Matt Johnston's Blog - Digital Circle

Access exhibitors funding for GDC 2010

TIGA, in partnership with UK Trade and Investment Tradeshow Access Programme, is offering grants of £1400 for eligible businesses to attend GDC 2010. Between March 9-13, GDC returns to the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, for five days of learning, networking, and inspiration. Join this global community of programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, and business decision-makers as we convene to e… Continue

Added by Matt Johnston on December 17, 2009 at 3:07pm — No Comments

Digital Circle Update - December 2009

Welcome to the Digital Circle December update. We've got two events planned this month (both today) and a lobbying group started for South by SouthWest (SXSW) in March 2010. Digital Circle Sub-group: Investment and Funding Tuesday, December 8, 2009 from 4pm to 6pm. Venue: Momentum, NISOFT House, Ravenhill Business Park, Belfast This is a meeting of the Digital Circle Investment and Funding Group. The agenda of this group is to identify and counter challenges to digital media companies… Continue

Added by Matt Johnston on December 8, 2009 at 11:37am — No Comments

Small Firms Development Programme (Newtownabbey)

Download the application form. If your business is located in the N… Continue

Added by Matt Johnston on December 2, 2009 at 5:00pm — No Comments

Presentations from last week's HMRC R&d Tax Credits and EIS briefing

Things to take home: Talk to David Stewart at HMRC and explain the process of your business. Lots of businesses have managed to get (income) tax back from HMRC even though the owners didn't think they were doing R&D at first. Digital Circle 24.11.09.ppt (10 MB PPT) ORTUS are offering EIS certification for free until the end of 2009. EIS provides a lot of benefits to a business… Continue

Added by Matt Johnston on November 30, 2009 at 10:30am — No Comments

Holywood based company develops iPhone app for Grand Opera House

A local creative digital agency has developed a new mobile technology tool for the 114-year old Grand Opera House in a major step for the arts in Northern Ireland. iPhone users will

… Continue

Added by Matt Johnston on November 17, 2009 at 3:48pm — No Comments

Placements: Direct Industry involvement in Education

The Student Placement is the most direct way that the industry can interact and instruct students who are not yet in the workforce of the things they need to learn in order to become excellent prospective employees in the future. Why do so many companies refuse a placement and yet complain that graduates from schools, colleges and universities are not meeting their stringent standards? Around this time of year I'm inundated with requests for A-Level student placements within companies. Soon we… Continue

Added by Matt Johnston on November 3, 2009 at 9:58am — No Comments

Belfast Firm Aetopia scores Incisive Victory

In today's Sunday Business Post (Page M16) is a short feature on Aetopia, a local digital asset management company. Incisive Media, a business-to-business information provider, has agreed a €50 000 contract for licensing Aetopia's MediaCore technology.… Continue

Added by Matt Johnston on October 25, 2009 at 1:30pm — No Comments

Windows 7 expert demos to Digital Circle Windows enthusiasts

A group of Microsoft Windows technology enthusiasts gathered together at Blick Shared Studios on the Malone Road to celebrate the launch of Windows 7 to the general public. An extensive Q&A session from the audience and a live demo of the OS from some of Northern Ireland's best and brightest Windows technology systems integrators who have been using the Beta and Release Candidate versions of Windows 7 for many months. Ian Moran, Managing Director of… Continue

Added by Matt Johnston on October 23, 2009 at 5:48pm — No Comments

Learning Pool named as a Rising Star in Deloitte Technology Fast 50

Learning Pool attributes its growth to innovation and the applicat… Continue

Added by Matt Johnston on October 23, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

Belfast City Council: Grow and Compete workshops

Belfast City Council is sponsoring 4 places specifically for creative businesses on a Grow and Compete management development programme in association with Deirdre Fitzpatrick & Associates. The cost is £150+VAT and will include a selection of workshops, one-to-one mentoring, best practise visits and assistance in identifying new sales leads.

