Innovation in Growing Cities - Nesta Event

We saw this event in Nesta's latest email newsletter... Sounds perfect for those with an interest in Birmingham as a centre of innovation

Date: 24.10.2013 10:00 - 16:00
Location: Birmingham
Join us at this major innovation event in Birmingham to explore the central theme of social innovation in growing cities.
This free two-part event will provide Local Enterprise Partnerships  (LEPs) and other organisations with the practical tools to grow jobs and use open data effectively.

To maximise the benefit of the event the day will be split into two distinct sections - a morning of presentations and conversations exploring innovating growth in jobs and an afternoon event workshop on Open Data Challenge Prizes.

The afternoon session has been designed specifically to bring together those with interest and expertise to offer to our open data challenge prize around energy and the environment and will be focused around a participatory workshop during which we will agree the challenge questions for our prize programme.

Following the session, we will issue an open invitation for ideas based on open data which address the challenges set, an innovation and creation weekend, development support to promising ideas and the opportunity to pitch for a grand prize of £40-50,000.
Speakers will include Birmingham City Council’s Leader, Sir Albert Bore and Nesta’s Chief Executive, Geoff Mulgan, amongst social innovators and experts.
You're welcome to attend one or both events but please register soon as places are limited.

Read more and book a place here

Invitation to Birmingham Show and Tell – Young Rewired State 2013

BBC and Birmingham City Council are delighted to invite you to Birmingham Show and Tell - Young Rewired State 2013
Please RSVP: digital@birmingham.gov.uk by Tuesday 6 August 2013

Invitation to Birmingham Show and Tell – Young Rewired State 2013
Come along and meet Birmingham’s Next Generation Coders


Where: BBC Mailbox
When: Thursday 8 August 2013
Time: 18.00 – 19.30
Dress code: Informal

Programme includes:

• Welcome: Catherine Hearne, Head of Regional & Local Programming, BBC Midlands
• Creating a brighter future for Birmingham: Sir Albert Bore, Leader, Birmingham City Council
• Code a better Birmingham – what next for YRS: Lara Ratnaraja, Independent Consultant
• Rising to the challenge: Birmingham Centre Kids & Mentors

What’s it all about?
Around 600 young coders will be arriving at Birmingham’s Custard Factory on 9 August as Young Rewired State’s Festival of Code returns to the city for its second consecutive year. Participants as young as 5 and up to the age of 18 will be working in over 50 centres across the UK including the local centres BBC Birmingham and Birmingham City University in the lead up to the festival. From the 5th - 9th the young coders will develop apps, websites, and digital prototypes alone or in teams using open data and will then unite in Birmingham at the Custard Factory on the 9th August for the weekend to present their ideas to Judges.

Join us at the BBC for an informal gathering of key city leaders across the public, private and community sector together with the Birmingham young coders to share and celebrate with them what they have created. Hear from them why coding, collaboration and creativity will be an important bedrock of innovation for Birmingham’s future economy and how YRS is helping them to exploit the economic, social and education potential of coding.

Refreshments and pizza!

Invitation only event: Please RSVP to digital@birmingham.gov.uk by Tuesday 6 August 2013

FUNDING OPPORTUNITY!

We all know that funding is getting harder to come by, so we were delighted that Susannah Goh of Birmingham Science City told us about this opportunity from Creative England.

The £1m pot is targeted at small and medium sized enterprises in the Creative Digital Media Sector in our region and comprises of deferred payment and/or interest free loans. If you're developing new work in the markets listed below, why not get the Expression of Interest form filled out straight away.

•     Cross Platform TV development
•     feature film production
•     Healthcare
•     Government Services
•     Games, Interactive Entertainment and Mobile Content
•     Business To Business
•     E-Learning
•     Mobile applications

The deadline for registrations of interest is: 21st August 2013. Visit the web page for more details and to submit your expression of interest.

Another fantastic opportunity!

We've had this fantastic email in our inbox this morning. It sounds almost too good to be true!

Are you a UK creative innovator? Need a grant to meet up with your opposite numbers in the Far East? Check out the opportunity being offered below...

UK-China 'Design in Innovation' Forum and Business Partnering Workshop 

This initiative is being organised by BIS/ FCO Science and Innovation Network (SIN), Innovate China UK (ICUK) and the Technology Strategy Board/ Creative Industries KTN and will visit the cities of Shanghai and Hangzhou between 14-18th October, 2013.

