After it’s highly successful first appearance last year, Playground returns to the Children’s Media Conference from 4th to 9th July at the Cantor Gallery. Playground is an exhibition of digital art which you can interact with, plus there’s a Maker Space were you can make your own digital art. You’ll get to explore interactive digital
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Evoluted is a company that actually conforms to the stereotypical tech business story. Managing director Ash Young started making websites while he was at Sheffield University studying software engineering. He set up Evoluted as soon as he graduated in 2006 and the company began with Ash and colleague Gareth Davies working out of a bedroom.
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Hive IT are one of the newer arrivals on the Sheffield digital scene – the company was started in 2014, when founder Jonny Rippon decided he could “do it better” and left Technophobia to set up on his own. Today, Hive IT employs 18 full time staff and, with contractors, can have up to 30
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Digifest, which takes place on Tuesday 4th July, is a new event designed to celebrate digital learning activity and inform young people and their families about the exciting opportunities in the digital sector. The event will be held in Sheffield Hallam University’s brand new STEM centre opposite Sheffield station. It will combine taster sessions and
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Just two months after raising their latest round of funding, Sheffield startup Tutora are celebrating ranking 77th on the Startups 100 List. Heralded as the ‘longest running index of the best new UK businesses’, the Startups 100 List is highly competitive, highlighting the head-turners of the entrepreneurial world. Previous Startups 100 lists have featured the likes
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Two years ago, Sheffield Digital was just an idea. Today, it’s a vibrant community organisation that’s busy connecting, representing and promoting Sheffield’s digital community. Come and hear about what we’ve achieved so far, and our plans for the future, as well as from some of the people and firms who are shaping the Sheffield tech scene right
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Sheffield Digital turned two years old on 21st May. Now we have launched a campaign to significantly increase Sheffield Digital’s membership. Why? Because we need to put the organisation onto a sustainable financial footing so that we can make plans for the future and put some proper resources in place to do the work. But, just as
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The Children’s Media Conference is the UK’s premier gathering for the kids’ media and entertainment industry – and it happens in Sheffield. Last year, the conference welcomed over 1100 delegates from television, radio, film, games, interactive media, magazine and book publishing, the licensing and toy sectors and the arts and culture sectors. This year’s conference
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After débuting their first event way back in 2012, the team behind Startup Weekend Sheffield are gearing up for a special 10th edition of their weekend long entrepreneurial extravaganza. Taking place on 2nd – 4th June at the University of Sheffield’s Diamond building, Startup Weekend sees participants progress from pitching an idea to launching a
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We’re delighted to announce that Plusnet is the latest business to join Sheffield Digital as a company member. We spoke to Digital Transformation Consultant Liam Dyson to find out more about Plusnet’s Sheffield operation and their plans for the future. Set up nearly 20 years ago, Plusnet’s Sheffield office now has more than 1,200 people,
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Appt, a digital agency specialising in the design and development of bespoke mobile and web based apps, is opening a new office in Kunming, China. Their mission is to help companies navigate the complex differences between the digital landscapes of China and the West. Chinese developer Yingzhu (Joy) Quan, a Sheffield University graduate, will be returning
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Tech North has just announced Northern Voices, a six-month programme to help address the diversity challenge in tech/digital. The first course is designed specifically for women, and non-binary people who do not identify as men, to address the gender imbalance at conferences and in media appearances, in turn making digital jobs a more attractive career
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The department of computing at Sheffield Hallam University is inviting local digital employers to take part in an inaugural Digital Industry Day and promote their career opportunities. The event is called STACK and will be a combination of students’ work with a careers event. The University is inviting employers to come and see all the great
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Unrelenting in their explosive growth throughout the UK, EdTech startup Tutora are gearing up to launch a second round of crowdfunding to continue their expansion into the £6bn UK private tuition industry. Founded by Scott Woodley, a former teacher fed-up with the difficulty parents faced trying to find a tutor for their children, Tutora helps
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Over the past 18 months, the University of Sheffield’s City and Cultural Engagement department has been working with different partners to create a series of “Snapshot Reports” which highlight a particular aspect of Sheffield’s creative and cultural economy. These reports are being used to highlight the things that make Sheffield distinctive, to raise Sheffield’s profile
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legup.social is a collaborative way to help small businesses with digital. It was born out of an idea to do good things outside of the ordinary day-to-day running we undertake at Paper. It’s a no-catch exercise of pro bono work to find out if the people of the digital industry could help small businesses, social
