Archive for January, 2010

We are super-pleased to announce the first of this year’s series of Leeds Girl Geek Dinners, starting on Thursday 11th February, hosted at Leeds’ hottest new waterfront hotel, the City Inn, on Granary Wharf in Holbeck Urban Village.

It will see the first in a series of collaborations between Girl Geek Dinners Scotland, Leeds Girl Geeks and supported by UKRC. Speakers for the evening will be Shanna Tellerman, Founder and CEO of Sim Ops Studios, and Kaye Elling, who has over 12 years of expertise in the games industry. The evening will be presented by Infinitus’ Nicole Mathison, nti’s Leia Bassett and Carbon Imagineering’s Imran Ali. (more…)

The hugely successful breakfast networking event is to be held by Leeds Chamber Networking Breakfast on Thursday 4th February at 7.30am - 9.30am. The morning attracts a wide range of business backgrounds and more than one hundred attendees each month.

Come and join in with table networking and conversations by registering your place on the Leeds Chamber website here. Cost for members is £14 + VAT, and non-members £28 + VAT.

On Wedesday 24th February 2010, two Bradford-based creative and media organisations will join forces to promote the opportunities offered by one of the fastest growing sectors in the UK.

Artworks and bmedia present a one-day event, targeted at anyone with an interest in working in the creative & digital industries. The Creative Careers Fair is aimed at the full spectrum of interest in the creative sector, from GCSE and ˜A™ level students through to further and higher education students, graduates, prospective job hunters and existing creative, media and digital businesses.

It will be held at the Atrium, University of Bradford, and if you would like to attend please contact Ged Walker ged@artworksbradford.org.uk.

On Wednesday 3rd February at 6pm to 9pm, Exposure Leeds will be meeting at Old Broadcasting House with a special photography focus led by John Dolan. A beginners guide to Photoshop will give you some useful hits and tips about what to do with your photos once they have been taken. John and Mark Skeet will review the work-flow process once a shoot has been completed.

After the main presentations there will be a question and answer session, an opportunity for the group to discuss the many aspects of image selection and processing.

A charge of £2 will be made on the door, and no pre-booking is required. Register your interest on Facebook here.

On Tuesday 9th February at 5.30pm, the Digital Media Centre will present John McLear, leading specialist in Information Communication Technologies (ICT) and currently part of the Etherpad Open Source Leadership Team. Come and listen to John present a critical approach to business ethics and ask the question, is Google fulfilling it’s mission statement ‘Don’t be Evil’? (more…)

On Tuesday 2nd February at 5.30pm-7pm, the second Leeds Social Media Surgery will take place at the Round Foundry Media Centre (LS11 5QP). This is for anyone interested in using blogs, text messages, Facebook, Twitter and other free websites to help an organisation or group that you belong to. (more…)

Green IT is gaining momentum – but it is an area that is complicated by misinformation, tokenism (or ‘greenwashing’) from manufacturers/service providers and misperceptions among end users. At the moment the key driver for most organisations is cost saving, although the UK public sector has published carbon reduction targets for 2012 and 2020. Private sector enterprise now also has to make the choice between meeting carbon reduction targets or paying fines. (more…)

As part of the Enterprising Barnsley project, bmedia would like to invite you to their OpenCoffee event, on Wednesday 27th January at 10am-12pm in Barnsley.

The emphasis of OpenCoffee will focus on the internet, new media and digital industries. This regular, FREE event is an informal opportunity to meet with a range of technology entrepreneurs, designers, bloggers, developers, and investors. If you are interested in digital media and technology, come along and exchange your ideas that would otherwise never have flourished!

For any further information for attending, please visit the bmedia website here.

The GameHorizon Conference is Europe’s leading event for international games executives. A two-day conference featuring the most creative, entertaining and inspirational speakers from the games and entertainment industry. For the third year, GameHorizon Conference will return to The Sage, Gatehead on 29th-30th June 2010. (more…)

On Wednesday 3rd March, Screen Yorkshire is bringing the Vodafone AppStar Developer Day: North to Sheffield, giving you the opportunity to meet the experts, design and create your own apps with your contemporaries and more. You’ll also get the chance to win hardware, cash and other prizes. (more…)

Joseph Edmonds is an ecommerce specialist who runs Edmonds Commerce. He has recently created and taught on the new nti Magento course. Joseph answers some questions about he’s career so far…  (more…)

