Open Studios are community hosted events, giving businesses a chance to invite DS festival goers to not only visit their studios, wander through their spaces and discover their world; but to create new connections, gain and share new ideas, and get creative juices flowing.

Just a few of our confirmed Open Studios include:

Creativeworks London presents Open Call Ideas Pool

Where: Rich Mix, 35 – 47 Bethnal Green Road
When: Wed 29th May, 2 – 6pm
What: The Open Call Ideas Pool is an opportunity for cultural, creative and/or digital creative companies to come together with academic researchers and explore the potential to set up collaborations to address new challenges, point to new directions, or provide new insights or brave perspectives that pave the way to innovation.
For further details, please email info@cwlondon.org.uk

Crowdfunding: Indie filmmaking made possible

Where: Atticus Finch, Plough Yard – London, EC2A 3LP
When: Thur 30th May, 5.30 – 9pm
What: Atticus Finch’s film arm, ‘Scout Films’, recently ran a crowdfunding campaign to raise finishing funds for its first drama ‘Drone Strike’ and they’d love to share their experience with the Digital Shoreditch community.
They’re also delighted to announce that they’ll be joined by two high profile speakers:
- Uber crowd-funder/ producer/ blogger James Heath, who ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund his feature film ‘The Fitzroy’
- and Orestes Kouzof, who works in the marketing department at the Raindance Film Festival. RSVP http://atticusfinch-crowdfunding.eventbrite.co.uk/preview?eid=6289493043

AR vs VR

Where: Inition, 23 Curtain Road, London, EC2A 3LT
When: Wed 29th May, Thur 30th May, 2 – 7pm
What: For over 10 years creative production company Inition has been developing exciting immersive experiences from their Shoreditch based studio.
Experience the next level of virtual reality and augmented reality applications during their AR vs VR open house event. Devices like Oculus Rift and Google Glass have already caught the imagination of creatives, entrepreneurs and consumers alike, but you don’t need to wait until next year to experience the immersive power of virtual and augmented reality.

More info here.

London, May 15, 2013 Ahead of the third Digital Shoreditch festival next week, three community voices explore how the tech cluster has supported promising start-ups from concept to commercialisation.

At the inaugural Digital Shoreditch festival, The Technology Strategy Board launched a £1million competition designed to support and extend the cluster in the Tech City area around Old Street and Shoreditch in east London. The funding pool was later extended, and in 2011 £1.25 million was awarded to companies who then secured £1.5 million of private sector funding for 13 projects.

Nick Appleyard, Head of Digital at the Technology Strategy Board, added: “The creative and digital groundswell in East London has seen Digital Shoreditch grow into a formidable opportunity for startups seeking support. We want to provide the base funding for promising projects that will act as a catalyst to attract more investment. Following this successful pilot competition, we’re now rolling out similar support to other clusters of excellence across the UK.”

Six of the resultant projects, MakieLab, PixelPin, Padify, Snap Fashion and Funding Options, will take the stage on Monday to showcase their progress.

PixelPin is a cyber security company that uses personal pictures to replace hard to remember passwords. Founded by Brian Taylor and Geoff Anderson, it became the first start-up to raise a full £150,000 through crowd funding platform Seedrs. The investment came from a record-breaking 193 investors and will sit alongside investment from Telefónica through its Wayra accelerator programme. PixelPin, now based at TechHub, was also nominated as one of the most innovative mobile start-ups by UKTI and SMART UK in January 2013 and was a runner-up at TechCrunch Mobile Barcelona.

PixelPin also won the award for Most Innovative Product at Innovate UK in March.

Geoff Anderson commented: “We moved to London from Bath because we knew East London was the right place for us to build our business. Digital Shoreditch allows us meet like-minded entrepreneurs who can become our partners, customers and friends. Start-ups like us can feed off each other within the community to help build fast-growing and innovative businesses.”

Kam Star, founder of Digital Shoreditch added “Digital Shoreditch’s growth is a natural aggregation of increased entrepreneurial activity as London has repositioned itself as one of the world’s most innovative digital and technology capitals. Companies like PixelPin are disrupting the landscape in a beautifully simply way.”

Technology Strategy Board Launchpad showcase
12:05pm–12:45pm Mon 20th May 2013
Assembly Hall, Shoreditch Town Hall
#launchpad

Follow the conversation at #DS13 or to find out more about Digital Shoreditch festival 2013 follow @DigiShoreditch

Email: Richard Botley or David Vindel at Ketchum PR.
Tel: 0207 611 3500

http://tickets.digitalshoreditch.com/

LONDON May 9, 2013 — #OgilvyChange, the specialist behavioural sciences practice of Ogilvy & Mather UK, is to host Nudgestock, the UK’s largest gathering of behavioural sciences experts on Friday 24th May at Shoreditch Town Hall. Hosted by O&M’s Vice-Chairman, Rory Sutherland, this one day event, taking place during Digital Shoreditch 2013, will see some of the biggest names in behavioural economics discussing online psychology, the science of understanding why people make irrational decisions and the art of nudging their choices for a preferred outcome.

