By Tom Bailey

Brighton Digital Festival

 

Plans are now well under way for this year's Brighton Digital Festival, a citywide celebration of digital culture, which takes place throughout September.

Brighton Digital Festival is community-led and not-for-profit.

The co-ordination of the festival is guided by a volunteer steering group and funded by Arts Council England and Brighton and Hove City Council. This year marks the third year of Brighton Digital Festival, which offers a platform for organisations and individuals who are working, engaging and interested in digital culture. We had an incredible turnout last year, with over 100 events, in 50 venues and spaces across the city.

Following the first general meeting about this year’s festival in February, it’s been great to hear organisers across the city already starting to plot out and share ideas about their projects and events for 2013.

We’ve already got a good number of confirmed exhibitions, conferences and meet-ups. And I will tell you more about these in future columns on this page and via Twitter and our website. In Brighton and Hove, we have a fantastically diverse range of events and initiatives, across commercial and cultural sectors, which we might describe as ‘digital’.

The festival is about showcasing that activity from our digital and artistic communities, inviting people to get involved and making new connections across the city and beyond. I’m really excited about 2013.

Alongside the early conversations with organisers, more venues across the city are planning to programme events. We’ve been working with a local designer Bryan Kidd and web development agency Brighton WP on a new look and website for the festival which will fully reflect the fantastic array of experiences, culture and learning opportunities on offer – this will all go live in April.

There’s still plenty of time to get planning, and I would encourage anyone thinking about organising an event to get involved. For anyone interested in hearing more, putting on, or supporting an event, or if you’d like to speak with the festival team and other event organisers, there'll be a general meeting on April 16 in the bar of The Old Market, Upper Market St, Hove.

Let us know you’re coming, or just turn up: http://bdfopenmeeting2.eventbrite.co.uk

There will also be monthly, informal meet-ups with organisers on the planning of this year's festival – the next one will be at Marwood's Coffee Shop in Ship Street on Tuesday April 2 from 6pm. If you want to get involved, volunteer with an event team or put on your own dedicated event, please do join us to learn how we can support you. For more information and to sign up, go to http://bdf2013aprilmeetup .eventbrite.co.uk.

Free half-day workshops for event organisers wanting to explore crowd-funding as a potential funding model are also taking place on April 25.

For more information and to sign up, go to http://bdfcrowdfund.eventbrite.co.uk This follows the hugely popular workshops run by Arts Council England on supporting funding bids for individual events.

Follow @digitalbrighton, or find us on Facebook, for more information, news and updates.