I discovered a new condition at a convention this week. But it was not an event for medics but media folk. And before you ask, no the condition was not foot-in-mouth disease! In fact it was RDS, Repetitive Debate Syndrome.
Andy Duncan, former Chief Executive of Channel Four came up with this at the Oxford Media Convention. Andy said the media sector was suffering “acute case of RDS – repetitive debate syndrome.” The idea that the same things get debated over and over again with no progress being made.
He did issue a serious warning saying that, “the UK’s creative industries could go backwards, despite economic recovery, unless they work together to face future challenges”
Other speakers at the event included Stephen Timms, Minister for Digital Britain. Two of the issues he raised in his speech where IP and New Business Models. While Jeremy Hunt, Shadow Culture Secretary said in his speech that “the creative industries are becoming as important to our economy as financial services.”
But the event was not all about politicians there panel sessions on a range of issues, including one the CI KTN director John Cass took part in. “Our digital future: can Britain’s digital infrastructure compete”
The Guardian blogged and reported from the event and various people fed into the Twitter feed at #OMC10
Shaping the future of digital content
We have just announced the next round of events for our Future of Digital Content Beacon Projects. These follow on from the publication of our Baseline report which pulled together all of the material from our nationwide survey, expert interviews and previous round of workshops.
The Baseline report paints a picture of where the Creative Industries see themselves today, as well as where they will be in five to seven years time. The next round of workshops will invite people from creative businesses and technology organisations to further refine these to help identify the projects, actions and funding needs to be in place to turn these scenarios into reality.
More details about the workshops are on our events calendar and you can also get involved in the debate and discussions on our web site.
As well as the workshops we will also be holding our popular Digital Lounge events at some of the venues. These open-house networking events are also a showcase for digital businesses and an opportunity to hear about funding opportunities.
The dates and venues for the events are:
Feb 17 – Reading
Feb 18 – Birmingham
Feb 19 – London (followed by Digital Lounge)
Feb 22 – Cambridge
Feb 23 – Newcastle (followed by Digital Lounge)
Feb 24 Sheffield (followed by Digital Lounge)
The http://tinyurl.com/ydl4l6v