About Leeds Digital Festival

In 2016 Leeds Digital Festival is collaborating with the award-winning Live at Leeds music festival, to create a exciting programme showcasing the hottest musical talent and the latest emerging technologies. The two events will cross over fully on the Friday 29th April, with a major event planned to celebrate the collaboration.

By combining digital themes with Live at Leeds, which attracts over 10,000 people, we’ll bring an engaged audience into Leeds to participate in an event that will crossover between business, digital and music, as seen within successful festivals around the world such as SXSW in Austin, Texas, and OFFF in Barcelona. The overall event will be branded as the Live at Leeds, Music & Digital Festival.

Festival Launch at Leeds Dock

To celebrate a week of digital celebration at Leeds Dock there is a VIP event to mark the launch of the Leeds Digital Festival. Influential digital players from the city will come together featuring:

This is a VIP invite only event.

As headline sponsor of the city-wide Leeds Digital Festival, Leeds Dock will celebrate digital culture in all its forms. The programme of engaging events at Leeds Dock as part of the Festival showcases some of the very best in music, art and creative discussion around from 25-30 April 2016. This includes the Lumen Prize exhibition bringing together digital art by artists from across the globe.

Breakfast Bytes

The Breakfast Bytes are a series of morning events created by the city digital community for the digital community and beyond. Pop along to hear insightful talks daily as part of The Leeds Digital Festival 2016.

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Digital Marketing / SEO Skill Share

Leeds Dock’s key tenants which specialise in digital marketing and Search Engine Optimisation will be on hand to help local companies with digital marketing.

SME’s will be welcome to drop in and gain valuable advice from a selection of Leeds based companies. There will also be talks from those attending:

There will be presentations, workshops, consultation & networking opportunities.

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The Digital Debate

The Digital Debate will feature a panel of specialists discussing themes and trends across the digital spectrum.

Panel speakers include:

Moderated by Laura Harper of Shoosmiths and Future Everything. Organised by Phil Dawson of Leeds Dock and Allied London.

Topic: Can Digital build a Powerhouse?

We’ve been told there is a nascent Northern Powerhouse, but how do the digital industries in Leeds figure in this? Can we be an effective part of it? Do we have the skills, talent, entrepreneurs and businesses to compete and scale? In this debate some of the leading figures on the Leeds scene discuss these topics, with questions and thoughts invited from the audience.

Areas of discussion

How can we be part of this Powerhouse?

What business are in Leeds that work in the digital sector? (Games / Fintech / Advertising / Website Creative Production)
Do we have the aspiration?
What’s holding us back? Are cliques in the industry a problem?
What is the Council’s role in this and what is their strategy?

Start ups & Scale Ups

We have a strong start up scene, but what do we need to scale?
Does government support this? Funding / grants / LEP etc.
Where are the private investors?
Is FinTech where the efforts of Local Government should be concentrated? What about the creative digital industries? They arguably represent the long term employment option.
Those who have the ear of government / LEP are in an elite – how can we open up the opportunities?

Skills & Talent

How can we attract the best talent? We need people now!
How can we create the best talent? Connections to Universities etc.
There is a lot of diversity in the types of businesses, but we are all looking for (broadly) the same skills – how can we positively compete?
How do the smaller companies compete with the big ones?

Infrastructure

How can we get to clients? Travel etc.
Will the cross Pennine route from Manchester to Leeds actually make a difference?
Access to grants / funding from Government
Incubation spaces – are they working?
Office space – do we have good, cool, affordable space?

Please make sure you register to guarantee entry to this event as there are a limited number of tickets available.

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The Digital Art Debate

The Digital Art Debate will feature a panel of specialists covering themes, trends, revolutions in digital art.

Panel speakers confirmed:

Part of The Lumen Prize Exhibition, “The World’s Pre-eminent Digital Art Prize” — The Guardian Culture Blog.

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Glug Revelations

Glug Leeds is an informal meet up celebrating the wonderful creative talents in the North where local Creatives can meet, inspire and collaborate.

Glug Leeds #5 will showcase the new and interesting trends in the creative industry.

Speakers on the night include:

Social Chain

Social Chain is the UK’s largest Influencer Marketing agency and one of the most talked about marketing agencies of 2015. At just 23years old, Steve Bartlett heads up a team of more than fifty young creatives growing huge social trends, recognised as one of the most powerful influencers on Social Media.

Steve Barlett takes popular online communities & influencers and builds creative marketing campaigns for some of the biggest brands in the world. As a result, he has turned Social Chain into a multi-million pound business that has been recognised by The Drum as Social Media Agency of the Year.

ODI Leeds

Paul Connell the founder of ODI Leeds will be joining us to talk about the ODI, a ‘Pioneer Node’ of the Open Data Institute founded by Sir Tim Berners Lee and Sir Nigel Shadbolt to equip, connect and inspire people around the world to innovate with data.

