Really getting excited about this now – looking forward to some great talks and demos  from composer Ben Mawson, who’ll be doing demos throughout the day, Alain Renauld, talking about distributed music, unKeynote from Alan Patrick, co-founder of Broadsight, which focusses on market intelligence, Ajay Chakravarthy and Paul Walland talking about viewing digitsed 3D objects, John Ribbins from Roll7 games, Nicola Beale talking about re-reading the Memorial Project, James Miles and Reflectance Transformation Imaging – , Chris Hughes on visualisation techniques and Ben Oliver talking about music appreciation and perception. 

Still time to sign up http://creativedigifest.eventbrite.com/?ebtv=C

And we’re still encouraging demos and new discussions, so please feel free.  Runs from 10-4, food available 11.30 –2.30, bar opens at 11.30.  Takes place at Student Union Building on Highfield campus, get there by Unilink, http://www.southampton.ac.uk/visitus/campuses/index.shtml, http://www.unilinkbus.co.uk/

Twitter #SxSC

An event to look out for next month — South by South Coast (#SxSC) an all-day informal event on 18 May 2012 at the University of Southampton Students Union building for anyone involved in the region’s creative industries. “Come and meet some great people with interests in the creative industries and digital media. Geek out, talk, hear some inspiring speakers, and enjoy our music and beer, all for free. Outdoor patio area too, if it’s a nice daySouth by South Coast is sponsored by: the University of Southampton’s Digital Economy Strategic Research Group and supported by the Centre for Strategic Innovation.

To book your FREE ticket: http://creativedigifest.eventbrite.co.uk

Part of study leave is doing a bit of horizon sensing, catching up with what others are doing and building some new networks.  Plenty of that in Southampton last week at Work Futures conference and just the other day at Anglia Ruskin in Cambridge, the CoDE Conference focussing on cultural studies and the Digital Economy.

Working with SMEs as I usually do, it’s difficult sometimes to get an overview of wider trends.  that’s why I went to the NEM (Networked and Electronic Media) General Assembly last week.  NEM is an industry-led initiative, which aims to foster the convergence between consumer electronics, broadcasting and telecoms in order to develop the emerging business sector of networked and electronic media.  So, lots of interesting discussions about new business models and possibly the establishment of a thematic network for future discussions.  A good couple of days.  The summit in October in Istanbul will be one to look out for.

Last week saw the start of a brand new research project funded by INTERREG between the School of Management in Southampton and EM-Normandie, comparing how the two Schools manage their industry partnerships. Business Schools in France operate under a very different fundiung regime to U Schools, with much tighter links to industry – though UK Schools often have a more intense focus on research that might be attractive to industry. So, there will be something to learn for both sides. As well as some useful interviews with key people at EMN, I visited the Deauville campus, and the CreActive Place, a great new foresight concept supported by the Mayor of Deauville – something that English towns could learn from!

Social, tech and beer was promised at the Monki Gras event last week held at the lovely Conway Hall in central London.  Conway Hall aspires to be “a landmark of London’s independent intellectual, political and cultural life” and it certainly did that last Wednesday.  A great conference, lots of excellent conversation and beer-tasting too, overseen by Melissa Cole.  So thanks to James for inviting me.  I took one of my PhD students with me this time, and hope to build the connection with the university for the future, so watch this space.

. Why do I go, if I’m not a developer? For abit of horizon sensing. I need to know where the developer zeitgeist is going, what’s of interest, what’s coming next – so I can point my research in the right directions and keep classes up to date too.

As I moved around from friends’ houses and hotel to hotel over the Christmas and New Year period, I reflected on the need to continually charge devices, becoming ever alert to plug sockets on trains, planes and unfamiliar living rooms.  Where to sit to be close (and not leave wires for people to trip over), do I have the correct charger/adapter and dongles. I’ve managed to internalise the need to carry a raft of chargers, adapters, duplicates in different bags. I’ve become adept at flipping between wifi and network carriers, hopping in and out of hotel lobbies.  It occurred to me that I have become the equivalent of a 21st century hunter-gatherer drifting from point to point, picking up electricity, wifi or broadband juice where I find it – and in competition at times for sometimes scarce resources.  adds a frisson of excitement to the journey I guess!

Here’s a couple of snippets from interviews taken on the night  John Bessant and Gerry George

As many of you are aware, I spend a fair bit of time trying to debunk the myth of the so-called Digital Native. Here’s a link to a blogpost in the new Tech publication, The Kernel.

A busy week all round with the launch of the School of Management’s new Research Centre for Strategic Innovation on Thursday evening. About 40 people turned out overall to hear a panel consisting of John Bessant, Gerard George and Sally Jane Norman – leading academics in the field, talk about the opportunities and challenges of the new innovation landscape. Looking forward to a stream of events in the coming year – I’ll be keeping you posted!