A Sneak Peek at Culture Tech 2013

by Ethan Loughrey

Last week marked the exciting launch of the 2013 CultureTECH (capitals are essential) festival. Although it doesn’t actually begin until the 9th of September, that presumably leaves plenty of time
to get excited for it...

So what is there to be excited about?

Well the festival in itself is a must for geeks in all their many varieties. Over the course of the weeklong experience, some of the highlights we already know about include a Minecraft Tournament (with Multiplay), live music in the “Small but Massive” Glasgowbury Festival, informal social meet ups and much more.

Perhaps most relevant to us at Startacus though is the opportunity to seriously advance any ideas you have for starting a tech company. The Conference section alone – three days of high-profile industry speakers – will ensure the opportunity to gain notes, advice and very likely a quiet chat with the specialists in the field.

If you wanted to go a step further however and actually give a performance at the festival, you have until the end of March to apply. They’re pretty broad in what this could actually entail; anything from film screenings to speaker events, social meetups to hacks and live projects. Anything really, so long as your idea involves a digital angle and can draw a crowd. Should you go down this route, the festival organisers will support you as best they can by organising marketing, infrastructure (venue etc) and, in certain circumstances, funding. If you can put forward an idea without requiring financial support then- according to the website - your chances are good that you’ll be accepted.

Given that this year Derry is, in case you hadn’t yet heard, the UK City of Culture, more time, effort and resources are being poured into preparation. The organisers anticipate a crowd of up to 30,000 people over the course of the week.

On top of everything else already mentioned, there are numerous workshops and seminars being run designed to give attendees (who can apparently expect some of these to take place in “secret venues”) the latest industry tools and business skills.

All in all, a genuinely impressive amount of work is going into making CultureTECH 2013 a hit and anyone with even a faint interest in technology, media or music could do much worse than to remember to keep an eye out for the growing list of attendees, speakers, performances, tournaments and parties that the week promises.

As a small bonus, if you happen to live in or near to the city, CultureTECH are looking to recruit people in the run up to the festival. The roles are for an Operations Manager and a Marketing and Partnerships Manager commencing in April/May of this year for an initial 6 month contract.

Interested? Then check out the Digital Derry website for more details.

Want to find more UK and Irish startup and enterprise events, festivals and conferences? Check out our pretty handy and comprehensive startup and enterprise events list!! 

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Published on: 25th February 2013