The Creative World of Digital Shoreditch

You may not expect to find creatives at one of the world’s biggest digital conferences; yet at Digital Shoreditch, the majority of attendees would define themselves as just that.

Set up to celebrate the digital boom in Shoreditch – made famous by the government-backed silicon roundabout at Old Street – the five day long festival brings together digital professionals, enthusiasts, interested individuals and companies for a plethora of diverse talks and workshops.

Just down the road at Artis, Bryony (Baa) and Charles (Ribbit) took part in a number inspiring sessions, all very different in content but connected in that they approached each topic from a completely new angle.

One included Say Media’s The Power of Storytelling that looked at the potency of storytelling and its capacity to engage people on all levels. People are more likely to remember stories than facts – a staggering 22 times more likely, which shows the importance imagination plays in successfully conveying a message.

A session on atomic networking was run by a former drama professional, who looked at the science of networking as though each person were an atom with different connections, giving a fresh perspective to how we interact with people. In a session run by Viral Spiral about generating unique online video content, groups were given large sheets of paper and pens and asked to respond to footage to create a storyboard for a new video.

The diversity of approaches and range of skills all sitting together under the umbrella ‘digital’ was remarkable; and this is before mentioning the amazingly wacky exhibition of sound, visual, and digital art projects housed in the basement of Shoreditch Town Hall.

The buzz of the festival and its sheer size shows that we are fully immersed in the digital age, highlighting that computer programming should be an integral part of the primary school curriculum. Music, movement, and drama may not have an obvious connection to the digital realm, but if anything is clear from Digital Shoreditch, it’s that we need to develop children’s confidence to try new things. The performing arts can encourage them to think around subjects in new ways and become the digital innovators of tomorrow.