Made North and My Digital Crush

I’m getting into the swing of this editor malarkey and learning more than ever about what happens when you look up from your own little patch and find out what’s going on elsewhere. In my quest to find new events, opportunities and information about digital and design across the North, I’ve found events in my beloved Metropolis, my adoptive city of Leeds, Bradford, Manchester, York, Sheffield and Liverpool.

Next week will be my first adventure over the border of the pennies which seems to trouble so many. I’ve had my ticket for Made North booked for a month or so now and even found a few people also making the trip over to FACT, Liverpool’s cinema-come-art-gallery. But I’ve also spoken to a few people who make that noise that mechanics make when I turn up in my pretty court shoes and ask for a new tyre. “Whhhhhhhhooooooooooshh are you sure you want to do that love?”

Well, hell yeah I do! I first went to FACT a few years ago for the B.Tween conference which is where I sent my first tweet, I might sit in the same seat and shed a nostalgic tear. Probably not though, as I’ll be too distracted by the amazing line up of speakers including the prolific Ian Anderson of The Designers Republic, and the world-famous Herb Kim of Thinking Digital.

But the one I’m most giddy about is Eva Rucki, director and co-founder of London collective Troika. Ever since a lunchtime trip to Waterstones (other book shops are available, and yes I know I need help for my book addiction), where I discovered the amazing ‘Digital by Design’ I’ve had a slight geek crush on Troika. Not being of technical stock myself, I’ve always sat slightly on the edge of geek glory wondering what people were on about. But this book is amazing. It’s filled with a mix of product development, sharp design detail, and a healthy splash of playful ridiculousness just because they can. I’ve been up till 3am all week making a sign with my glitter pens that says ‘I [HEART] Troika’. This is my kind of geekery.

The brain child of Patrick Murphy from Culture North, Made North is most definitely worth stepping beyond your geographical comfort zone for. When I asked Patrick why he set up Made North he said it was to celebrate and promote digital and design in the North, but also to bring some of the biggest names and most creative collaboratives to the stage. I like this approach, a high profile conference that celebrates all that is creative in the North but without being parochial or defensive about physical location in a way that so many others are.

One of my greatest frustrations with the digital and design sector is its natural defensiveness, the need to compare itself with its counterparts in other cities, the lack of willingness to look up and make the time to travel what is a relatively short distance to see what’s going on. We’re really lucky in the north of England that there isn’t one key hub that owns the rights to creativity, there are several. So why wouldn’t you travel to Manchester for an evening to see if their version of TEdx is any different to Leeds, or from Liverpool over to Sheffield to find out what exactly a MegaDork is at LoveBytes?

Made North makes no apology for mixing up local speakers with national and international names. They wanted something big and something that draws a crowd and are happy to share the experiences from all walks of digital. This is what sets it apart from other events and makes it worth the train fare.

When I knew I was going I was intrigued to find out more about why the event was happening. Being involved in event organising myself I’m always a tiny bit sceptical about events for the creative and digital industry as box ticking exercises for government stats. Having worked on so many events for this sector that started with a misguided but well-meaning principle and had to be reworked to be relevant to the audience, I wanted to know why this was happening and why now.

I needn’t have worried. Yes it’s funded in part by the Design Council but the boxes being ticked are relevant focusing on knowledge sharing and how digital can be used on practical level. The kind of futurology evangelised by the likes of Ben Hammersley – don’t use it, make it!

Patrick is genuinely excited by where digital will take us and not in an unrealistic “I’ll have a robot to mop my brow when it all gets too much” kinda way. It’s refreshing to have someone with an honest passion for the digital and technology industry being at the driving seat of a conference on the subject.

He talks about how we’ll buy digital in the future and how we’ll access products. Maybe we’ll buy digital codes and blueprints that we can make at home in our own rapid prototype machine?  Maybe we’ll develop a platform as groundbreaking as the Internet? Maybe we won’t. Maybe we’ll just learn to be smarter with the technology we have to hand. Maybe Made North will have the answer?

I’ll find out and let you know.

Images: Supplied by Culture North
Top: Made North branding
Bottom: Cloud @ Heathrow Terminal 5 by Troika