NEoN

Dundee Friday 14th August 2009: Following yesterday's unveiling of NEoN, the UK's newest calendar event for the UK digital arts industry, organisers Interactive Tayside have today announced two new speakers and launched the new official listing and booking website, which can be found at http://www.northeastofnorth.com.

Created by Dundee-based design studio Sooper Double D and web-design consultancy Wangbar, the new NEoN site features an in-depth event schedule, booking information, an insight into the event and the digital media industry of the Tayside area. Early bird tickets are now available for the festival via the website.

Taking place on 13th and 14th of November 2009, the festival will bring together some of the most prominent figures in the global digital arts and give those working within the sector a unique opportunity rub shoulders with some of the key players in the industry today. Recently announced speakers Bud Luckey, Media Molecule and Graham Linehan are now joined by Peter Molyneux of Fable II developer Lionhead Studios and Dave Jones from Crackdown and APB developer Realtime Worlds. Both will give insightful seminars on the state of play in the industry today.

Project manager for Interactive Tayside Donna Fordyce said: “We are pleased with the superb work Sooper Double D and Wangbar have put into creating the official NEoN website. It is a great example of some of the digital creativity and collaboration we are looking to promote in the UK. We are also pleased to have Peter Molyneux and David Jones joining us at the festival and have them share their years of expertise with attendees. If you are serious about furthering your career in the digital arts, this is an essential event.”

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.