BEYOND Conference partners with Salford’s creative leaders to bring 2024 event to MediaCity

BEYOND Conference is excited to announce its 7th annual conference will take place at MediaCity, Salford, between November 25th – 27th 2024, and its local partners for the 2024 conference as Salford City Council, MediaCity, and the University of Salford.

BEYOND Conference, where creativity meets R&D, plays host each year to a unique and global gathering of current and future innovators, focused on research and development across the creative industries.

Previous events have been held in London and Cardiff, hosting a wealth of leading industry speakers, including actor and activist Michael Sheen and ABBA Voyage producer, Svana Gisla. The conference features the Immersive Futures Lab, giving innovators a platform to put exciting XR prototypes, many featuring the latest VR and AR technologies, into the hands of new audiences and tell the stories behind their work.

This year, the conference comes to Salford in Greater Manchester, where it will showcase the innovative potential of Creative Cities, giving a platform to the creative brilliance and bold visions within our city regions.

Salford has experienced significant growth in a relatively short space of time. Sustained GVA, productivity and innovation – the hallmarks of a high-value, mature and diverse economy – continues to perform well and over the past five years, Salford has recorded the highest GVA growth increase and employment growth across Greater Manchester.

MediaCity, in Salford Quays, is home to over 250 creative and tech businesses including some of the world’s largest media and tech brands, including BBC, ITV, Ericsson and dock10. It’s home to MediaCity’s Immersive Technologies Innovation Hub, the Greater Manchester innovation cluster for immersive tech, virtual production, esports, and gametech, funded by Innovate UK, and to the University of Salford’s dedicated MediaCity campus. MediaCity is set to double in size in the next decade with a £1bn expansion.

 Professor Andrew Chitty, Chair of BEYOND, said:

“At BEYOND 2024, we will explore Creative Cities and the part that research and innovation plays in making the theoretical, real. Growing the creative industries more evenly in city regions across the UK will unlock greater and fairer economic growth, and make urban centres better places to live and work.

There is no shortage of creative brilliance and bold visions out there, ready to unleash the potential. We’re looking forward to welcoming creators, artists, researchers, businesses – from startup to multinationals – and policy makers, to MediaCity, Salford, to discover, see, hear and discuss what this means in practice.”

Responding to the news that BEYOND would be heading to Salford, City Mayor, Paul Dennett, said:

“Over the last decade, we have worked hard, alongside partners and through investment to turn MediaCity into one of the UK’s foremost hubs for creativity and innovation. I’m very happy that Beyond Conference will take place in Salford this year.”

Councillor Hannah Robinson-Smith, Executive Support Member for Culture, Communications and Strategic Priorities at Salford City Council, said:

“We are delighted to be partnering with BEYOND 2024. Salford has a thriving creative sector, which we’re extremely proud of. We’re now on a journey to truly champion and showcase the wealth of creative talent here in Salford and to be welcoming professionals from across the world, for this event is an important part of this journey and a key moment for the city. Our goal is to help make BEYOND even bigger and better than ever and create an opportunity to help share the future of the sector.”

Stephen Wild, Managing Director for MediaCity said:

“MediaCity is entering the next, exciting phase of its evolution – not just physically as it doubles in size, but in terms of how it embraces the future of media and supports the creators and innovators who are pushing the boundaries across the creative industries. Content and innovations made in MediaCity are consumed by the world and by hosting and supporting BEYOND 2024 it further supports our shared ambition for the UK’s creative innovations to be recognised on a global scale.” 

Professor Andy Miah, University of Salford, added:

“We are very excited to be partnering with the BEYOND 2024 conference and that its delegates will have the chance to witness the remarkable activities that operate around our campus in MediaCity. The creative industries are part of our DNA at the University of Salford. With our MediaCity Immersive Technologies Innovation Hub and world-class media production facilities, we have many industry-embedded lecturers who bring crucial knowledge to our students about how innovation is shaping the future of creativity. This will be a huge opportunity to foreground how we are working in partnership with the region to ensure that the next decade of digital transformation in Salford is firmly on the national and international map.”

More details about the BEYOND 2024 programme will be announced over the coming weeks, with the first release of early-bird tickets to be available shortly.

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