The mission will connect UK creative innovators and designers with their counterparts and technology-based companies in China across target sectors including creative economy, sustainability, additive manufacturing, future cities and digital healthcare.

Travel and accommodation grants will be offered to 10 successful applicants. Further information including a downloadable application form can be found on the website here. Completed application forms should be returned to richard@creativeindustriesktn.org by Monday, August 5th.

Awards Opportunity - closes 29th July

@BhamScienceCity's Susannah Goh tells us about an award for those working in digital technologies...

Image Credit: Kristian Dela Cour

Catching up on news from the ICT Knowledge Transfer Network, today, I came across the announcement of the  prestigious Next Gen 13 national competition for digital technologies within  ‘next generation access infrastructure’. (Details can be found at: http://www.nextgenevents.co.uk/awards ).  If you know of a business or initiative that will fit the bill, please contact awards@nextgenevents.co.uk   by 29th July.

The awards are:

• Urban (Fixed) – digital access infrastructure deployments in city and urban areas
• Rural (Fixed) - digital access deployments for rural and ‘hard to reach’ areas.
• Mobile – service developments in mobile cellular and public Wi-Fi connectivity
• Network Quality – initiatives and systems designed to improve the performance quality of networks and their design/deployment

(With the exception of Mobile the Digital Network categories are technologically neutral)

• Open Data – the use of Open Data in commercial, community or public service projects together with related Cloud Computing services, facilities and systems for large volume (Big Data) and the capacity for high performance processing.
• Digital Innovation – includes examples of innovative products and services and initiatives to improve ‘innovation capacity’.
• Digital Skills – Projects, Services and campaigns that increase digital skills levels amongst individuals, SMEs and charities, and that contribute to Go ON UK's vision of making the UK the most digitally skilled nation in the world.

All that the Next Gen team  need is:

• a contact name, email and phone number
• a brief summary statement of your work or project (maximum 40 words plus Web url) and
• the implementation status of your project - whether at design stage, in Beta testing or fully operational.

Good luck and let us know how you get on!

If you are would like to explore possibilities and collaborative partnerships, contact Susannah Goh at Birmingham Science City s.goh@aston.ac.uk

(Image Credit: Kristian Dela Cour)

The Tales of Shakespuss -DM Opportunity

We've just heard about an exciting new project about a cat called 'William Shakespuss' The basic premise of the project is to bring the elements of Shakespeare to children as soon as they can sit up and look at pictures.

The Tales of Shakespuss have a number of facets, including a stage show which is presently the element which relates to the crowd-funding indicated on the website at present www.shakespuss.com.  For digital media businesses, the interesting element will be the creation of the animation of the Tales.  They have secured the wonderful talents of Patricia Quinn (AKA Magenta in The Rocky Horror Show), whose appearances include acting with the RSC and a great many roles including children's roles such as The Box of Delights in the mid 80s.  She is to be the voice of Shakespuss, and no doubt they'll have other exciting actors for the many colourful characters which are members of the Shakespuss troupe.


Support on any level for Shakespuss will have a tangible supporting effect on every aspect of the project, and they certainly hope they can enjoy the talents of the many professionals working within the animation and support industries in and around the Midlands.


Shakespuss and Shakespeare naturally share the same home of Stratford upon Avon, the creator of Shakespuss, Melissa Mailer-Yates, says she was born in Yardley, and keeping the creative side within the Midlands area is very important to the Shakespuss project. Support on any level would be gratefully received, particularly as they are currently seeking the financial backing in order to achieve what will no doubt become a worldwide phenomenon.

We at Digital Media Businesses wish Melissa and William Shakespuss every success and look forward to telling you about any creative opportunities that arise during the project

You can watch a video about the project on the website www.shakespuss.com

Opportunity- ITV seek apprentices for ITV News Central team

This Friday is the closing date for applications for the ITV apprenticeship in the ITV News Central team, working in the Birmingham studio. Interviews and assessments happen towards the end of this month. Why not visit the web page for more details or tweet or share this opportunity with someone you know? http://bit.ly/11dFxvb
 
ITV even have Top Tips on applying to and working at ITV on YouTube ...