Discussing the psychology behind the decisions individuals make will be some of UK’s leading behavioural scientists, award winning authors and personalities from the creative advertising and design industries including Rory Sutherland, Nassim Taleb, author of The Black Swan and Dr Laurie Santos from Yale University. Rory Sutherland, Vice-Chairman, Ogilvy & Mather UK commented: “There is a big difference between invention and innovation. The best inventions in the world are worthless unless people choose to adopt them – and change their behaviour as a result. This conference is an important first step towards making technologists and psychologists natural bedfellows.”

Digital Shoreditch is an annual festival which celebrates and showcases the outstanding creative, technological and entrepreneurial talent in East London and Tech City. Now in its third year, Digital Shoreditch will run from 20th May to 31st May at Shoreditch Town hall.

The Nudgestock line up includes:
Nassim Taleb, author of The Black Swan
Paul Ormerod, renowned economist and author
Paul Dolan, London School of Economics
Paul Craven, Goldman Sachs
Laurie Santos, Yale University
Nick Chater, Warwick Business School
Nick Southgate, IPA Behavioural Consultant & School of Life
Rory Sutherland, The Wiki Man
Jez Groom, founder of #ogilvychange
Oliver Payne, The Hunting Dynasty
Leigh Caldwell, The Irrational Agency
Natalie Nahai, The Web Psych
Simon Ruda, Cabinet Office
John Kearon, Brain Juicer

Visit http://tickets.digitalshoreditch.com/2013/behavioural-design/

London, April 30, 2013

The BBC and London’s digital creatives are set to come together at Digital Shoreditch festival 2013, to focus on creating a new digital experience for one of the BBC’s flagship shows – EastEnders.

The BBC continually looks to build beyond its current digital channels of twitter, Facebook, bbc.co.uk and BBC iPlayer to the next level of consumer digital interaction and viewer engagement technologies. By partnering with Digital Shoreditch the BBC and London’s digital creative community will combine to devise new ideas and approaches in order to create digital solutions focussed on increasing and cementing the BBC EastEnders brand.

First airing on BBC One in February 1985, EastEnders has grown to be one of the nation’s favourite TV programmes. Bim Devi, Brand Marketing Manager said, “EastEnders regularly attracts a huge audience many of who want to interact with it on digital media. We believe the ‘social space’ is the perfect place to bring Albert Square to life and make it feel real. The fact that we’ll also be hosting the event in London’s east end only helps to add to the spirit of community.”

The challenge was devised by the BBC Marketing & Audiences’ Digital Lab in collaboration with colleagues from the EastEnders team. The Lab is a new initiative at the BBC, which is spearheading digital marketing transformation at the corporation. Eva Appelbaum heads the Lab and commented, “The BBC wants to thrive in the digital media environment and explore different ways of reaching & engaging audiences. Bringing this challenge to Digital Shoreditch will be a fantastic opportunity to develop creative ideas in collaboration with leading thinkers in the field. Our job is to fast-track change and this is the perfect occasion to do just that.”

Kam Star, founder of Digital Shoreditch added: “London’s digital and creative community gather at Digital Shoreditch, so this is a perfect opportunity of how the community can assist top brands like the BBC come to grips with the latest social and technological changes that are disrupting the digital
space.”

Digital Shoreditch 2013 is even bigger reflecting London’s ambition to become one of Europe’s technology capitals, and has already attracted leading venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and leading figures from the digital and technology fields. This year’s festival starts on May 20 at Shoreditch Town Hall bringing together the companies and organisations that make up London’s 1,300 strong technology cluster and explores ways to exploit the growing global engagement with the digital economy and society. The challenge set by the BBC will take place during May 25th and 26th in the Make & Do sessions, an interactive workshop participated by some of London’s most promising technologists, creatives and digital experts.

Follow the conversation at #DS13 or to find out more about Digital Shoreditch festival 2013 follow @DigiShoreditch

email: Richard Botley or David Vindel at Ketchum PR.
Tel: 0207 611 3500

http://tickets.digitalshoreditch.com/

London, April 29, 2013

Leading figures within Tech City will debate the role of government in technology on the inaugural day of Digital Shoreditch 2013. The two week festival kicks off on Monday 20th May, with ‘What Tech City?’ which will focus on finding new ways to grow global engagement and improving the UK’s digital economy and society.

