Events Archive

This is an exclusive Digital Union Members-only event, where we will be discussing the topic of gender bias, what we can do to challenge this on the workplace and where there is still learning to be done.

Join us for an in-depth panel discussion on 16th March from 3pm via Zoom, and hear from 5 leading North East young entrepreneurs on how they started their businesses, the challenges they have faced (and how they have overcome them), the support available for young people, how they define success, and much more.

A space for those working in and around the industry to come together, meet peers from across the region and discuss how we can work together to safeguard our artists, venues, freelancers and organisations.

A space to chat for digital and tech professionals. Bring your own coffee and pastries.

Casual networking for anyone working in or interested in the North East’s creative digital sector. Bring your own coffee and pastries.

An 8-week programme for emerging artists and musicians, with a focus on developing songwriting skills and professional practices.

A space to chat for digital and tech professionals. Bring your own coffee and pastries.

Following our recent focus on cash management Dave and Sara of Blu Sky discuss how they link this to managing objectives and key results.

Businesses have finite resources and these methods can help both to inspire loyalty and to boost performance.

Generator presents our Digital Union Breakfast Networking (Sort Of!). These events take place weekly on Wednesdays at 11am, and are open to anyone working in or interested in the digital and tech sectors.

Tipping Point presents Industry Insights – a new series of online events where we invite different musicians and industry professionals to chat through their experiences.

Tipping Point presents Industry Insights – a new series of online events where we invite different musicians and industry professionals to chat through their experiences.

Join us on Wednesday 18th March at The Cluny 2 as we discuss self-employment, negotiating costs, managing your workload and above all, how to maintain and sustain a career in the music industry.

Understand how process improvement can deliver quantifiable/bottom line benefits for you and your clients! Whether you’re a sole trader or large company, this workshop will help you to look at your existing processes and how you can ultimately save time in your day to day activities.

Join us for an insightful morning with a keynote speech from our new Chair of DU, Julian Leighton, who founded UX agency giant Orange Bus (recently sold to Capita).

This panel will speak to three established music managers working in a range of varied genres, drawing from the Music Manager Forum’s recently published report ‘Managing Expectations’, which explores the changing role and value of a music manager.

Enjoy your first drink on us, and have the chance to meet and chat with other likeminded DU Members in a casual setting.

Launching at the Academy For Music & Sound in Gateshead on Monday 17^th – Friday 21^st February, the residency will focus on developing 12 artists’ songwriting skills and professional practices by exploring ways of writing across different genres, working to briefs and collaborating/co-writing. 

Are you unsure of how best to promote yourself as an artist online? Struggling to navigate the Facebook ad maze? This is the event for you! After the success of our Digital Marketing for Artists Masterclass in 2019, we’re pleased to bring back Matthew Wooton, the founder of Plectrumm, a digital marketing agency exclusively working in the music industry, for our 2020 Masterclass.

Come and learn about how this can be applied to your business from our resident expert: Joaquin Morales of New Horizon Marketing.

The aim of these Digital Union exclusive meetups are to encourage discussion with business owners, marketing managers, marketing executives, freelancers, and students about changing trends in digital technology and ideas around the development of apprenticeships within the technical sector.

As technology develops at an ever increasing rate, how can we ensure that what is being developed is ethical?

Pastries and hot drinks will be provided and, as always, it will be free to attend.

It’s that time of year already! Join us for a very special Digital Union event this December, this year hosted at the Alpine Lodge at By The River Brew Co., where we will have exclusive use of the venue, with a full bar and a DJ, for the whole evening!

This session will give you an overview into the best practises for self-releasing your first wave of music, from getting your audio / visual assets ready, to delivering your music to Spotify, Apple et al and creating a solid release strategy along the way.

This day full of talks and interactive workshop forms with feature insights from some of the best UX teams in the region. We will be welcoming speakers including Nate Sterling from Grid Smarter Cities and our own business expert in the field, Helena Hill. Come and hear about the fantastic work going on at the forefront of UX design.

Following the success of the first HR Focussed Breakfast Networking morning we’re delighted to be bringing our HR Meetup to the home of one of the UK’s most exciting tech companies, ZeroLight!

Digital Union are happy to announce that our next Breakfast Networking event will be focused on Digital Marketing!

