Channel 4 bosses to visitLondonderry

The small screen supremos will be in the city at the invitation of Northern Ireland Screen. The local film body will host workshops and presentations from key industry professionals including; Julian March, Director of Online for ITV, founder of boxee, Idan Cohen and no less than five senior commissioners from Channel 4.

They will also showcase work from Northern Ireland companies 360 Production (behind Dig WW2 featuring Dan Snow), Inlifesize (producer of augmented reality game Fairy Magic, which was created by Ex-Avatar, Harry Potter and The Godfather talent), TV Hacker and Billy Goat TV (behind Outfoxed - an iPhone game featuring commentary from Jackie Fullerton) amongst others.

Londonderry’s digital champion and festival organiser Mark Nagurski said: “The film and TV industries are exciting spaces at the moment, with both large scale and startup companies vying to define what the future will look like.

“You also have new forms of entertainment across areas like digital publishing. We’re incredibly excited to be working with Northern Ireland Screen to bring together such a high-quality group of speakers and feel it’s an excellent addition to the programme.

“In fact, I’d guess that they will be some of the most popular sessions.”

Richard Williams, CEO of Northern Ireland Screen, added: “Digital technologies are changing both how we create and distribute content and there are several Northern Ireland companies at the forefront of this process.

“CultureTECH is an ideal opportunity for us to highlight the future of the industry as seen by key industry professionals and to showcase some of the companies that Northern Ireland Screen has been able to support in areas like interactive content and games.”

The CultureTECH festival takes place August 29 to September 1 and features an industry conference, film screenings, games tournament and live music events across the city. Further information and tickets are available at www.culturetech.co.uk.