Hello World, Birmingham's first international digital conference, opens at Hello Digital festival

Speakers from some of the biggest names in digital media including Pixar, Channel 4, MySpace & Flickr come to Birmingham on October 23rd & 24th as part of the city's first international digital conference, Hello World.

Running alongside the Hello Digital festival showcase at Millennium Point, Hello World is free to attend and will give businesses from across the region the rare chance to meet and question some of the most influential names in the digital media industry.

Hello World will also include the first public appearance from Channel 4's new Head of 4iP, Tom Loosemore. 4iP is a pilot £50 million creative fund that aims to re-invent how publicly-valuable content is conceived, funded and delivered for British audiences on new media platforms. At Hello World Tom Loosemore will be talking alongside Channel 4's Director of Nations & Regions, Stuart Cosgrove, about their strategy for 4iP and how people can access the creative fund.
Activity at Hello World will include:

Thursday 23 October
Session 1 Gaming gets serious: Exploring serious games
Geoff Henderson, Director of Digital Native Academy Ltd & LearnPlay Foundation Ltd, and Matt Dunn, Business Development Manager of Fish in a Bottle, will be speaking and answering questions regarding The West Midlands leading role within the Serious Games industry. They will also be discussing the region's academic research into the field.

Session 2 Doing business in a digital world
This panel session will focus on the commercial potential of digital media and online marketing, and feature Joy Armitage, B&I Interactive Manager of Cadbury plc.

Session 3 Exploring the revolution in content production and distribution
Faintheart was the world's first user-generated movie with users of the world's largest online community, MySpace, playing an integral part in every stage of the filmmaking process from directing the film, to joining the cast, submitting music for the soundtrack, or being part of the production crew. James Fabricant, Director of Business Development and Media, Europe, at MySpace.com will be joining a panel led by Screen WM to discuss whether this marks the dawn of a new era of user-generated content in mainstream media?

Session 4: Digital Art in the Public Realm
Exploring the revolution in digital content development in the arts, this panel will discuss the huge opportunities for digital media to bring art to the public realm. Featuring Arts Council England West Midlands, award winning national touring theatre company, Pilot Theatre and Multistory, a charity that develops innovative participatory arts projects with communities and artists in the fields of regeneration.

Friday 24 October

Session 1 Digital debate: Do or die? Coping with convergence in a digital age
Magic Lantern Productions CEO Anthony Lilley, New Music Strategies' Andrew Dubber and guest speakers from BT & Cisco Systems will discuss and debate the impact of digital convergence across the public and private sectors.

Session 2 Developing the skills of the digital media generation
The Learning and Skills Council will be presenting and launching their new Talent2Market report. The Talent2Market report contains a review of the supply of education provision in the Creative and Media Sector.

Session 3 In conversation with Helen Champ, Director of Community at Flickr
Director of Community at Flickr, Heather Champ, oversees member activities for one of the worlds largest and most popular photo-sharing communities and will be taking part in a sixty minute Q&A session.

Session 4 In conversation with Michal Makerewicz, Pixar Animation Studios
Character Animator Michal Makarewicz from Pixar Animation Studios will be discussing his career and the role of animation in film in a sixty minute Q&A session.
Michal Makarewicz joined Pixar Animation Studios in 2003, where he has been an animator on such features as The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, WALL*E and most recently the upcoming Disney Pixar feature, Up.

All activity at Hello World is free to attend, to register for your place please visit http://www.hellodigital.net/ and follow the links to Hello World.

Hello Digital festival Director Ruth Ward says, "Digital media is defining many aspects of our future and Hello World will give businesses a chance to hear more about the wealth of opportunities that digital holds for their own development, from an internationally renowned line up of speakers. It is a great privilege to be able to bring these spokespeople to Birmingham from across the globe, and Hello World promises to be an inspiring two days for all involved."