This 2-day intensive workshop, split over 2 weeks, has been designed for traditionally non-digital businesses seeking to identify business transformation opportunities within their own companies using digital technologies.

The second installment of our Digital Innovation Sessions will discuss how to digitally transform your business using data intelligence to achieve fast, efficient system integration and business automation.

As part of Tipping Point Live we are delighted to offer the unique opportunity for a chosen artist to work on one of their compositions in a live setting with Brit-award winning producer Bernard Butler.

As part of the Tipping Point Live new music showcase across Newcastle’s Ouseburn Valley on Friday 21st June & Saturday 22nd June, Tipping Point (powered by Generator) are pleased to announce the Tipping Point Live Conference!

The conference is supported by some of the UK’s leading music industry trade bodies, including award-winning music publishers Sentric Music, The Musicians’ Union, the UK’s premier royalty collection agency PRS For Music, licensing organisation PPL and independent music charity Help Musicians UK.

In addition to this, Spotify UK’s Drew Lam, part of the Artist & Industry Partnerships team, will present Spotify’s Artist Masterclass, joining a list of celebrated music industry professionals set to descend on Tyneside.

Our line-up consists of a range of artists and genres, fantastic venues, an extra day of showcases, commissions, film screenings, masterclasses and music industry sessions, exciting food offers and bespoke events for music lovers with young children.

This 2-day intensive workshop, split over 2 weeks, has been designed for digital businesses seeking to identify new opportunities to sell digital services to both new and existing clients.

Digital Union are happy to announce our next Breakfast Networking event, focused on recruiting talent and taking place at Live Theatre!

Tipping Point (Powered by Generator) and DJAZZ: The Durham City Jazz Festival are excited to announce a new collaboration in the form of a talent development masterclass focusing on Jazz and Jazz-influenced music creators! This is the very first time Generator has supported artists from this genre.

After ten months of working together with our partners on the One Region, One Sector, One Statement piece, we’re delighted to have launched it as part of the North East Digital Festival!

Generator are pleased to announce the third instalment of our ever-popular UX Day, as part of the very first North East Digital Festival!

Back by popular demand, our fifth masterclass sees the return of creative technologist and journalist, Christian Payne, aka @Documentally to the region!

Generator is pleased to welcome Thinkbox, the marketing body for commercial TV in the UK, for an exclusive event in the North East with a central theme of TV for business development.

Digital Union are proud to announce our next Breakfast Networking event, taking place at Sunderland Software Centre.

Generator are delighted to have Christian Cerisola, head of W North and part of the multi award winning W Communications, deliver a PR Workshop.

With our One Sector, One Region, One Statement Subgroup, we are committing to our promise to work with key partners to produce one agreed statement/message about what the North East creative, digital & tech sector looks like, works like and why it is attractive.

Are you trying to make sense of the digital revolution?

We understand the challenges you are facing, to cost effectively make the most of the benefits that Digital can offer your business, while best meeting the needs of you customers and developing smart solutions.

Generator is pleased to present a special Pricing Strategy Workshop aimed at helping creative and digital businesses in the North East focus more effectively on their pricing and gain essential insight into the art of selling the right product to the right customer at the right time.

This course would greatly suit those requiring support and guidance to create a short film or animation project. Your project can be of any genre – perhaps you want to create a promo to demonstrate your filmmaking skills to employers or want to voice a story that needs telling. Whether you are just starting out, or already have a little experience in the film/animation industry, this 4-week programme will be devoted to you bringing your ideas to life.

With our One Sector, One Region, One Statement Subgroup, we are committing to our promise to work with key partners to produce one agreed statement/message about what the North East creative, digital & tech sector looks like, works like and why it is attractive.

This course offers hands-on support for anyone developing an idea or portfolio as well as offering up some ideas for those who just wish to hone their skills. Over 4 weeks, we will be able to put into action those skills which were learned on previous Ladders courses or develop existing skills from other courses.

This course would greatly suit young emerging music artists who are already in a band. Whether you are just starting out, or already have a little experience in the music industry, there are important steps you must take and many things you will need to do in order to stand a chance of success in a challenging industry.

In this workshop, Sammy and Tegan from O Communications will take you through the best way to approach LinkedIn and incorporate it into your marketing campaigns.

