TMFA 2010 is go

I’m here at the Media Festival Arts in London and it’s all about making digital collaboration happen across arts, film and media. The Festival aims to bring these industries together to discuss potential for commercial and creative collaboration in the digital sphere. This evening, delegates from different disciplines across film, arts and media, heard from Festival Director Louise Benson and Festival Chairman Peter Bazalgette.

The opening night panel entitled Cuts, closures, reorganisation… what does it mean for the Arts? invited the audience to question the panel on how arts and commercial organisations might need to adapt in order to overcome the current environment of massive change and uncertainty, and what part digital will play.

The panel consisted of BBC Arts Correspondent Will Gompertz, who was chair; Sir Nicholas Kenyon (MD, Barbican Centre); Iwana Blazwick (Director, Whitechapel Gallery); Paddy Earnshaw (CRM Director, Travelex Global Business Payments); and Marcus Davey (Chief Executive, The Roundhouse).

Don’t forget there is the FutureEverything Online Forum. You can propose and debate questions here, and vote to decide which questions are presented to the panelists. The FutureEverything Online Forum will also host discussion and debate on the themes of the conference led by speakers and key figures from the digital scene.

Follow the Tweets via @melkins or @EmapMedia.

Funding, networking and learning

Here’s the overview of The Media Festival Arts:

The Media Festival Arts in partnership with Arts Council England and the UK Film Council will offer cutting edge content fusing the digital agendas of the arts, film, media and technology. The festival was conceived to provide an environment in which media and arts professionals can meet, share and discuss new opportunities created a rapidly evolving digital media landscape.

The festival content will reflect the relationship between creative innovation, digital revenue streams and adding value to existing core activities. It will demonstrate how digital innovation can lead to mutually beneficial cross industry partnerships and new creative and commercial opportunities.

This festival aims to work towards a new settlement for public access to culture, to build a new public digital cultural space for the UK. The arts and the media industries need to talk and learn about shared possibilities, shared standards, shared technical solutions, and shared visions for what public service media can look like in the digital age.

Attending this three-day event (September 8-10, Roundhouse, London) means that you have the opportunity to network with hundreds of arts, media and technology bosses. The delegate list already has some of the big names in the industry. Also, this is your chance to find out how arts can collaborate with the media and broadcast industries to deliver 360-degree public service content as well as hearing about what available funding and investment opportunities are available for creative research and development.

I really cannot wait. I will be blogging during the conference, but I strongly encourage you to be part of the conversation especially if you are passionate about the arts, film and media. So if you can make it there, why not? Martian Landing readers get a 25% VIP discount. Just quote MARS25 when you register and hopefully see you there.

International Dance Festival Birmingham 2010: I ♥ Dance

Four weeks. More than 100 performances. World-class artists. That was International Dance Festival Birmingham 2010. I’ve had such an amazing time working as a Marketing and New Media Officer for the Festival. Not only did I get to work with such an amazing team from DanceXchange and Birmingham Hippodrome, I have met some of the nicest and talented people in the world of dance such as the beautiful Rosie Kay, renowned British choreographer Akram Khan and Arthur Pita to name a few. The good news is that I am continuing with the online presence for IDFB and am very much looking forward to working more on this project.

I felt quite privileged to see such an extensive range of dance styles from renowned artists from all over the world. It was interesting to hear from the Arab artists about their shows and about how their dance is very much connected to their spiritual side. Here are a couple of videos of two talented artists from Tunisia/Algeria and Egypt from the IDFB channel on YouTube:

Ahmed Khemis, Tunisia/Algeria

Salah El Brogy, Egypt

Utopia and (in)visible / visible dancin’ were two great outdoor performances that were part of the Festival. These both proved how dance is increasingly becoming popular as the public have received them very well.

visible dancin’ – May 9, 2010, High Street, Birmingham

IDFB has reached canal networks, has been out and about in the region and has touched many around the world (thanks to being online). I very much look forward to the next one in 2012. Watch out for other news via its Facebook group. Really pleased to have seen it grow to more than 1,000. Check out its Flickr page too. The video packages, which I helped produced, will also be out soon. In the mean time, I leave you with a bit of Put Your Foot Down!

Put Your Foot Down! Finale – May 15, 2010, Bullring, Birmingham