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Now in its second year, Prolific North Live is a media, marketing and creative industries expo showcasing the latest innovation in digital, broadcasting, PR, web, publishing, tech, marketing and advertising from across the North. The first event was a great success, so this year it’s been expanded to two days, taking place on February 15
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Game Over is a popular Sheffied-based events company focused on retro and current generation gaming. They hold monthly mixers at City Centre venues that host casual and competitive gaming with tournaments, raffles, and local game devs. They’ll be celebrating their 2nd birthday event on February 1 at Bungalows and Bears. Sumo Digital will also be part
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A great deal of work has been going on behind the scenes to get the Digital Degree Apprenticeships ready to accept students this September. We’ve been working alongside Sheffield Hallam University to inform local digital companies about the programme and to provide a way for these employers to feed back into its development. Now is
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Sheffield Hallam University has now officially launched its “Digital and Technology Solutions Professional” degree apprenticeship, with plans for delivery to start in September 2017. The programme is designed to take three years, leading to a BSc Honours degree. The course content is based on a government approved standard which was developed by leading tech employers. It
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In the vast quantities of data that companies collect every day for marketing, how do you tell the good from the bad, and maximise the performance of the good? For advertisers that rely on a constant flow of fresh leads, the task of filtering out the fraudulent, invalid or out of spec data is a
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User experience research company Bunnyfoot has converted the Old Chapel on Mortimer Street into high-tech labs to allow companies to “climb inside your customers’ heads and find out what they really think about your website or app”. Companies like Waitrose, Sky and Sheffield City Council are already using the labs to watch their customers do
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This time last year, the Sheffield Digital elves were hard at work on our new identity and website, with the goal of going live at the start of 2016. It ended up being mid-January, but we were pretty pleased with the end result. Since then we’ve: served up 42,356 pages to 9,452 unique visitors published
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Android Things, an Internet of Things (IoT) platform from Google Inc, was launched this week with supporting kit from hardware providers worldwide. Pimoroni, the only European hardware kit partner, have launched a new HAT (Hardware Attached on Top) alongside a complete starter kit for people looking to try Android Things on the Raspberry Pi. With it, they
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This week has seen the launch of a new tech venture fund, Campus Capital, led by two very familiar faces from the Sheffield start-up scene: Michael Howe (serial entrepreneur and founder of Sheffield-based artificial intelligence firm Otus Labs) and Samantha Deakin Hill (Sheffield Start-Up Weekend and University of Sheffield tech start-up supporter). The firm, which
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We’re delighted to be teaming up with The Workstation again this year for a great big everyone’s invited Christmas party. It’s on Thursday 22nd December from 5:30pm. There’ll be a bar, DJ, games room and competition (with prizes!). After last year’s success, we expect tickets will go fast, so grab yours now: Get Tickets Here. We
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Will we have the skills for a bright digital future? In these uncertain times, it’s comforting to hold up digital as a shining example of UK economic success. This is, after all, an industry that contributes around £100 billion a year to the nation’s wealth – some 6% of GDP. It’s also an industry set
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Sheffield’s Site Gallery has been awarded £750,000 by Arts Council England for their place-making project ‘City of Ideas’. ‘City of Ideas’ will create new and accessible public art commissions animating existing spaces in the city centre. It will also create opportunities for young people, artists, the digital sector and public to work together over the
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The survey for the Tech Nation 2017 report is now live and we need as many people as possible to complete it before Monday 5th December. The report aims to provide detailed analysis of how the digital sector is driving economic growth, showcasing the innovation and energy of tech hubs across the UK. The 2016 report
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Local tuition company, Tutora, are seeking out the best young entrepreneurial minds across the country as they introduce children to new business concepts through their Young Entrepreneurs’ Challenge initiative. The events are designed to open children’s eyes to the possibility of creating their own tech businesses, whilst teaching them many of the skills they will
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Tech North are holding a free ‘Tech Nation Visa Surgery Session’ at Ward Hadaway in Leeds on Wednesday 30th November. They are offering an initial amount of free support to help applicants understand the application process, fast track options, exceptional promise options and eligibility criteria. The 30 minute ‘Office Hours’ style sessions will be open to
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A pixel is a basic unit of programmable colour on a computer display or computer image – these units are the building blocks of digitally created visual design. We’re bringing the digital to Sheffield Design Week with a special edition of The Platform. We’ll be exploring the breadth of digital design talent in Sheffield, with presentations
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OFFSET is one of the world’s most inspirational, educational and vocational conferences for the design and creative industries. The Dublin-based event attracts over 2,500 attendees every year and features speakers who are key disrupters and influencers in their fields. National and international giants in the world of design speak about their work, ideas and inspirations,
