I was surprised to see Silicon Roundabout referenced and pictured in the Sun last week. Quite a theoretical and London-centric piece for the Sun to pick up, I thought, despite being bylined to the rather famous (Sun-reading, apparently) founder of Tweetdeck.
It demonstrates the growing buzz about the Old Street/Clerkenwell/Shoreditch area as a hub of creativity, technology and digital innovation in the UK. The ‘silicon’ reference is a bit misleading; it communicates a clear idea but when the phrase was coined, Silicon Valley was literally about silicon. Processors. Hardware.
The community spanning the EC1/EC2/E1 zones of east central London is much more about software and web services. There’s no room here for build functions, or even extensive labs – just space to think in, good pubs to drink in and like-minded brains to share ideas with. Rent is cheap by inner London standards and yet it’s a stone’s throw from the City and just a little further to the West End.
Some wonderful, innovative digital businesses have grown up here. A few of its better known offspring include: Unruly Media, the leading global platform for social video advertising; digital production house Smile Machine; popular music recommendation service Last.fm.
As proud Clerkenwellians, when the opportunity arose to play a more active part in directing the future of Silicon Roundabout by joining the Digital Shoreditch community, we jumped at the chance.
Digital Shoreditch is an organisation that ‘celebrates the creative diversity and world-class talent within London’s digital community.’ More importantly, it’s a grass-roots gathering of entrepreneurial companies and individuals, focussed on building Shoreditch’s digital expertise and promoting it worldwide.
The culmination of the community’s efforts so far led to the inaugural Digital Shoreditch Festival last month, featuring over 50 events with participation from 179 local businesses. The climax of the week’s activities was the Digital Shoreditch Summit – a chance for all the local businesses to learn more about each other, network and showcase the pioneering projects they’re undertaking in the digital space.
As part of the founding community, Catalysis will be working alongside our Silicon Roundabout neighbours to blend our digital communications expertise with the best of the creative technology, media and design that Shoreditch has to offer. You can keep up to date with Digital Shoreditch happenings by following the #DSLDN hashtag on Twitter… or check back here in a month or so to hear about developments!