Sheffield's brilliant tech community celebrated in week-long digital festival

Sheffield Digital Festival runs all next week - November 16-22 - with a strong line up including a Virtual TechExpo, organised by Datatrainer, featuring speakers on advanced technologies including artificial intelligence.

‘Home working: a psychological perspective for looking after yourself’ by SPARK. Sir Tim Smith, co-founder of the Eden Project, on ‘How big ideas make great places’ and ‘Delivering a purpose-driven strategy in a digital world’ by DH Professional Solutions and Carduus Ltd.

There are also talks on in-demand skills, getting your tech business investment ready and a GeekBreeky festival special by Sheffield Digital.

Other events include a live Twitter Q&A with the @HelpSheffield account, which has more than 24,000 followers, by answering questions about Sheffield.

Sheffield Women in Tech will host a panel discussion exploring routes into a career in coding and Natwest’s Entrepreneur Accelerator is hosting a series of webinars for early-stage tech companies.

Organisers, Field and Sheffield Digital, believe the festival has a role in helping the region recover from the events of 2020.

Sheffield Digital director, Mel Kanarek, said: “COVID-19 has brought the need for digital technologies into sharp focus, and members of Sheffield Digital have been integral to helping many companies and communities adapt and survive.

“The festival will showcase what our digital industries can do, but also Sheffield City Region and the amazing museums, exhibitions, colleges and universities that we have.

“We are aligned with the ‘Make Yourself at Home’ initiative and share the ambition of getting our city and surrounding towns moving again, whilst maintaining the habits and solutions that are keeping us safe.

“During the festival, everyone can explore and discover from the comfort and safety of home and hopefully in December, they can get out and about with the app, seeing what our city’s creative and digital industries have to offer.”

The festival team created an augmented reality app to use while walking around ‘trails’ and outside specific locations in Sheffield and Barnsley.

It will be launched after lockdown. In the meantime, some content from the app will be available on the Sheffield Digital Festival website, and the team at Field and Hive IT (who collaborated on its development) will also be hosting a virtual event to share their experience of creating the app.

Sponsors include The Sheffield College, and technology and engineering consultancy, BJSS.

Sheffield Digital Festival is from Monday 16 to Sunday 22 November 2020.

Go to: sheffielddigitalfestival.com/events to see the programme follow it on social media on the hashtag: #sheffielddigitalfestival to stay up to date and to download the app when it is launched.

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