… Continue

Added by Matt Johnston on October 6, 2009 at 2:18pm — No Comments

Babson College VC Training Programme: closing date

It's the last chance to participate in the Babson College VC Programme. Dr Adele Dunn and Dr Michael Brennan of the Ulster Business School are organising the Babson Programme for Digital Circle on behalf of Invest NI Collaborative Networking Team. The programme is 70% funded via Invest NI Collaborative Network and therefore each delegate will be required to make a contribution of £1000 towards the cost of the programme. This cost will cover flights, accommodation, and meals at Babson and… Continue

Added by Matt Johnston on October 6, 2009 at 12:23pm — No Comments

MEDIA Desk: Call for proposals in Interactive Projects

Development - Interactive Projects Call for proposals 21/2009 Deadlines: 27 November 2009 (active) 12 April 2010 (active) Downloads Guidelines and annex… Continue

Added by Matt Johnston on October 5, 2009 at 11:38am — No Comments

Digital Content SMEs - Investment Programme Pilot

This is an outline proposal detailing the Digital Content SMEs - Investment Programme. Funded by InvestNI and hosted by the team at the University of Ulster Business School with the support of Babson College in Boston, the programme is designed to assist digital media pa… Continue

Added by Matt Johnston on September 3, 2009 at 5:30pm — 5 Comments

Feedback from IntertradeIreland Seedcorn Breakfast?

Earlier this morning, IntertradeIreland and Digital Circle hosted a Seedcorn Breakfast - providing entrepreneurs with information about the Seedcorn competition which closes in September with a €360,000 prize fund. Grainne Lennon of IntertradeIreland presented to 16 attendees across diverse interests and explained the categories and processes involved in the competition. See below for original slide pack… Continue

Added by Matt Johnston on August 19, 2009 at 3:33pm — No Comments

International Symposium on Electronic Art 2009 - Belfast

The full programme for ISEA2009 is available. ISEA2009 runs from the 23rd of August to the 1st of September. ISEA2009 will be concerned with Engaged Creativity in Mobile Environments. The incessant change of physical and virtual environments under the influence of global capital and mass migration as well as the fluidity of personal and social relationships effected by digital information and communication technolog… Continue

Added by Matt Johnston on August 11, 2009 at 10:15am — No Comments

Sixth Ofcom Market Report on TV, radio, broadband, telecoms and mobile industries

From the sixth Ofcom Market Report into the £52 billion TV, radio, broadband, telecoms and mobile industry:

When asked which items they were likely to cut back on, 47 per cent would choose to cut back on going out f… Continue

Added by Matt Johnston on August 6, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

HALO Business Angel Network seeks companies to pitch!

Halo, the NI Business Angel Network is holding its next investor meeting on 15th September. There are likely to be around 40 business angels in the room who are interested in investing in start-up or high growth-potential companies looking to raise between £50k and £500k. Companies need to be ‘investor ready’ which does not mean that they already have market traction and a full team in place. It does mean that they have clear answers to a number of questions : What problem do they solve and wh… Continue

Added by Matt Johnston on August 5, 2009 at 12:28pm — No Comments

InvestNI Export Skills and Knowledge Workshops

This is a new series of export skills workshops commencing on September 10 with Winning Sales. A total of 24 workshops covering 16 topics are scheduled at a cost of £75 per place and bookings can be made online. 85% of places were booked in the last series and feedback from previous delegates showed a very high level of satisfaction with the course material. To keep it relevant new workshops have been introduced, some sales related topics merged and material updated. For more information,… Continue

Added by Matt Johnston on August 5, 2009 at 10:15am — No Comments

IntertradeIreland SeedCorn Competition now open for 2009

IMPORTANT NEW CHANGES TO THE ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA!.......READ ON...... Please note the project… Continue

Added by Matt Johnston on August 5, 2009 at 10:05am — No Comments

Skillset 2009 Census of the Creative Media Industries

There are three sector skills councils which are of immediate interest to the Digital Content Sector: eSkills - covering the skills for Business and Information Technology Creative and Cultural Skills - which have a remit for Design, Music and Creativity Skillset - specifically for the Creative Media Industry Skillset have asked the Industry in the UK to complete a census. We have just been notified of the Census and there is… Continue

Added by Matt Johnston on July 20, 2009 at 9:00am — No Comments

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