MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Year founded: 2009
Date: 13th – 14th November, 2009
Location:
Dundee, Scotland
Organiser:
Tayside Interactive
The NEoN Festival is set to take place in Dundee, Scotland in November this year, and will bring together what the organisers promise are the world’s best technologies and studios as well as artists from interactive, online, videogame, music, movie, broadcast and digital media sectors.
Its name an acronym for North East of North, the NEoN event is designed to celebrate and showcase the best on offer from the Tayside area, and aims to bring people into the region and to promote the creative community within.
The Interactive Tayside organisation, which is responsible for the festival, represents a partnership of organisations with shared interests.
“The festival is organised by a group drawn from many of the territory’s leading digital media companies, universities, commercial organisations and individuals,” explains Donna Fordyce, an industries production manager at Scottish Enterprise, which is itself a partner in NEoN. “The companies involved include Realtime Worlds, Denki, Sooper Double D, Hungryboy and Avian.”
Scottish Enterprise’s role in contributing to NEoN comes about as a result of the body’s role as its home country’s main economic, enterprise, innovation and investment agency, which has a mission to stimulate sustainable growth of Scotland’s economy.
“Dundee’s been at the centre of digital technology for decades now, and as a result we have a lot of people living and working in the area who are experts in the field,” says Fordyce.
“On top of that our Universities bring in more fresh talent each year who are keen to learn and apply digital technology in new and exciting ways. We wanted to create a festival that brought that experience, ambition and passion together in one place to celebrate what’s already been achieved and to consider what’s still to be done. A festival focussed around digital arts just felt like the best way of achieving that.”
At the time of writing the final details of the NEoN event are still being finalised, but based on the confirmed keynote, it looks like the conference could attract speakers and attendees of a impressively high calibre.
“Some of the talks are sure to be special,” enthuses Fordyce. “Having Bud Luckey from Pixar keynoting the first day has obviously been a real honour for us – Bud’s someone who’s work has inspired many of us now working in the industry, and seeing the way his artistry has translated seamlessly in to the digital realm has shown the way for many of us. But the main highlight is sure to be just having so many incredible people gathered together in one place, talking, laughing and being inspired by each other.”
CONTACT:
Interactive Tayside
3 Greenmarket
Dundee
DD1 4QB
NEoN
W: www.northeastofnorth.com
E:neon@northeastofnorth.com
T: +44 (0)7913 759957
