The Thinking Digital conference returns to Gateshead for a fourth year in May. John Hill looks at what the region's businesses have got out of previous events, and what they can expect this year.
ROB Colling’s subtitling work has appeared on favourites such as The X-Files, Lost and the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
But several people still know him as the man who played piano at a conference. “Oddly, that’s the thing that people seem to remember the most”, he says.
When Colling decided to set up his own internet subtitling firm in 2009, he approached Thinking Digital conference founder Herb Kim to see if there was anything he could do to help.
He ended up captioning promotional videos at the event’s second year, as well as playing a tune during the conference itself. He says: “I ended up writing the theme music for the conference video and then playing it live.
“In return for the captioning, my business was one of the partners of the conference. It started a lot of balls rolling. I was referenced a few times in talks and I still get people coming up to me. They’ve had that tucked away in the back of their heads for a while.
“I went to the following one as well, and I’ve made about a dozen contacts altogether, including the very first job the company did. I did some consulting work to help the in-house team at the Baltic refine what they were doing with subtitling.
“I’ve been to other conferences, and the distinction I always make is that most of them are about what’s going on now that you might not have seen. Thinking Digital is about what’s going to happen, and what you need to be ready for.”
The conference will return for a fourth year from May 24 to 26, and will be supported by The Journal. This year’s line-up at The Sage in Gateshead includes One Laptop Per Child Europe CEO Walter De Brouwer, Duarte Design founder Nancy Duarte, Wired UK contributing editor Jer Thorp and trendspotter Marcus Lindkvist.
Thinking Digital is just one of a collection of conferences organised by Codeworks, including GameHorizon and Design It Build It. But it is the eclectic nature of the two-day event that has attracted many visitors from the North East and beyond.
It is seen as a UK version of the American ideas conference TED, and Microsoft’s Steve Clayton described it as “one of the most professional and enjoyable events I’ve been involved in”.
Mike Parker, creative director of Newcastle digital firm Orange Bus, says: “I’ve attended every one since it started. It’s one of the only conferences I’d be interested in going to.
“There’s a really diverse range of people speaking on different topics. At a web development conference, you’re surrounded by web developers, but this brings together people from different sectors so you can make relationships and spawn business opportunities.”
The Sage’s stage has welcomed a range of faces since the conference started in 2008, from Newsweek magazine’s technology columnist Dan Lyons to Caleb Chung, the creator of the Furby and the Pleo.
Former O2 VP Bradley de Souza, creative writing guru Robert McKee, Creative Commons CEO Joi Ito and television presenter Lauren Laverne have also appeared.
The organisers say the conference is designed to promote “innovation, inspiration and connection”. It’s a statement that rings true for Oli Wood, who credits two career swerves to inspirations gained at Thinking Digital.
Wood was working for a large IT consultancy when he went to his first conference. He says: “It was great money but didn’t really float my boat. I was a member of Codeworks as an interest, and I went to the conference instead of going on holiday.
“It opened my eyes to the fact there were people doing things they really loved and making a living out of it. The thought sat in my head for a couple of months, and then I handed in my notice and left.”
He took a job as head of digital at a marketing agency, but a return to Thinking Digital led him to make another turn.
“I met some of the amazing speakers and decided I wanted to do projects for myself and not be an implementer for other people. I had some projects on the back-burner, and that led me to form The Approachable Geek.
“There are so many interesting things out there that you can get lost in the maze. Thinking Digital pulls some top speakers together in one place, and it’s a first port of call for people who want to broaden their horizons a bit.”
