after to join Lloyd's Lab cohort 3.
- Startup Exhibitor package at Digital DNA 2019 28th May 2019 New startup exhibitor package at Digital DNA 2019 gives startups access to 150 Speakers, an estimated 3,000 attendees, 121 investor meetings, a startup pod to exhibit and 4 x 1 full-access exhibition tickets!
