Your guide to Gateshead's Thinking Digital conference

May 14 2009 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal

Thinkers and doers from across the world will gather in the North East today for one of the most important science and technology events the region has hosted. Andrew Mernin guides you through the Thinking Digital conference.

FROM deep inside the biggest science experiment on the planet, from the research laboratories of some of the world’s largest businesses and even from a toy-maker’s workshop, they will come to Tyneside to discuss technologies that will shape our future.

Today Microsoft, Virgin and Google will be just some of the technology-led corporate heavyweights dropping anchor in the Sage Gateshead for the international digital industry event Thinking Digital.

There may be few household names among the delegates, but much of the technology and ideas they represent has revolutionised the way we live our lives and will shape our interaction with the internet in the future.

Thinking Digital, run by North East digital industry body Codeworks, is now in its second year and was inspired by TED, the US-led global conference which gathers the world’s leading thinkers and doers.

Herb Kim, director of the conference and CEO of Codeworks, said: “It’s really tough to say who I’m most looking forward to at Thinking Digital.

“At last year’s event some of the more unusual speaker choices really stood out, perhaps because you didn’t know what to expect, and I think that will be the same this time around. Caleb Chung, the toymaker, should be very entertaining, and I think Tara Shears, who works at the Large Hadron Collider, will be fascinating. Then, of course, I’m also looking forward to hear what big hitters such as the BBC, Virgin and Amazon have planned for the future.

“Some of the most interesting thinking comes when you mash up a lot of cultures, ideas and influences, and that’s what Thinking Digital is all about.”