A selection of the South West’s most prominent creative leaders have joined forces to create a spectacular event that will celebrate excellence in the region’s creative sector.

A fascinating line up of speakers has been announced including:

Fraser Bradshaw, Managing Director of global agency McCann Erickson
Chris Yapp, formerly Head of Innovation at Microsoft
Jane Young, founder of Scramblr
Clare Reddington, Director of the Pervasive Media Studio
Patrick Towell, Joint CEO ofGolant Media Ventures
Ben Tomlinson, Creative Director at creative agency Poke

Full listing here

The Media & Innovation Conference, which is being run in association with Sony and supported by the Creative Industries iNet, will take place at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth on Thursday 9th June, and will bring together creative industry leaders to hear about the latest technological innovations, ground breaking projects and discover how to embed a culture of innovation into their businesses.

The Conference’s executive steering group brought together some of the most successful, dynamic and innovative companies to create the exciting programme. The group included:

Fraser Bradshaw, Managing Director of global agency, McCann Erickson
Lisa Sargood, Multiplatform Commissioning Executive at the BBC
James Abraham, Multiplatform Executive Producer at international production company Twofour
David Burton, Head of Innovation at award winning agency Redweb

Also advising the group were:

Anthony Story, Director of the Creative Industries iNet
Clare Reddington, Director ofthe Pervasive Media Studio
Nico Macdonald, Founder of Spy
Gianni Corino Programme Leader at iDAT (Institute of Digital Art & Technology), the University of Plymouth
Bob Cotton, Senior Lecturer in Digital Media at Arts University College Bournemouth
Korash Sanjideh, Business Link Broker for the Creative Industries iNet

Full details of the steering group are available here Anthony Story, Director of the Creative Industries iNet said: “Innovation is a word which can be used to support many activities. What’s exciting about the Media and Innovation Conference, is the focus on how new audience habits are driving media companies to dream up new experiences and business opportunities. But innovating is not easy, so the conference’s commitment to exploring how to make this easier is also vital.”

Sponsors of the event include: the Creative Industries iNet, Sony, the Design Programme, Business West, the University of Plymouth, ICCI, Plymouth College of Art and Arts Matrix.

David Burton, Head of Innovation at Redweb, said: “This conference is going to be a fantastic celebration of talent, ideas and inspiration. It’s a great chance to meet the top innovators and creative thinkers of our region and to see how they work and approach today’s problems. Creative industries in the South West are growing, innovating and competing on a growing scale and this conference will be a further catalyst to cement a spirit of support and collaboration amongst us all”

Delegates will also have a chance to see demonstrations of some of the most interesting and experimental work from across the region including Sonic Boom by Mutant Labs, The Tweeture by SlingShot, Sony Ziris digital signage, and the Global Radio App by Mubaloo.

Bob Cotton, Senior Lecturer in Digital Media said: “We know that Innovation underpins national economic recovery*. Innovation in digital content design is an essential catalyst in this process. Innovation on the edges of computation, communications and media is what is driving innovation in devices, in bandwidth provision, and in access to media. It is also harvesting over 40 years of research in interface design, virtual reality, computer-generated imagery and of course in computation, micro-processor design, information engineering, and electronics product design.”

Within the conference, 4Talent will be running an Inspiration Day for people to learn about App development and marketing, and the South West Design Forum will be holding their annual summit for design leaders from across the South West.

Tickets for the one day conference cost* £45* and include lunch and refreshments during the day. To register and for full details click here.

The conference will be followed by the Media & Innovation Awards event which will take place at the Holiday Inn in the evening. The gala dinner costs £40. Discounted combined tickets are just £80.

To register for the conference and the awards event go to: www.mediainnovationconference.com/register.aspx., you can email info@pm-p.com or call 01752 346530.