M14 Industries (Bristlr App)

Meet the guys behind Bristlr App – winner of the UK’s best new dating site 2016. Part social network, part dating service, Bristlr has become the world’s favourite beard-centric social app. Dubbed as the ‘Tinder for Beards’ by CNBC for its 120,000 users.

Started as something of a joke in October 2014, Bristlr has now created more than half of a million connections between those with beards and those who want to stroke them. The app has grown into a fully fledged and feature rich dating service used in more than 100 cities around the world.

M14 Industries manage and power niche dating and social apps, allowing anyone to easily create their own service without fuss.

Christopher Murphy

Christopher Murphy is a writer, designer and speaker based in Belfast. A passionate educator, and a mentor to many young entrepreneurs, Murphy leads Interaction Design provision at The Belfast School of Art, where he has championed a successful entrepreneurship culture for many years.

Stac

Stac is a consultancy based in central Leeds focusing on application architecture, developer workshops, performance and security. With clients such as the NHS and Sky, they’re well versed in building and scaling large web applications for any industry.

Josh Nesbitt Stac’s Director is a Ruby programmer with many years’ experience, Josh also runs the Hey! (https://heyst.ac) events, taking place roughly eight times a year, attracting digital professionals from all over Leeds and the surrounding areas.

Intermarketing

Award winning creative agency based in Leeds, London, Amsterdam & Sydney. Proud to be one of The Drum’s best independent agencies & RAR Grand Prix winners.

About Glug

Glug is a series of events for the design and creative community. Our showcase event is held in London but there are now many other events around the world.

Based around a series of talks and informal networking, Glug has become one of the most exciting, credible and well attended creative events around.

Established in 2007, it’s an eclectic mix of people from all creative walks of life; from advertising, graphic design and the visual arts through to fashion, architecture and the crafts.

It’s a fine melting pot indeed, regularly attended by creatives, students, clients, cultural voyeurs, hipsters and the industry elite. Come! Be intoxicated and inspired, you’re also bound to make some new contacts, friends and maybe even find that next job/contract/lover.

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Lumen Prize Exhibition

The Lumen Prize Exhibition celebrates the very best art created digitally by artists globally. Its goal is to focus the world’s attention on this exciting genre through an annual competition and global tour of works selected by an international panel of judges.

Working closely with the Lumen Prize we have curated a collection of 7 award winning pieces that blur the lines of art, interaction, music and technology.

The world’s pre-eminent digital art prize

The guardian culture blog

Portée

2015 Welsh National Opera Performance Prize

The hugely impressive centre piece of the Lumen Prize exhibition is a multi-sensory project at the crossing of light, architecture and music that poses the question: what if architecture could be expressed through music?

Luminous wires stretching down from towering concrete pillars, mysteriously linked to a solitary grand piano can be played like a giant harp creating an immersive layered soundscape as audience members interact with the piece.

Portee will be hosted in Union.

Metamorphy

2015 Lumen Silver Winner. A deeply immersive sensory exploration of sound and light.

A semi-transparent veil has an elasticity which, when stretched and played with by the participant, offers sensory interactions that explore depths of various universes, through organic, liquid or incandescent substances.

The interactions of the participants with the veil alter the matter of the universes and generate three dimensional soundscapes.

Passages

2013 silver winner.

An interactive piece that scans movement and translates that into a multitude of representative interpretations.

A New Jerusalem

2015 silver winner.

An immersive virtual reality installation that seeks to embody the spirit of this prophesised city.

Moc

A highly engaging & reactive soundscape created through the interpretation of sound, Moc explores the relationship between sound and image through simple interactions. An imaginary landscape passes before the viewer. Whistling into a microphone, a tree grows: its shape will evolve in real time based on the sound produced.

The Garden Of Earthly Delights

2014 lumen exhibition work

Interactive piece that places the viewer in a hieronymous bosch-esque landscape.

Electric Sheep

First created in 1999 by Scott Draves, the Electric Sheep is a form of artificial life, which is to say it is software that recreates the biological phenomena of evolution and reproduction though mathematics. The system is made up of man and machine, a cyborg mind with 450,000 participant computers and people all over the Internet.

Man A

2015 Prize Winner

An augmented reality experience that sees life and movement burst from a flat surface of distorted patterns.

Man-A will feature as a floor to ceiling print in Dock 29 and will be revealed at the Leeds Digital Festival launch event on Monday 25th. With numerous ‘markers’ available, each releasing unique experiences, we will be bringing Leeds to life with a city wide poster campaign.

The Lumen Showreels

We will be releasing a new Lumen Prize showreel each day throughout the festival at various locations throughout the city including the screen in Millenium Square.

The Lumen Bug Club

Sky are sponsoring and hosting the Bug Club Creative Coding Workshops for 7-12 year olds on Saturday 30th. In addition Sky will be holding a workshop themselves, featuring content from the Sky Kids channel.

Register Here

Digital Ladder

An event for students and graduates showcasing the fantastic career and grad scheme opportunities available in Leeds. Current companies participating: Sky Technology at Leeds Dock & Epiphany Search.

