First Thurstday

Dundee-February 27, 2009 - Interactive Tayside has today unveiled a new series of coffee mornings designed to bring the creative community of Dundee together under one roof to innovate, share ideas, exchange business cards and drink some free coffee.

Following the overwhelming success of the pilot event, that pulled together a wide range of digital media professionals from across Scotland, Interactive Tayside has announced it will make the gathering a regular feature in its already-bustling roster of existing events, designed to raise the profile of digital media in Tayside.

Anyone involved in the creative industries are welcome, from digital marketing, design, video games, multimedia, artistic development, social media and more, this is a non-exclusive event with a fresh ‘open invitation’ approach.

Starting Thursday, 5 March 2009, ‘First Thurstday’ will be held at the Dundee Contemporary Arts centre on the first Thursday of every month from 8:30am - 10:30am.

Donna Fordyce, project manager at Interactive Tayside said: “The idea behind First Thurstday is pretty simple really. This really is the first non-exclusive event of its kind in Tayside, where anyone from freelance illustrators, to the director of a games studio can exchange ideas and draw from the experience of like-minded individuals.”

The event bolsters Interactive Tayside’s unwavering commitment to nurturing creative talent in Dundee and supporting seasoned digital and creative companies throughout their lifespan.

If you are involved in creating media of any kind, Interactive Tayside would like to extend an invitation to the next First Thurstday event:

Location: Dundee Contemporary Arts centre

Date: Thursday 5th March

Time: 8.30 am until 10 am

Cost: Nothing, it's totally free!

Supported By: Interactive Tayside

Bribe: Coffee and Pastries

For more information, please contact Susan Cox - susan.cox@scotent.co.uk or visit

www.interactivetayside.com for a full programme of upcoming events and Interactive Tayside news.

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Distributed by Ink Media - The Next-Gen Media Solutions Company

For press information, please contact:

Dave Cook / MD, Ink Media 0131 557 2183 / 07525358281 / fastrez@gmail.com /Twitter - davescook

About Interactive Tayside

Interactive Tayside is a partnership between public, private and academic sectors to develop and promote Tayside's digital media industry. Digital media represents a key part of Tayside's economy and through Interactive Tayside, a local delivery mechanism has been established that aims to build the digital media industry in the area, encourage higher levels of collaboration between businesses and with academia, develop new commercial opportunities and promote the high-quality skills and talents of the area's digital media practitioners to a wide audience.

Historically, Tayside has always been a hot-bed of creative talent, particularly in the publishing, design and music industries and the area has always been renowned as a breeding ground for innovation and skills.

Today, Tayside continues to enjoy a vibrant and rapidly expanding cluster of businesses, organisations and individuals engaged in digital media and creative industries sectors. There are over 350 businesses operating in the area of digital media in Tayside, employing over 3,300 people and generating a combined annual turnover in excess of £185 million. The sector has experienced growth in employment of 225% since the year 2000 and a further two thousand jobs are expected to be created in the sector within the next 3 years (by 2010).

The area's 2 universities and 3 further education colleges carry out leading edge research and deliver innovative and high quality teaching across a wide range of digital media related subjects. Every year, over 900 students, from over 50 different nationalities, graduate in digital media disciplines from the region's higher and further education institutions.

Computer games and electronic entertainment, mobile platform development, software development, animation, graphic design, publishing and music and just some of the specialisms in which Tayside companies excel.

The region is home to many exciting digital media companies including Scotland's largest games development studio, Realtime Worlds, BAFTA Award winning mobile development studio Dynamo Games, 2d and 3d animation studio, Ink Digital, and also the largest internet service provider in Scotland, ScotlandOnLine. Tayside's success stories in these industries are numerous.

Though Interactive Tayside, liaison between businesses, academic institutions and support agencies is actively encouraged, creating a stimulating environment in which 'start-ups' and established companies alike can quickly translate ideas into commercial reality.

In addition to this informative, regularly updated website offering all the latest news on Tayside's digital media industry, Interactive Tayside offers a regular events programme; events that are free and open to everyone, covering a variety of topics relevant to the digital media industries and affording ample opportunity for attendees to network informally with like-minded individuals. Be sure to sign up for our newsletter so as not to miss out on all of the region's digital media news and invites to our events.

Enterprise is actively encouraged in Tayside by a flexible and dynamic support structure. Everything you need to develop your business or turn ideas into reality is available here from a variety of institutional and commercial sources. As you would expect from a centre with a renowned academic reputation, Research and Development and training and skills are thick on the ground for large and small businesses. With this support, Tayside continues to be a rich source of intellectual capital, media content and commercial opportunity.

The vision for the digital media industry in Tayside is to become ever more renowned for the standard of its creative and technical talents and skills, internationally recognised for the quality of its products and level of innovation, globally networked, and make an every increasing contribution to the economy of the Tayside area and Scotland as a whole - establishing Tayside further as an international centre of excellence in digital media.