I’d never attended the Brighton Digital Festival before. After
years in the industry, I always felt there was very little that would actually
benefit me from such an event. I don’t need to network; I have so many contacts
from my consultancy days it would just be a drop in the ocean by now, and in my
stubbornness I believed there was no more I could learn.
This year however, I was persuaded by an old colleague
who had been given two tickets by his current employer. I wasn’t sure what to
expect, but was curious nonetheless and decided to give it a go after all these
years of living in Brighton. The first thing that struck me upon arrival was
the sheer breadth of activity; this year apparently had a record breaking 192
events, and it certainly showed. These ranged from conferences and workshops to
comedy shows, live music, unveilings and live technical demonstrations.
Whilst the conference put itself forward as an
informative and educational experience (which it certainly was) I found it more
to be a celebration of digital culture, clearly put together by people who were
both intrigued and excited about the possibilities of digital services and
technology. Most inspiring were the various young people who, with wide eyed
aspiration, talked valiantly about what the future holds a new generation of
digital creators. Whilst I’ve seen technologies change every day, what I never
get to see is how they have inspired a new wave of creatives; this in turn
inspired me, and already I was learning much more than I ever anticipated.
Since its establishment in 2011, the Brighton Digital
Festival has grown significantly year-on-year, hitting a record high of over
50,000 visitors for this year’s event according to The Argus. This highlights
something I have known and discussed plenty on this site before; Brighton is
the UK’s hub for digital activity, and in my experience there is no-where else
in the country, not even the capital, which can match Brighton’s output of
digital creatives. I’ve also previously written about the frequency of digital communities
that are springing up around the UK. These are loosely knit creative collectives
of web development, digital marketing, and consumer technology companies, and
one of the biggest is based in Birmingham. Despite this, I believe digital
services and web design in Brighton still remains the best in the country.
One of the other more impressive events was the
Freelance Workshop, which was hosted by Cardens Business Consultants. As a
freelancer myself, I never had any formal advice or networking around the
subject, but I still managed to survive. I felt at the time I could provide
some useful insights on self-employment, but I ended up doing more listening
and was surprised at how much I learnt. The workshop covered everything from
the best way to manage your accounts, attracting the right clientele, and
putting forward a professional corporate image. Although I’d been successful in
my freelance endeavors, I felt I’d developed some bad habits and left feeling
rather keen to see how I could further develop my professional freelance work. I
was already making some strident improvements, and this was just the first day.
The free coffee wasn’t too bad either.
The next, to my surprise, the most enjoyable event I
attended was exploring the future of radio hosted by PR firm Fugu and local radio show totallyradio. I am
already a huge fan of podcasts, but the conference went deeper than this,
looking more closely at the benefits and drawbacks of emerging technologies;
there was also some great music involved in the presentation! Despite never
having worked in this industry, I still took in and enjoyed the lessons
provided. This showed me the value of the entire event as a whole, whether I
had a vested interest in the technologies or not, and made me wonder what else
I could learn during the month-long event.
By the last day of the festival, I came away
pleasantly surprised at the new experience I’d just had, and thought about just
how much I’d learnt. I was particularly inspired by the culture of sharing that
existing at this year’s Brighton Digital Festival. It ultimately left me
wondering what, if anything, I could share and give back to the digital
community? I guess we’ll just have to wait until next year.
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