NEoN

For Immediate Release

Dundee – Monday 10th August 2009: The official website and event listing for NEoN, the brainchild of Interactive Tayside and several key players in the UK digital media industry, has today been revealed. The two day digital arts festival will bring together some of the most prominent figures in the global digital arts industry including Bud Luckey, who worked at Pixar to create some of their best loved films, developer of Playstation 3 smash title LittleBigPlanet, Media Molecule and award-winning television writer and director of cult hits Father Ted and I.T. Crowd, Graham Linehan.

Taking place on 13th and 14th November, the city of Dundee will play home to a wide range of seminars, workshops and fun activities, for people looking to further their career in digital media. There will also be a wide range of entertaining fringe events held across the city, including the only UK 2009 date of Video Games Live, the orchestral tribute to gaming soundtracks from the past 40 years.

Bringing together some of the worlds’ best technologies and studios, as well as artists from interactive, online, videogame, music, movie, broadcast and digital media sectors, NEoN is the UK’s first all-encompassing digital media event.

The official NEoN website can be found at http://northeastofnorth.ning.com/ Visitors are encouraged to sign up for early bird ticket prices, special event announcements and further additions to the already bustling event schedule.

Project manager for Interactive Tayside Donna Fordyce explains: “NEoN is a unique event for the UK and this will be the first time so many recognised and respected players active in the digital arts will be together in one place. This will be a unique opportunity for those working within the digital arts to rub shoulders with these highly influential individuals, advance their own skills at our in-depth workshops and drop off their CV directly to the gatekeepers of the industry.”

The next generation of digital media professionals are invited to attend and learn how to use industry standard programs at workshops sponsored by Adobe and other digital media providers. This is part of Dundee’s ongoing collective commitment to maintaining its position as a centre of digital media excellent in the UK.

ends

For more information on NEoN Digital arts Festival, please contact:

Donna Fordyce

Project Manager - Industries

Scottish Enterprise

Enterprise House

3 Greenmarket

Dundee DD1 4QB

T:01382 305585

F:01382 201319

E: donna.fordyce@scotent.co.uk

W: www.scottish-enterprise.com

Dave Cook

Managing Director

Ink Media

m: 07525-358-281

w: www.ink-media.co.uk

twitter: davescook

About Interactive Tayside

Interactive Tayside is a partnership between public, private and academic sectors to develop and promote Tayside's digital media industry. Digital media represents a key part of Tayside's economy and through Interactive Tayside, a local delivery mechanism has been established that aims to build the digital media industry in the area, encourage higher levels of collaboration between businesses and with academia, develop new commercial opportunities and promote the high-quality skills and talents of the area's digital media practitioners to a wide audience.

Historically, Tayside has always been a hot-bed of creative talent, particularly in the publishing, design and music industries and the area has always been renowned as a breeding ground for innovation and skills.

Today, Tayside continues to enjoy a vibrant and rapidly expanding cluster of businesses, organisations and individuals engaged in digital media and creative industries sectors. There are over 350 businesses operating in the area of digital media in Tayside, employing over 3,300 people and generating a combined annual turnover in excess of £185 million. The sector has experienced growth in employment of 225% since the year 2000 and a further two thousand jobs are expected to be created in the sector within the next 3 years (by 2010).

The area's 2 universities and 3 further education colleges carry out leading edge research and deliver innovative and high quality teaching across a wide range of digital media related subjects. Every year, over 900 students, from over 50 different nationalities, graduate in digital media disciplines from the region's higher and further education institutions.

Computer games and electronic entertainment, mobile platform development, software development, animation, graphic design, publishing and music and just some of the specialisms in which Tayside companies excel.

The region is home to many exciting digital media companies including Scotland's largest games development studio, Realtime Worlds, BAFTA Award winning mobile development studio Dynamo Games, 2d and 3d animation studio, Ink Digital, and also the largest internet service provider in Scotland, ScotlandOnLine. Tayside's success stories in these industries are numerous.

Though Interactive Tayside, liaison between businesses, academic institutions and support agencies is actively encouraged, creating a stimulating environment in which 'start-ups' and established companies alike can quickly translate ideas into commercial reality.

In addition to this informative, regularly updated website offering all the latest news on Tayside's digital media industry, Interactive Tayside offers a regular events programme; events that are free and open to everyone, covering a variety of topics relevant to the digital media industries and affording ample opportunity for attendees to network informally with like-minded individuals. Be sure to sign up for our newsletter so as not to miss out on all of the region's digital media news and invites to our events.

Enterprise is actively encouraged in Tayside by a flexible and dynamic support structure. Everything you need to develop your business or turn ideas into reality is available here from a variety of institutional and commercial sources. As you would expect from a centre with a renowned academic reputation, Research and Development and training and skills are thick on the ground for large and small businesses. With this support, Tayside continues to be a rich source of intellectual capital, media content and commercial opportunity.

The vision for the digital media industry in Tayside is to become ever more renowned for the standard of its creative and technical talents and skills, internationally recognised for the quality of its products and level of innovation, globally networked, and make an every increasing contribution to the economy of the Tayside area and Scotland as a whole - establishing Tayside further as an international centre of excellence in digital media.