Digital Lifescapes

I recall when I first met Kam Star at the SXSW 2012 Festival, he shared his aspiration to make the Digital Shoreditch Festival as successful as the now infamous annual vent in Austin, Texas. After I attended the UK event that his team organized in 2012, I offered some suggestions for his consideration. I still believe that the creative culture in London is different -- and that's a good thing. London's creative digital talent strengths tend to be focused on the fashion, architecture and design sectors. The financial services sector also has a renewed focus on technology-enabled innovations. Digital Shoreditch Festival 2013 is expected to double in size, bringing together a community of 15,000 digital creatives to showcase and debate the latest advances in digital and technological innovation. The event held in East London last year attracted over 6,000 delegates with support from more than 40 sponsors and partners. This year the event is even bigger -- reflecting Lon...

I’ve previously shared a summary of observations during my attendance at the 2012 South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive events earlier this year. What I didn’t mention was that I had the opportunity to briefly meet Kam Star, while he was in Austin, Texas attending SXSW. As the founder, Kam explained his aspirations for the Digital Shoreditch Festival -- to replicate some of the success of the SXSWi legacy within the London marketplace. Why should this bold goal matter to the British public. For starters, it’s about the potential economic impact. Case in point: for the second straight year, in 2011 the SXSW Interactive attendance fueled the impressive increase in event attendance -- although SXSW Film and SXSW Music also enjoyed banner years as well. The City of Austin’s hospitality industry benefitted from the outside visitors with two very profitable weeks. SXSW’s direct booking of more than 10,500 individual reservations totaling 47,500+ room nights -- that was an in...

This is the first in a series of reports that I will share about SXSWi 2012 related events. Once again, I'll be attending the Interactive conference and trade show in Austin, Texas. Forty British digital companies were selected to participate in the UK Trade and Investment ( UKTI ) Mission to South by Southwest 2012. Each of the companies joining the mission are listed below, in alphabetical order: Acknowledgement Ltd Acunu AMEE Analytics SEO Anywhere.me Codegent CultureLabel Ltd DAD Technology Ltd DeadSoci.al Eventless Ltd Foodsplore Fortune Cookie Gravity Thinking Hailo Happiest Ltd Harvest Digital Milky Tea MOFILM Ltd Musicmetric Net Communities Ltd Numiko Oil Productions Palringo PlayMob Portal Entertainment Psonar Ltd Realeyes Recite ShareMyPlaylists Shopcade Sign-Up.to Sohnar SoJoLife StickyWorld Ltd The Unit Thrive Software TWAds (Addiply) Ltd ustwo Yazino I look forward to the opportunity to connect with the UK Digital Mission del...