Sheffield Digital Festival

May 2019 saw the first ever digital festival hosted by Field.Studio and Sheffield Digital. The idea behind the festival was to make some noise about the digital industries booming in the city with a week-long celebration, ending with a conference at new space Ko:Host.

The theme for the 2019 Festival was “where creativity meets technical excellence”. The run-up to the festival was full of fringe events hosted by a vast array of the people and companies who are making outstanding and exciting digital products, services and experiences. It was an amazing opportunity for all to share ideas and successes and showcase to the city, and the world, what Sheffield’s digital scene has to offer.

The mini-conference inspired and excited, with Nick Crossland from Joi Polloi, Laura Smith from Slanted Theory and keynote speaker Steve Gibson. They spoke about everything, from what we can learn from the evolution of television, the importance of visualising data and how we can use technology in the arts. Thank you to our speakers for donating your time.

Delegates were treated to demonstrations from AMRC, Situate and the National Videogame Museum and Tamper fuelled everyone with coffee. The festival was brought to a close with cheers to Abbeydale Brewery who supplied the Heathen and the National Videogame museum opening the doors exclusively to festival goers.

After a brief coffee break, we welcomed the panel for a discussion on how to get young people involved in the tech industry and boost creative and tech employment in the city region. The panel was Louisa Harrison-Walker of Benchmark, Philip Slade of Jaywing, Jonny Briggs of Field.Studio and Tamar Millen of Sheffield City Council.

A special thanks to the sponsors who have supported getting this idea off the ground. Thank you, Northend, Shorts, Evoluted, Joe Horner, Abbeydale Brewery, Ko:Host at Castle House, and our co-hosts Sheffield Digital. Without you, we couldn’t have done it.

Fringe events continue and the Sheffield Digital Festival website will remain live to provide a space for people to promote their upcoming events. Keep an eye on the site for exclusive news and updates about Sheffield Digital Festival 2020.