The Bath Digital Festival

Bath’s first Digital Festival has been announced and will be taking place at venues across the city from 15-25 March 2012.

The Festival brings together exciting events that will allow members of the public to explore the thriving digital scene here in Bath and to get involved in a variety of interesting projects.

Bath has a fast-growing digital sector, which includes leading research being carried out at the University of Bath and Bath Spa University with cutting-edge digital enterprises that are choosing the city as their home.

Bath Digital Festival will include a variety of events aimed at opening the digital scene to the general public. From competitions for local school children to city-wide events where members of the public can try their hand at coding, take part in technology workshops, enjoy digital performances, or see demonstrations, there will be plenty for everyone to get involved with. In addition to exciting community events, the Festival will also host sessions aimed at those working in the thriving digital sector both locally and across the UK.

Local digital networking group BathSPARK will be organising an awards night dedicated to recognising and highlighting local achievements and the best of the tech sector in the city.

An openMIC and BigM collaboration will draw a national audience to Bath for two days of discussion and workshops on the future of mobile technology, and the city will also host the internationally acclaimed digital media think-tank X Media Lab (XML), focused on the digital entertainment.

As part of the festival, the debate 'Digital is killing the print industry: The presses will stop running in ten years' will take place on 19th March in The Pump Room, 8pm - 10pm. There is a revolution occurring in relation to how we compile, disseminate and digest information. For every evangelist of the new order, however, there are others who fear the consequences of this shift. Traditional business models are being destroyed, and some fear that deteriorating profitability will gradually erode the quality of journalism/authorship generally and infantilise us in the process. But, are we witnessing a complete paradigm revolution – with the presses destined to become museum pieces – or, is this just the ‘creative destruction’ moment needed for the print industry to recreate itself in a stronger, fitter mode? Mike Ellis, Creative Director of Bath Digital Festival will chair the event – the format of which will include short propositions from each speaker followed by audience plenary Q&A. A before and after vote will reveal which side presents the strongest case…which way will it swing?

If you require accommodation during the Digital Festival, use the 'Book Accommodation Nearby' box to the right, or use the Accommodation tab at the top of the page. This will provide you with an online booking service for accommodation in Bath and the surrounding area. Alternatively, contact our personal accommodation booking service: + 44 (0) 844 847 5256.