Call to Arms - Specialmoves
Call to Arms
Talks, elevator pitches and good tunes
As part of Internet Week Europe we took over our local watering hole, The Wilmington Arms, for a Monday night knees-up. There were talks, young gun elevator pitches, free beer, free entry and good tunes… not to mention meatballs. 80 interactive folks came along and got inspired.
Our line up was an eclectic group of friends, co-conspirators and people who inspire us. We wanted to find out what they’re working on, to broaden our horizons and to hear their Call to Arms. Our inspiration comes not just from the digital agency bubble but well beyond.
Katy Beale, Director, Caper
www.wearecaper.com
Katy’s 10 minute talk centered round the hacker ethos of ‘doing things in the simplest way possible, with the maximum effect’. She gave us food for thought with examples like www.culturehackday.org.uk, which brings together the tech and cultural sectors to collaborate and create, and Coding for Kids www.codingforkids.org, a new initiative that aims to improve the teaching of computer programming.
Ben James, CD of Jotta
www.jotta.com
Ben explored the crossover between digital and arts, and shared with us a gorgeous giant hyper-holographic 3D film that was projected onto a man-made waterfall at Latitude festival earlier this year.Ciaran Park, Specialmoves
www.specialmoves.com | @specialmoves
Our own Specialmover Ciaran gave his thoughts on designing websites ‘from the content out’ to reflect the many different ways in which people now experience the web. A change in design and development practices will hopefully mean that anyone can get the same content and a seamless experience whether it’s on mobile, tablet, or laptop – as evidenced by our brand new site.
Gareth Neal, furniture maker
www.garethneal.co.uk
Gareth, whose work has been exhibited at V&A and the Saatchi Gallery, gave a tour de force of how technology’s power to produce things quickly and efficiently has influenced his ground-breaking furniture design and production.
Jane ni Dhulchaointigh, inventor of sugru
www.sugru.com
Jane told the inspirational story of how she went from mixing pots of sawdust and silicon, to having her invention, Sugru, listed as one of Time Magazines 50 best inventions of 2010.
We then had 3 young guns who had 3 minutes to wax lyrical. James Kirk told us about the teaching methods at Hyper Island, Young Creative Council’s Mike Cuthell shared some important advice for both employers and new grads trying to find their feet, while Jonny Burch from Shellsuit Zombies showed that sometimes all you need to bring grads and industry professionals together is a face covered in clothes pegs.