Gordon Innes, CEO of London & Partners will be joined by Kyle Kimball, Executive Director at New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYEDC),
Mark O’Neill, Head of Innovation and Delivery at Government Digital Service and Daniel Glazer, IP & Technology Transactions partner at Fried Frank. Together they will be discussing the role of government in supporting a tech ecosystem and discussing various initiatives in both New York and London. The two cities have experienced a massive tech-boom in the last few years and are now serious competitors with Silicon Valley.

Mark O’Neill, Head of Innovation and Delivery at Government Digital Service stated, “The world is changing – a UK government website has won the Design of the Year Award; a website built on open source, using agile techniques, by a team bringing together a range of skills and experience all committed to delivering world class services to users. We are going to keep iterating and we want to build closer, smarter ties with the kind of companies here at Digital Shoreditch.”

Additionally, further cross-border collaboration to boost the UK’s economy is just as important. As the UK Trade & Investment maintains, the USA has the largest and most technologically powerful economy in the world and is Britain’s largest single export market. The sheer size of the USA and vast
cultural differences across the regions mean that it should often be treated as a series of regional markets with varying characteristics, making the U.S. market a fascinating and diverse place for UK exporters.

In March this year, the Mayor of London pledged to boost tech investment through a £22m Technology start-up fund focused on financing tech startups,
and leisure, education, healthcare and financial projects, as well as helping other creative industries beyond technology.

Gordon Innes, CEO, London & Partners added “The amazing growth that has taken place in east London over the last few years has been significant to the city’s economy and reputation. Without a doubt London’s success is being driven by centres of excellence such as Tech City, and forms a key part of London’s business future. London & Partners are committed to ensuring London is the leading world city in science, technology and innovation; and events like Digital Shoreditch provide the perfect opportunity to bring together tomorrow’s innovators.”

The two week event which is due to attract an estimated 15,000 UK and international visitors will provide a platform to showcase the most innovative projects happening in the UK today, across eight key sectors including digital, space, transport and health. The event aims to drive economic growth by
stimulating business-led innovation and opening up international trade opportunities for the UK’s brightest technological innovators.

Follow the conversation at #DS13 or to find out more about Digital Shoreditch festival 2013 follow @DigiShoreditch

For further press information contact:

email: Richard Botley or David Vindel at Ketchum PR.

Tel: 0207 611 3500

http://tickets.digitalshoreditch.com/

London, April 25, 2013

Tickets for London’s Digital Shoreditch festival 2013 are selling fast with less than a 1,000 tickets left to the event that showcases and debates the latest advances in digital and technological innovation. The event brings together a community of 15,000 digital creatives, technologists,
entrepreneurs and enthusiasts and last year attracted over 6,000 delegates with support from more than 40 sponsors and partners.

Now in its third year, Digital Shoreditch brings together 400 crowd sourced sessions on the latest social and technological changes that are disrupting the digital space, including speakers from Tech City Investment Office, Google, IBM, Mixcloud, Adobe, Ogilvy & Mather and London School of Economics as well as the hottest up and coming start-ups. Attendees can witness first-hand the very latest disruptive technologies, as well as get advice on running and managing start-ups and raising capital for their business.

Increased interest in Digital Shoreditch 2013 mirrors the efforts made in both the public and private sector to enable high-growth businesses in the UK to scale rapidly and reach their full potential. On the public sector side, Chancellor George Osborne and Joanna Shields, Chief Executive of Tech City, today unveiled a new programme designed to connect high-growth businesses with tailored information and expertise, helping accelerate their growth and laying the foundations for a successful listing in the UK. The programme, called “The Future Fifty,” will offer eligible companies a single point of contact to guide them through, and take advantage of multiple publicly-funded schemes and incentives that will further extend their growth.

Digital Shoreditch 2013’s growth is reflecting London’s ambition to become one of Europe’s technology capitals, which has already attracted leading venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and prominent figures from the digital and technology fields. This year’s festival starts on May 20 at Shoreditch Town Hall bringing together the companies and organisations that make up the area’s 1400 strong technology cluster and explores ways to exploit the growing global engagement with the digital economy and society.

Kam Star, founder of Digital Shoreditch added “The London digital and technology scene is changing as rapidly as the underlying technology. London
has repositioned itself as one of the world’s most innovative digital and technology capitals. The London Mayor’s office recent announcement of a £22
million fund for technology start-ups, plus today’s The Future Fifty, is proof that momentum for London as a technology city is riding high. Testimony of this technology buzz is the fact that we’re heading for selling out of tickets for the Digital Shoreditch festival taking place in less than a month, from May 20th to May 31st in East London”.

Follow the conversation at #DS13 or to find out more about Digital Shoreditch festival 2013 follow @DigiShoreditch.