As many businesses have been asking if Digital Union can become a truly regional organisation and represent the Creative, Digital and Tech sectors across the North East, we are delighted to be hosting a breakfast networking event in partnership with Middlesbrough Digital & Digital City at Bar Zero.

Tipping Point in collaboration with International Centre for Music Studies of Newcastle presents.. In Conversation With Everything Everything

Taking place at The Boiler House in the heart of Newcastle University’s Campus, on Thursday 7th February from 7 pm, the band has promised to reveal and discuss the magic behind their four critically acclaimed albums – which includes three top tens – and the secrets behind the band’s on-going global notoriety and creative processes.

It’s been a nearly a year since we made our 2018 Digital Union Manifesto pledges and while we have been beavering away fulfilling those objectives, we also realise that it is time to refresh them.

Over the course of 2019, we will be bringing you deep dives into content creation, platforms, strategy, advertising, video, and much more.

It’s time to #DUSocial properly!

This session will provide key insight into the thinking, beliefs and behaviour of people, and the real triggers that cause friction within your business.

Ladders Software Development Course Stage One: Knowledge & Awareness: An introduction to the modern software industry.

Ladders Music Course Stage 1: Knowledge & Awareness. This course will consist of 3 sessions dedicated to understanding the wider music industry.

Designed for those with little experience of film/TV or animation, this 3-session course will provide knowledge and awareness training in professional digital media industries under the guidance of an industry mentor, guest speakers and masterclasses.

In our fourth session of our latest round of music masters event events, we’re pleased to bring you DIY TOURING, talking all things touring and getting those first few out-of-town shows. Whether it’s gig-swaps or festival slots, our experienced panellists will tell you just how to get yourself going.

A new monthly event for tech and digital companies to network over some breakfast!

Now that Halloween is done and dusted, we can FINALLY get excited about the big bearded bloke – not Jim – Santa!

We’re pleased to announce the third in our Tech Founder series with the Newcastle Tech Trust focusing on marketing.

Newcastle Tech Trust is a group of experienced founders and operators that recognises and understands the needs of early-stage, high-growth technology companies.

Introduction to Computer Game Development, an evening with Sally Blake (Formerly of Ubisoft and Team 17) and Troy Lonergan (Independent Games Development Consultant)

The final Thinking Digital Sessions for 2018 will be a special double bill! We will be looking at a variety of emerging technologies and seeking to understand how they will impact the workplaces and our lives in the predictable near future.

Ladders Music Course Stage 3: Develop Your Own Music Industry Project

In collaboration with International Centre for Music Studies, Newcastle University, Ladders presents Dan Lozinski, a highly successful advertising and film trailer composer who has amassed a number of global clients and secured major film trailer placements, all whilst still been based in the North East.

In the third instalment of our music masters evening events, we’re pleased to bring you The World Of Music Press, a comprehensive discussion on all things radio, magazines and blogs and how best to get the attention your music deserves.

Generator North East, Digital Union’s mothership, will be kicking off a new 3-year business support programme from January. Expect all the high-quality content that we’ve always deliver but with much, much more!

Ladders Music Course Stage 3: Develop Your Own Music Industry Project. This course would greatly suit young emerging music artists who are already in a band or are performing solo.

This course would greatly suit those requiring support and guidance to create a short film or animation project.

This course offers hands-on support for anyone developing an idea or portfolio as well as offering up some ideas for those who just wish to hone their skills.

This is a 3-week programme to introduce you to the exciting possibilities of content creation in compositing and 2D motion graphics package Adobe After Effects.

Generator is pleased to announce the second workshop in our collaborative series with the Newcastle Tech Trust, aimed at tech founders. We’ll kick off with a 2-hour workshop on understanding and raising investment with Howard Kingston.

Ladders Music Course Stage 2: Skills Development in Songwriting and Production. This 3-week crash course will give your fresh ideas, inspiration and expert tips on how to improve your songwriting.

This 3-week short course is a dynamic and far-reaching course that will accelerate any budding developers’ learning.

Generator is pleased to announce the second instalment of Digital Debates: Mental Health & Wellbeing.

Closing is something that we all need to do, however, for some reason, we may find it a little complicated, awkward or we simply lack confidence so don’t ask.

In the second session of our latest round of music masters evening events, we’re pleased to bring you Cash In On The Likes, giving you, the artist, an all-you-need-to-know guide to branding and crucial techniques needed to turn those likes and retweets into sales and fans on seats.