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The marvelous Festival of the Mind is back this month, with lots of digital content to discover. Futurecade is a series of 15 different exhibitions and talks, including a variety of virtual reality experiences, an homage to the Hole in the Road and even some dancing robots. The future fun all happens at the Millennium
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A series of online resources designed to help teachers build their knowledge of key computing concepts, and to convey them creatively in the classroom, has been designed by the Tech Partnership – with support from technology company ARM. Three e-learning modules, suitable for teachers of all Key Stages, introduce Computational Thinking, Algorithms and Principles of
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If you’re looking for funding or mentoring for your start-up idea, or want to hone your pitching skills, there are a bunch of opportunities coming up in September that don’t require a trip to London: Tech North’s Northern Stars Northern Stars is back for a second year, with Sheffield hosting the first of three regional
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We are proud and pleased to share that we are two of only seven mentors from all over the world to have the privilege of being a part of the Gaza Sky Geeks pre-incubator bootcamp in just a few weeks’ time. The fact that both of us are women from the North of England from the same fantastic entrepreneurial tech
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It’s been nearly six months since my post providing an update on the Sheffield Tech Hub / MakerHub. When I wrote that post, Sheffield Digital had just been asked to participate in the Ecosystem subcommittee of the MakerHub Community Interest Company (CIC). Over the next couple of months, we spent a great deal of time
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If you are a front end developer, are interested in web design or just want to get up to speed on something new, you should get yourself a ticket to FrontEndNorth which takes place at Sheffield City Hall on 30th September. Organisers Kimb Jones and Dave Green from Make Do have set themselves the goal of creating
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After losing its way a bit in recent years, Venturefest Yorkshire has been given an overhaul and, this year, will have a much greater focus on innovation and entrepreneurs. The 2016 event at York Racecourse on 16th November will include an exhibition, speakers and workshops, opportunities to meet investors and two competitions open to anyone
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Back in 2003, an enthusiastic young radio presenter became interested in the web and started building sites in his spare time. He showed what he was doing to a producer at the station, who said “You know, we could sell that to radio stations” . . . The station was Sheffield’s Hallam FM, the presenter
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If you attended the Platform event on VR in May, you would have seen Ivan Phelan from SHU’s Games department talking about his project helping amputees to learn how to use a prosthetic arm. Ivan’s project was featured on Channel 4 news last week. You can watch the clip here. There’s also more detailed information
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Applications are now open for the 2016 Northern Stars start-up competition, with the first pitching event taking place in Sheffield on 8th September. Northern Stars is a pitch competition that seeks to identify and showcase the best tech startups in the North of England. It works through an online application process, supported by a series of
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Pass through the huge stone archway into the cobbled courtyard of Globe Works and, apart from the cars, you could be stepping back in time. Globe Works oozes Sheffield heritage. Built in 1825, the building is possibly the world’s first purpose built cutlery factory but is certainly one of England’s oldest surviving cutlery and tool
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Following on from my post looking at the achievements of our first year, I wanted to share our plans for the rest of 2016. These plans were discussed in detail at our June board meeting and we would welcome your thoughts, comments and suggestions. There’s a lot to do, so offers of help would be
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Registration is open for the inaugural TechTrade Yorkshire (TY16) event, which will take place on 8 September at Elland Road, Leeds. Set to focus on how tech can transform organisations’ productivity, efficiency and innovation, this free one day programme is set to attract IT decision makers from a variety of sectors across the region and
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“Wow! I didn’t realise there was so much happening!” That’s a typical comment whenever I talk about the different coding and making activities happening all over Sheffield in the education and skills space for under 19 year olds. So what is going on and why is it not more visible? In this post, I’ll attempt
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“Employers should be more involved in education” is almost a mantra now and, sure enough, up and down the country there are all sorts of initiatives going on to try to make that happen. One way is to set up schools with an employer focus at the outset. That’s the philosophy of the new generation
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Skills and Talent is a significant issue for digital businesses in Sheffield and is an important focus area for Sheffield Digital. By creating this dedicated section on our website, we aim to provide a central resource and information point for businesses to find out what is happening and how you can get involved. We’ll be
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On Saturday 16th July we are having a party but not just any old party, it’s a cryptoparty and you are all invited. If you haven’t heard of cryptoparties before, they are a global movement to help everyday people become more aware of cyber security in everyday life.  The idea came out of Australia on
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