For further press information contact:
email: Richard Botley or David Vindel at Ketchum PR.
Tel: 0207 611 3500

http://tickets.digitalshoreditch.com/

The weekend will be a combination of high speed creative ideation jams, hackathons, participatory workshops and hands-on solution finding. It’s all about engagement and activity and getting involved. Digital Shoreditch aims to make meaningful connections, and Make & Do is an opportunity to use these connections to create something tangible.

There will be three different levels or types of challenge:

Micro Challenges:

These will be single questions or simple problems posted by attendees on the micro challenge list. Participants can decide whether to work together or individually to solve these challenges. With micro challenges we hope to mainly highlight potential solutions that already exist.

Mini Challenges:

These will be explored and workshopped in groups led by speakers with some expertise in the area covered by the challenge.The idea here is to bring larger groups of creative digital minds together to contribute towards finding workable and exciting solutions.

Key Challenges:

The Make & Do will include a small number of select Key Challenges: larger issues which will each have several teams competing for a prize. These tasks will be a combination of tech, creative and content based activities, and the workshops will include a mixture of ideation sessions and prototyping.

With some seriously big challenge announcements to come, from some of the UK’s most well-known brands, Make & Do is an event no creative, techie, geek or digital-junkie should miss.

http://tickets.digitalshoreditch.com/2013/make-do/

With interactive content from Digital Shoreditch’s International collective of artists, technicians, programmers, visionaries and creatives, the exhibit will transform the basement of Shoreditch Town Hall into an immersive and engaging digital playground.

Delve into the Time Shifting Maze – with live projections of other entrants to the maze confusing your senses, you will have trouble keeping track of what is real and what is an illusion.

Take a joyride through Shoreditch, on a slightly different scale. The Big Fat Shoreditch Race will put you in the drivers seat of a remote controlled car, as you race through the streets of Shoreditch on a ‘virtual’ map.

Help create the scent of the festival with L’eau de Digital Shoreditch: the exhibit will use your live twitter data to decide which fragrances will be added to the perfume.

Try Bipolar, an interactive mirror that will leave you with a very strange reflection, as it distorts your image using your voice and movements.

An interactive experience for your eyes, ears, and even your nose: explore the digital labyrinth of The Great Digital Exhibition, May 20-31.

http://tickets.digitalshoreditch.com/2013/great-digital-exhibition/

The day features an extraordinary array of sessions on user experience – UX – seeking to answer the fundamental questions of how to create a design or user interface so delightful it keep users coming back time after time.

Augmenting our behaviour will be some of UK’s leading behavioural scientists alongside Nassim Taleb @nntaleb, Rory Sutherland @rorysutherland of Ogilvy & Mather UK and Dr Laurie Santos @lauriesantos from Yale University and the practitioners pioneering Behavioural Economics in client work.

Paul Ormerod’s Social Influence Media & Marketing is focussed on identifying the relative importance of social influence and of ‘rational’ choice to provide a fundamental basis of successful marketing in the 21st century.

Our happiness is determined by what we pay attention to. The allocation of attention is therefore critical in understanding how the inputs into happiness (income, health, etc.) are converted into the outcome of happiness. Professor Paul Dolan talks Attending to Happiness

Delivering truly ‘snackable’ entertainment anytime, anyplace, anywhere is what King.com is all about, here from Alex Dale on Cracking the cross-platform challenge: how Candy Crush Saga became a smash hit on Facebook

Paul Craven of Goldman Sachs investigates the psychology of investors, both individually and as part of a crowd, offering a historical perspective on how markets can become inefficient or distorted in Behavioural Finance: from biases to bubbles

Behavioural Design is about demonstrating what people are doing right now in this space – and learning how to apply it to your business.

http://tickets.digitalshoreditch.com/2013/behavioural-design/

We’ll be pulling back the curtain on our digital future, as we hear from industry leaders including; @DougRichards – Founder of School for Startups @s4s, Kevin Farrar @Farrari – Global Entrepreneur Lead at @IBM, and Marcus Mustafa – Global Head of User Experience Architecture at @LBiLondon.

Get to know the theory behind Proactive Creative Technology with @WilliamEdHarvey from @Ogilvy’s Creative Labs as he leads a session on how Ogilvy Labs are using innovation and creative technology to engage, inspire, educate their clients

Discover Today’s Media cornerstones: Creativity, innovation and integration, with Matt Teeman of @MetroUK. Learn about pre-evolving and staying a step ahead in Tomorrow’s World.

In fashion, much like in tech, one day you are in, the next you are out. Amalia Agathou @amalucky of @TheNextWeb takes a look at Digital Trends for Fashion to Adopt and Adapt

Dirk Singer @dirktherabbit takes a look at what’s new in visual sharing with his session, Beyond Instagram, New Visual Social Networks to Look Out For

Join us for Tomorrow’s World at Digital Shoreditch 2013, it’s a day for anyone who looks to the future.

https://tickets.digitalshoreditch.com/2013/tomorrows-world/