The North East’s biggest tech celebration, North East Digital Festival, saw more than 2,000 attendees during its inaugural launch last month.
The two-week festival, which was a collaborative effort between some of the North East’s biggest tech events including Newcastle Startup Week, Tech Talent and Thinking Digital, saw some of the UK’s biggest tech experts descend on the region.
Alongside the Festival’s flagship events, the region also welcomed Dragon’s Den favourite Jenny Campbell to FinanceCamp, over 200 people to Digital Disruption at Northumbria University and over 100 aspiring entrepreneurs at Startup SAFARI.
Billy Webber, COO of Sunderland Software City, the organisation coordinating the festival said: “This festival wouldn’t be possible without the collaboration of everyone who set up events during the two weeks. The North East is the fastest growing region for tech outside of London and this two-week celebration is a great example of that.
“To see over 2,000 people attend over 20 events is an amazing effort by all involved. We’re looking forward to making it bigger and better next year!”
The festival brought some of the biggest tech experts to the region including Michelle Cortese, VR Designer for Facebook’s AR/VR Experiences team, who spoke at Thinking Digital and Steve Bartlett, CEO and co-founder of Social Chain, who inspired hundreds at Newcastle Startup Week.
Collaboration was a key theme throughout the festival. During the breakfast launch, Generator presented their new ‘One region, One sector, One statement’ outline, a collective commitment to delivering a unified national message for the North East’s biggest organisations. The statement was well received by the audience of business leaders, startup founders and local authorities.
After this year’s success, the festival is hoping to build on their strong start by doubling the number of attendees when it returns in May next year. It is also hoping to add even more bespoke events to the line-up.
For more information on this year’s festival please visit: http://www.northeastdigitalfestival.com/
North East Digital Festival is supported by Invest North East England and sponsored by W North and OrangeBus.