On Thursday 25th February, Creative Networks presents the founder member of The Human League and Heaven 17. Martyn Ware is one of the leading figures in electronic music. As record producer and artist he has featured on recordings totalling over 50 million sales worldwide during a 27 year career to date, working with artists as diverse as Tina Turner, Terence Trent D’Arby, Chaka Khan, Erasure, and Marc Almond. (more…)

Green IT is gaining momentum, and already organisations are reporting a skills gap around areas such as the implementation of virtualisation and the building of a Green IT infrastructure. In response to the growing discussion facing Green IT, Old Broadcasting House hosted a Green IT mini conference on Monday 18th January. The day included guest speakers from Helen Harrop (Digital 20/20), Colin Coghill (formerly University of Leeds) and Leeds Met’s Innovation North Professor Colin Pattinson. The three main questions posed were, what does “green” really mean? Why be Green? How to be Green? Each was discussed in 15 minute presentations and a debate with the speaker panel. (more…)

During December, Innovation Showcase coworker Tim Waters joined us here at Old Broadcasting House. Tim is a freelance geospatial developer and consultant who runs he’s own company called Think Where. Tim also volunteers with OpenStreetMap (OSM), a free editable map of the whole world. OSM allows users to view, edit and use geographical data in a collaborative way. (more…)

The Excellence in e-Learning Forum meeting will visit Leeds City College on Wednesday 10th February 2010 at 10am. The FE & Skills sector will be updated on regional and national developments in e-learning. (more…)

4iP is teaming up with Facebook to offer two individuals or companies up to £100,000 each to create Facebook apps, websites, tools, services, or mobile products which people can use to understand how Britain really works - or doesn’t. (more…)

Screen Yorkshire has a tender opportunity to deliver a digital marketing campaign for the cross region project NorthernNet. The tender deadline is open now, with a closing date of noon on Friday 22nd January 2010.

The outline of the objectives for the campaign are:

- To raise awareness of the NorthernNet brand across the North of England within the digital and creative industries and related media channels

- Devise and buy a web media campaign to market and raise awareness of the NorthernNet brand across the creative and digital industry as a whole

- Devise and buy a web media campaign to market and raise awareness of the NorthernNet brand with key digital and creative sectors e.g. animation, music etc.

- Generate excitement and engagement in the opportunities available from the NorthernNet innovations and collaborations project within the creative and digital industries

- Promote the use of the media access bureaus (physical access to the NorthernNet system in venues across the North) and the role  NorthernNet infrastructure plays in delivering competitive advantage to key sector SMEs

For further details of the opportunity, you can find out more on the Screen Yorkshire website by clicking here.

TechMesh will be holding an exclusive launch of a brand new network for IT, telecom organisations and professionals. On Wednesday 27th January 2010 at 6-9pm, The Loft will host an array of guest speakers that include Lee Strafford, Executive Chairman of theNetStart & former CEO for PlusNet and Conrad Poulson, Head of Startup Business Development for Orange.

The evening tickets have sold out but if you are an IT, telecoms organisation, or professional there is a waiting list just for you. To find out more, visit the website at www.techmesh.org. For any direct questions you may have contact Dawn on 0113 384 5641 or email dawn@techmesh.org.

nti Works is a programme run by nti Leeds lasting approximately three months, designed to help new graduates get started as freelancers in the digital sector. The programme consists of some core training that has been specially designed to help you get started, as well as providing a virtual training account which enables enrollment on to courses from the nti schedule - see www.ntileeds.co.uk/training.

nti is pleased to announce the launch of the January Programme 2010! If successful in applying, you will be assigned a mentor to help you plan your professional development and you will also become a sponsored member of our pioneering coworking space at Old Broadcasting House, which will enable you to work alongside current members. During the time you are here you will be encouraged to get involved in the Leeds grass roots community, attending meetups, coffee events and evening presentations depending on your particular area of specialism (for example Open Coffee Leeds, Creative Networks, GeekUp Leeds, Barcamps, Hackspace etc) to start building your network of contacts which will be crucial to getting started. (more…)

If you’re working in the creative or digital industries, Old Broadcasting House will be opening it’s doors for you to come hang out, chat, demo or just network with others… usually around 25-30 people each month… sometimes more.

Tea, coffee and cakes are available from about 10am until 12pm. You are more than welcome to stay and chat as long as you like! This is a great opportunity to meet like-minded people within the creative, digital industries and network in a relaxed and friendly environment. Feel free to come along, Open Coffee is held on the first Tuesday of every month.