The Original Sims

LIFTED FROM DIGITALCIRCLE.ORG

Title: Digital Mission Regional Tour

Location: The Presidents Club, Midtown Centre, 25 Talbot Street, Belfast

Link out: Click here

Description: A series of regional workshops are happening around the UK to talk about the Digital Mission series to the USA taking place in Autumn 2009 and Spring 2010.

Start Time: 17:00

Date: 2009-06-17

End Time: 19:00

The events are a perfect opportunity to find out more about the Digital Missions, their objectives and talk to those who’ve had the opportunity to attend a previous mission. After the Digital Mission seminar, there will be a Q & A session for any further questions not covered and to round the evening off, some informal networking with drinks.

This event is free to attend but requires registration. Date: Wednesday, 17th June 2009 Time: 5pm - 7pm (networking until 8:30pm) Venue: The Presidents Club (http://www.the-presidents-club.com/) Digital Missions are a series of trade missions organised by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) and Chinwag. They are specifically designed for UK-headquartered digital SME’s. The missions support overseas expansion, help companies gain a thorough understanding of the local market, attract investment and promote themselves to key players on the international digital scene.

Questions? Please contact Chinwag on +442071832923 or email: mission@chinwag.com For more information about the Digital Missions please see: http://digital-mission.org For more information about UK Trade & Investment, please visit: https://www.uktradeinvest.gov.uk/

This edition of the podcast is from Barcamp Belfast held in the Art College this weekend. Almost 400 people signed up on the web site for what was billed as is “a user-generated unconference for designers, developers, startups and geeks to share and learn in an open environment”. It’s organised almost entirely by Andy McMillan with the support of a few friends. Much bigger than first planned it moved from an intended smaller venue to occupy 2 floors in the Art College. Davy Sims reports.

Here are some links to interviewees on the podcast: Barcamp Belfast - Andy McMillan - Lee Munroe’s Blog - Front - Reva Health Presentation - Bean and Gone Artisan Coffee - Cupcake Camp NI - 4IP - 38 Minutes -

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It was a rush in and a rush out; unfortunately the Belfast Dev Day coincided with a meeting I’ve been trying to arrange for weeks about a community radio idea. So I had only a few minutes at the event today. On the positive side I only had a few minutes to speak which is fortunate for the delegates.

A week or so ago someone on Twitter posted a comment along these lines; “Is it just me or is Web Design in Belfast better than ever before?” I read and nodded in agreement. But last night I was listening to a compilation album produced by NIMIC “Sounds of the City” and it struck me that it’s not only web design that’s better than ever before – it’s design, music, technology, creativity in all areas is better than ever before.

I’ve been a participant, observer and commentator in the Creative Industries in Northern Ireland for the last 30 years. It has never been as good. Creatively we are at the beginning of a brilliant new phase. I say we are at the beginning because MOST PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT INVOLVED DON’T KNOW YET. I needed to shout that. Most people who should know don’t. This is strongly a grass roots movement.
People are finding their creativity and building on it like never before.

Further proof is Barcamp tomorrow. I’ll have a bit more time to enjoy that one.

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Duration - 27′.22"

For the first time, HP Labs have moved out of their home in Bristol, to hold their a two day conference on Media Scapes – or Mscapes.  Described by one of the speakers as a New Medium, mscapes has been developing since about 2003 and has achieved global interest. 

Visiting the two day mscapeFest08 in Belfast’s W5 were producers, developers, designers and educationalists from Canada, USA, Singapore, Taiwan, Spain, Denmark, Netherlands and many other countries.
Davy Sims spent 2 and 3 December at W5 at the conference which was opened by Northern Ireland Finance Minister Nigel Dodds

On the podcast:
Jo Reid from HP Labs http://www.hpl.hp.com/bristol/ 
Brian Lamb from Ulster Mediascapes http://www.ulstermediascapes.com/
John Bustard who produced Armoy Armada http://www.armoyarmada.com/
Bill McCluggage from Dept of Finance

You can find out more by going to the mscapers.com where you can download the tool kit, browse some 500 mscapes and get involved with the forums and with other people developing the project.