(Tues, July 9th – Derry-Londonderry) Derry-Londonderry’s CultureTECH Festival has today unveiled its 2013 festival programme featuring in excess of 100 events across the week of September 9-15, including; The Belfast Media Festival, an International Artificial Intelligence Prize and a dedicated CultureTECH Junior programme which is hoped will engage with as many as 10,000 young people.
Speaking ahead of the launch, festival director Mark Nagurski explained that the emphasis of this year’s event was on “participation and accessibility”: “As you’d expect we have a brilliant lineup of speakers that cross the lines between technology, arts and culture. Organisations like the Tate, the Barbican, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), the NY Philharmonic will join a host of speakers from the BBC, Channel 4, ITV and many more. But what hopefully sets CultureTECH apart are the opportunities for people from all backgrounds to engage.”
“Across the week we have events where people can build video games, write and record music, experiment with digital storytelling tools or learn software code. We have several groups who will be using CultureTECH as an opportunity to make films about the music industry, the games industry and the animation industry in Northern Ireland. And many more who will be using it as a platform to launch new companies, programmes and products.”
Perhaps the biggest draw will be the CultureTECH Junior programme, sponsored by Seagate. Designed initially as a dedicated strand of events for people under 18 to get involved in the festival, it has quickly grown into the largest individual project within it. Over three days, nearly 40 organisations – including CERN, Intel, W5, Samsung and Seagate – will host a major science and technology expo for young people at The Venue, making it one of the biggest events of its kind in the region this year. Over 4,000 school children will visit on the Thursday and Friday before the expo opens to the public on Saturday, September 14th
The CultureTECH Junior programme will also include events in partnership with CoderDojo (software workshops for kids), Teen Tech (hosted by former Tomorrow’s World presenter Maggie Philbin), Young Enterprise Northern Ireland and the University of Ulster. Many of the main programme’s international speakers will also take part in school visits across the week.
The full festival programme is available to view or download at www.culturetech.co/prog. The majority of events are free including CultureTECH Junior Family Day and a variety of live music and games events across the city on Saturday, September 14th.
Other programme highlights include:
Belfast Media Festival (Sep 12-13)
Free industry event featuring speakers from BBC, ITV, Channel 4 etc…
International Loebner Prize Contest in Artificial Intelligence (Sep 13-15)
The world’s longest running international artificial intelligence prize
DANI Awards (Sep 13)
Northern Ireland’s premier black tie awards for the digital and creative industries
City Arcade / Multiplay Games Bash (Sep 12-14)
Free-to-play games arcades throughout the city centre alongside games tournaments hosted in partnership with major publishers
Nerve Centre at CultureTECH (Sep 13)
Full-day music industry programme featuring speakers from Soundwave, Planet Mu, Amazing Radio, Propellerhead software
Twenty live music events
Featuring the best Northern Irish record labels, promoters and festivals (Sep 9-15)
Keynote Showcase
A major showcase and launch event from Oscar-winning visual effects studio The Moving Picture Company (MPC)
Gallery Exhibitions
Multiple gallery exhibitions of multi-media arts including a week-long pop-up gallery in Foyleside Shopping Centre
Selected Speakers include:
Scott Stulen – curator of the Internet Cat Video Festival
Sharna Jackson – Editor, Tate Kids
Wilson Kriegel – CEO of Paltalk and formerly of OMGPop (makers of Draw Something)
Michael Spencer-Jones – rock photographer who shot iconic album covers for Oasis and The Verve
Julii Oh – marketing manager of the NY Philharmonic
Adam Perry – founder of BandApp and former drummer with the Bloodhound Gang
Fred Bolza – VP, Sony Music Entertainment
Don Undeen – Manager, Media Lab at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC)
Hugh McGrory – founder and creative director, Culture Shock NY
Jay Onda – Business Development at NTT Docomo
Justin Brukman – Executive Producer, MPC New York
As part of Belfast Media Festival
Julian March – Director of Online, ITV
Peter Johnston – Director of BBC NI
Ralph Rivera – Director of Future Media, BBC
Stuart Cosgrove – Director of Creative Diversity, C4
As part of Loebner Prize
Prof. Noel Sharkey – Professor of Artificial Intelligence & Robotics, University of Sheffield
Dr. Roger Schank – John Evans Professor Emeritus, Northwestern University
Dr. Hugh Loebner – International Loebner Prize Contest in Artificial Intelligence (AI), New York