About DigitalScarborough
History and context
DigitalScarborough is an initiative of Scarborough’s Urban Renaissance. World-class digital connectivity was highlighted as one of the town’s priorities at the Renaissance launch event in April 2002. An action group was formed to further this cause and has been instrumental in bringing 100MB broadband to Scarborough business park and Woodend Creative Workspace, creating the UK’s first free wi-fi harbour and seafront, forming ‘Creative Coast’ – a network for creative and digital practitioners on the North Yorkshire coast and putting digital connectivity firmly on the table in any discussions about regeneration in Scarborough.
Scarborough’s intention to nurture a vibrant creative economy has benefited from the media attention of “aiming to be the Broadband capital of Europe” (Yorkshire Post) and an influx of web developers and designers from the likes of Cambridge, Herefordshire and West Yorkshire prove that the combination of connectivity and coastal location is proving an attractive one. In addition, the University of Hull Scarborough Campus hosts the School of Arts and New Media and was home to the UK’s first Internet Computing degree. The university are currently developing an Enterprise Lab within Woodend Creative Workspace alongside local businesses which will provide new media services in the commercial environment. Degrees at Scarborough’s Yorkshire Coast College include Applied Digital Media and schools in the borough will begin ofering Diplomas in Digital Media in 2009. The University, College and Schools have all played a role in the Digital Scarborough planning group and events.
And so we arrive at DigitalScarborough 2010
2010 has seen a newly invigorated DigitalScarborough group reform to continue to highlight connectivity as a major issue for the town, particularly with the aim of willing the whole of Scarborough’s town centre. The success of the first ‘Coastival’ arts festival in February 2009 and the continued success of festivals on the North Yorkshire Coast in general has also proved an impetus in planning a DigitalScarborough event for 2009 with an eye to a more ambitious event in 2010. It is anticipated that from then on a main DigitalScarborough event would run alternate years to Coastival with both festivals looking to discover and celebrate commonalities. Also worthy of mention is the International Business Forum at Scarborough’s Spa and which received considerable media coverage in 2008 and is set to repeat in 2010. There is also the rather significant achievement of Scarborough winning not only the Enterprising Britain competition in 2008, but also the Grand Jury prize at the 2009 European Enterprise awards. Initiatives such as Woodend, Creative Coast, Freebay Wi-Fi and Digital Scarborough were a part of Scarborough’s winning submission.
Helping to support the local digital economy is NYnet. Created by the NYCC to supply high speed broadband to the public sector, they chose Scarborough as one of the initial core points of presence. They supplied connection to the Council and the Woodend Creative Workspace and now are able to supply, through partnerships with service providers, to local businesses with further investment in the PoP. NYnet invested £0.5m to build an additional network at the Scarborough Business Park thus creating the first open access fibre to the premise business park in England.
DigitalScarborough in the Past
2008
It might be said that DS06 stretched Scarborough’s digital professionals and enthusiasts to the physical limit, and so on the 7th year they rested. Well, not quite – instead concentrating on growing the fledgling Creative Coast Network bringing together the digital, design and arts sectors growing within 12 months to over 100 members. In 2008 Science City York’s digital sector specialist suggested the return of DigitalScarborough with a digital music showcase in one of the town’s music venues complimented by a charity ‘Code-a-thon’ . The music event – Upload – was successful in attracting a young audience and showcasing an aspect of the area’s digital culture that had been missing from previous DS events. The codeathon successfully united local web developers, designers, writers and photographers to produce websites for two local charities in one day under the guidance of Joomla! founder Brian Teeman.
2006
The impact and excitement of having several secondary school visits to DS05 prompted the decision to work in partnership with North Yorkshire Business and Education Partnership (NYBEP) to produce DS06. With funding from AimHigher, and support from the University of Hull Scarborough Campus the event took place in the Stephen Joseph Theatre and featured a mix of educational, networking and entertainment events. The cinema auditorium was filled twice over to hear keynote speaker, Matt Locke, Head of Innovation at the BBC and local digital entrepreneurs were invited to pitch ‘Dragon’s Den’ style to a panel of investors. Running alongside the main event was a week-long ‘Digital Fringe’ curated by Scarborough-based Create Arts Development agency including art installations, music and VJ pioneers Hexstatic. One of Scarborough’s largely unused and unloved locations, the old train sheds, was turned into a nightclub for the evening prompting similar use since and showing the interplay between business, culture and regeneration. Feedback from student attendees to all DS06 events was particularly positive.
2005
The first ‘DigitalScarborough’ event took place over a Friday and Saturday in May 2005 and brought together local businesses, education and enthusiasts to showcase the town’s burgeoning digital talent through exhibitions and interactive activities. A not-for-profit company – Scarborough Digital Ltd. – was formed by Scarborough Enterprise Agency with members of the Renaissance Town Team to run this and future initiatives. The event took place in The Spa grand hall, received excellent local media coverage including a live full afternoon broadcast by BBC Radio York and even press coverage from the Church Mission Society for an innovative web application allowing people to pray online. The event was produced largely through sponsorship by the exhibitors who included the University of Hull’s 3D immersive environment and Scarborough-based IT consultancy, Save9, who have since gone on to be nominated for ‘Best IT Consultancy’ in the Yorkshire Digital Awards.