Following the success of our first WeCreate songwriting course we are launching an extensive talent development program aimed at female emerging songwriters.

The first of our #GenSocial workshops, following on from the successful Social Media Day!

Get ready for some Balearic beats and disco drops as Digital Union takes over The Town Wall, Newcastle for an end of season party – Ibiza style!

In the first session of our latest round of music masters evening events, we’re pleased to bring you Start Your Own Label, a comprehensive guide to the workings of the record label and how you can do it yourself. Start releasing music under your own brand in no time after our essential tips event.

Business development is something that we all need to do to grow our business. The good news is that there is a simple model to follow that will allow you to do this.

The monthly Innovation Breakfast Networking (formerly NETPark Net breakfast) sessions are informal, informative opportunities designed to help Science, Engineering and Technology companies network with each other.

We are hosting an informal exploratory event at the newly opened PROTO: The Emerging Technology Centre. You will hear from previous businesses who have received business support as well as investment clients of Northstar Ventures.

Tech4Good is a monthly meetup where the activist and developer communities in Newcastle get smashed together and enjoy the beautiful and interesting discussions that are far too rarely had.

The day will take the format of interactive workshop sessions with some of the best UX teams in the region discussing everything from accessible design to information architecture and immersive technologies.

This workshop is aimed at both new businesses who want some guidance on how to pitch for business or investment, and those in client facing roles who would like to learn some new tips and techniques on making the most engaging pitch/presentation possible.

We’ve teamed up with CIPR North East to shine a light on the role of PR and the value it can deliver for your business. During the talk you will hear from four speakers discussing the role of PR, its place in business and a real case study of how PR has helped to develop and grow a business.

We’ve joined forces with some of the most experienced, innovative and creative minds in social media to bring you a day covering everything from advertising to influencing to Generation Z and everything in between.

Taking place on June 9^th within the stunning Ouseburn Valley, this unique, multi-venue festival aims to uncover and showcase the best emerging talent from the region and beyond drawing in crowds of up to 2,000 people.

Generator is proud to present the region’s largest music industry conference in celebration of the 10th annual Evolution Emerging Festival.

In partnership with Invest South Tyneside, we bring you our digital breakfast & panel event, which looks at how you and your business can break in to new sectors, markets and turn leads into sales.

Back by popular demand, we welcome Jon McNestrie from Agile North East for a day long workshop that includes a structured introduction to agile principles, Scrum and other complimentary tools and techniques.

Join us for a rare one-off masterclass from Marty Longstaff (The Lake Poets). He will share his unique insights into the often mysterious art of the song, exploring a myriad of topics from getting that original spark to what apps can help songwriters.

Do you need funding to help get a new venture started, or to take your business to the next level? Do you know about the different funding opportunities that are available for creative, craft, cultural, and heritage businesses and organisations?

SWITCH is a fully funded, 8 week talent development course for early stage and beginner electronic music producers from the North East (aged 16-24). It is part of Generator’s Tipping Point talent development programme.

Employee productivity is crucial to any organisation. One of the ways to build it is by addressing issues of wellbeing, team dynamics and constructive change.

Always in huge demand, Generator’s Digital Marketing Masterclass features insight and practical advice from special guest Tom Packer (Director) and Rob Nancollas (Digital Marketing Manager) at Motive Unknown.

Generator is pleased to bring you the first of our Digital Debates: Digital Diversity. With just 17% of tech roles in the UK being filled by women and only 7% of female students taking computer science A-level courses, it is vital that we do everything we can to balance this out.

Understanding the sales cycle and how using it effectively boosts your sales.

As part of our commitment to members and the creative, digital and tech sectors in the North East, Digital Union will release its first Manifesto on Wednesday, 25th April 2018.

How would you cope if disaster struck your business? Around 43% of cyber-attacks are aimed at small enterprises. Do not ignore the threat. Come along to our free event and find out more about the effect cyber attack could have on your business, how to respond and how to prepare.

Whether you agree or not the music industry is essentially a rights business. When you by a CD or stream a track, someone must pay the rights holder to use that content. You are essentially buying a copy of the recording and it’s more often than not that the record label owns the rights.

A day-long event discussing all workings of the modern day record label in 2018; from distribution to publishing, streaming to synchronization, and the art of the release, we’ll leave no stone unturned.