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Bring Your Own Beamer

The event is the brainchild of media artist Rafaël Rozendaal who organized the very first BYOB (Bring Your Own Beamer) in Berlin in 2010.

The concept became popular worldwide and is now organized in cities like New York, Seoul, Athens, Melbourne and Paris.

B.Y.O.B will be hitting Leeds for the first time as part of a programme of curated events at Leeds Dock. Taking place in the industrial splendour of Block E, with towering concrete pillars and bare surfaces, on Friday 29th April marking the transistion from the Leeds Digital Festival to the Live At Leeds Music & Digital festival.

Award winning Lumen Prize artists Genetic Moo will be taking part and also selecting their favourite works on the night.

An accompanying soundtrack will be supplied by Released Records. Tony Green will be behind the decks and Dawkins & Wulls will be playing live.

This event will mix the city’s creative community, musicians, music lovers and seekers of engaging and immersive experiences.

Leeds College Of Music And Bill Kong Presents: Swimming In

An immersive showcase of live Electronica and Visual art from:

Dulahli & Tomwynne

Will be premiering their exclusive collaborative set with the two releasing a LP together later in the year. Both members of the ‘8MANA Collective’ who are are spearheading the futures beats movement and quickly making Leeds notorious on the Electronic circuit. With influences spawning from James Blake and Madlib to Flying Lotus and Floating Points with a hefty amount of jazz and soul flavour.

Dulahli

Tomwynne

Klone

Hailing from Leeds, K­LONE has released his music on Badimup, Chord Marauders as well as his own label Wisdom Teeth which he runs with fellow producer Facta. Having just had it’s fourth vinyl release, the labels roster now includes Hodge, Wen, Alex Coulton and more, bringing together elements and grooves from Techno, Grime & Garage. K­Lone made his debut on Brooklyn NY infamous Reconstrvct night in January of this year and has had mixes on Radar Radio and Rinse FM.

Hedge Maze

Young producer out of Leeds. Self­aware algorithm ‘Hedge Maze’ invites you on a search for the answers within. Having released his debut EP on Lobster Theremin Hedge Maze brings a very special hardware live set of tightly crafted, hazy, blissed­out house and techno.

Oscar Barony

Oscar Barany is a 21 year old animator from London studying at leeds college of art. His work aims to combine music with the playfulness of animation. Usinga range of digital animation techniques to inform his ideas. Oscar has been working as a VJ/visual artist for the past year with clients ranging from dj’s to jazz bands in a wide selection of venues across the UK. Using audio­reactive technology his work makes music and visual one succinct performance.

Amelia Eve

Amelia Grace Eve is an artist/film maker from Leicestershire. Currently based in Leeds studying a BA (hons) in Visual Communication at the Leeds College of Art.

Her work revolves around socially engaged issues. She uses analogue and digital lens based media to communicate, expressing issues which she is passionate about within an innovative and playful aesthetic.

Bill Kong

Bill Kong ( Jim Hatch ) Australian born music producer. Currently undertaking a Masters at LCoM working within event production and artist development. Since moving to leeds he became co­founder and producer of the band Kalyan. Spawned from the band he formed the

events label Kalyan Presents which promotes the cities up and coming talent in music and art.

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Sega v Nintendo Classic Games Day

Remember the playground battles on who had the best system? Were you a Nintendo or Sega kid? Now you can relive those days with a one day set up at Dock 29 bar at Leeds Dock.

We will have the main Sega and Nintendo consoles from each era side by side for comparison to play all day. There will also be chance to debate which side you were on, play those classic games, relive that childhood and maybe find a new found love for the other brand.

There will also be a Street Fighter 2 competition in the evening too — snes version of course.

Free admission all day and night so see you there!

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Bug Club — Creative Coding Workshop For Children

To celebrate The Leeds Digital Festival 2016 at Leeds Dock there will be 4 x one hour Bug Club creative coding workshop sessions for 7-12 year olds.

The sessions will take place at the impressive new Sky 2 building which is at Leeds Dock. Getting to Leeds Dock is easy by car, bike, or you can even use our free water taxi which is in service 10am – 6pm at weekends (7am – 7pm weekdays). The free water taxi picks up by the south entrance of Leeds train station and drops off in the heart of Leeds Dock.

The title of the workshop is ‘Beginning to code in Processing’.

Processing is one of the best languages for beginners. It is one step up from Scratch which many kids may have encountered at school already. Processing lets you get your hands on the code itself – changing the variables and setting up loops, functions and other control structures.
In this lesson, children will learn how to write code to:

• draw graphical objects
• move them around the screen
• add dynamic text and colours
• create simple interactions

The artists will add their own creepy crawly flavour to the workshops with twitching beetles, flapping butterflies and wriggling worms. The results will be emailed to each participant.

Please register by choosing a time slot you’d like your child to be included on through the Eventbrite registration page.

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