Tomorrow’s Digital Teesside today

Talented North East graduates who are helping to create a cluster of digital companies in the Tees Valley will be coming together at the University of Teesside for the fourth DigitalCity Fellowships and Residencies showcase from April 10-12.

The event opens with a VIP celebration at 5pm on Monday 10 April. This will be opened by Margaret Fay, Chairman of One NorthEast and includes presentations of some of this year’s exciting projects from the 49 Fellows.

At 6.30pm, special DigitalCity prizes will be awarded to four of this year’s projects judged to have been outstanding. The sponsored awards are Best Creative Digital Arts (Arts Council); Best Technical Visualisation (Codeworks); Best new Business Idea (Ward Hadaway) and Best in Show (DigitalCity).

Special awards from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) will also be celebrated. Prize winners include Joanne Riddle, whose work infuses vibrant permanent colour into synthetic surfaces like PVC and polyester to produce an effect similar to stained glass and Sam Harrison, who looked at what would happen if rats became more intelligent than man. See Notes to Editors.

Following Monday’s awards night, a public exhibition of the work of DigitalCity creative Fellows takes place from 10am to 4pm, in the University’s Centre of Enterprise, Victoria Road, Middlesbrough, on Tuesday and Wednesday (11-12 April). Everyone is welcome: reserve a place by phoning 01642 384330. There is a Media Photo opportunity: between 11-12 am on Tuesday 11 April in the Centre for Enterprise.

And this year also sees the first DigitalCity symposium taking place at the University of Teesside – on Tuesday 11 April in the Europa Building, on Woodlands Road, Middlesbrough.

Janice Webster, DigitalCity project director, said: “We had outstanding Fellows this year and I am delighted that ten of them have gone on and launched their own companies on the strength of the support we have been able to give them. “Thanks to funding from bodies like NESTA, One NorthEast and the European Social Fund, we have been able to expand the scheme which gives financial support and advice to North East graduates with the drive and determination to turn their digital projects into reality, and in many cases real businesses. The Fellowships are open to all North East graduates studying digital technology or digital media and I wish them all every success in the future.”.

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