Digital Union are working in partnership with sponsors Ward Hadaway to deliver 1-1 sessions for businesses who want more advice on getting GDPR ready.

We invite strategic Business Owners and Directors, who are looking to improve the way they recruit, and retain staff, to a fast paced, interactive FREE workshop that will give you the strategies needed to attract and engage the best people.

So you’ve heard about SEIS and R&D. Perhaps you even know what the letters stand for. More than likely, you don’t want to know, but you should.

Garry Stone of B2B North / Transmit Consulting is a bid specialist who has helped secure tens of millions of pounds in contract wins for businesses across the North East.

We believe that there is a lot more that can be done to address the issue of mental health in digital work places. By working together to promote and support existing initiatives and developing new ideas, we can make a significance difference to the health and well-being of people working in the digital sector.

With GDPR’s deadline day just two months away, it’s time to begin incorporating better data protection and privacy practices into your workflows.

The success of the fintech sector has helped build the UK’s digital credibility massively over the past 5 years. And while most of this activity has taken place in London, increasingly we are seeing fintech success stories around the country.

Whether it’s creating a tailored PR & Digital marketing campaign, writing code for some emerging technology or providing HR and legal advice, you can have an exciting career in the North East.

Kick-starting a career is hard. Kick-starting a career in the arts can be even harder, but all is not lost – Ladders Sunderland 2018 begins in February.

Generator and Digital Union are pleased to announce another installment of the Make Video Work For You Masterclass series, supported by Business & IP Centre Newcastle!

In this third iteration of the Music Masters series we will be focusing on PUBLICITY 101 as well as linking up with our WECREATE project.

Looking for investment now or in the future? Know you need to produce some forecasts but unsure how or even what they are? Come along to our cashflow forecasting session and find out!

As part of our commitment to members and the Creative, Digital and Tech sector in the North East, Digital Union will release our first Manifesto in April 2018.

Digital Union are proud to announce our next Digital Networking Breakfast Event, in conjunction with Sunderland Software City.

In the second installment of the Music Masters series, we proudly present ‘GET THE GIGS’, a day-long event tailormade for artists, managers and promoters who aspire to make their mark in the music industry live sector in 2018.

Whether it’s creating a tailored PR & Digital Marketing campaign or managing a company’s brand online, MA News Journalism Graduate, Jon, is an expert at creating dynamic content that connects.

From digital giants Orange Bus to government departments making waves in UX such as DWP & HMRC, come and hear about the fantastic work going on at the forefront of UX design and how important collaboration is to advancing the subject.

What better way to celebrate Christmas, than with a crowd of fellow Creative and digital business from around the region.

Following on from our Start Up Advice Day, the final Thinking Digital Sessions of 2017 we’ll be featuring tech startups and scaleups and learning about their innovative business models and their plans to survive and thrive in 2018 and beyond.

This event is aimed at early stage creative and digital businesses and will be showcasing the support available from both Generator/Digital Union, and that of our Digital Union members.

Generator is pleased to present a special Pricing Strategy Masterclass aimed at helping creative and digital businesses in the North East focus more effectively on their pricing and gain essential insight into the art of selling the right product to the right customer at the right time.

Does your team have big ideas, but no time to explore them? Or maybe your business has a challenge but you haven’t had time to develop a solution yet?

Our bimonthly Digital Networking events are open to anyone with an interest in the sector. They will be held in different venues across the North East and will have themes for each event.

We invite strategic Business Owners and Directors, who are looking to improve the way they recruit, and retain staff, to a fast paced, interactive FREE workshop that will give you the strategies needed to attract and engage the best people.

Positive Psychology & Coaching: Mike Cockburn, MD of Sogno will deliver two sessions in this masterclass focusing on using Positive Psychology & Coaching techniques in your Business.

With VR and AR developments being the hot topic of the moment, we’re happy to announce our next Thinking Digital Session will be dedicated to exploring what’s trending locally and nationally on this exciting subject.

Are you looking for business finance to help you start or grow your creative business ? What alternatives are there available to start up or scale up in the north east and nationally ?

Is your business ready for the next phase but not quite sure of how to get there? Our Digital Scale Up Programme is designed for those businesses that are at a critical stage in their development, past the start-up phase and progressing toward becoming more established.