Regional innovation to drive digital success in Texas

Some of the region’s brightest minds in interactive digital media are visiting Texas next week (12-21 March) as part of the UK presence at South by Southwest, a film, music and interactive festival. Advantage West Midlands is heading up the regional delegation of industry experts supported by UKTI, to showcase the innovation and excellence in content creation and cross-media collaboration.

The Heart of England, the West Midlands region, is home to a wealth of talent in interactive digital media. Over 20% of the UK’s game developers are based here and it has leveraged its long history in traditional gaming technology to produce some of the top serious gaming applications in the world. On top of this, a £10 million digital media fund has consolidated the West Midlands at the centre of the digital media revolution in the UK.

Advantage West Midlands Chief Executive Mick Laverty, comments “We have a highly skilled regional workforce and an impressive knowledge base in this sector, particularly in social media and games, where we are making significant advancements and nurturing the next generation of innovators. Some of this talent will be on display at South by SouthWest, not only to win business, but to help our region’s interactive sector continue to thrive. In addition we are demonstrating to  American companies how they can expand their businesses to service the UK and European markets while being supported by an experienced and enthusiastic digital media community regionally.”

There are 20 West Midlands companies attending the festival, to showcase the innovation in the region, which include Fish in a Bottle Ltd, which works on projects for Disney and the BBC, Maverick Television, a production company which creates cross platform content for more than twenty major UK TV formats, and Screen WM which supports, promotes and develops a thriving screen media sector in the West Midlands by raising the profile of available locations and talent.