startups

Top UK Firms Selected for Prestigious US Digital Mission

PRESS RELEASE: London, UK, Thursday 21st January 2010

Forty of the UK's leading digital SMEs have been selected for the second annual Digital Mission to South by South West interactive (SXSWi), one of the world's leading conferences for interactive media taking place in Austin, Texas from 11-17th March 2010. Established in 1994, the conference provides an opportunity for the Digital Mission companies to attend hundreds of conference sessions and networking events.

The successful companies were chosen from over 120 submissions by an advisory board of industry experts drawn from the UK community including: VC's, export specialists, legal experts, journalist and industry pundits, to take part in the Digital Mission to SXSWi.

The companies selected for the Digital Mission to SXSWi '10 are:

• Amberlight
• Audioboo
• Blueleaf Digital
• Brainient
• Codegent
• Codility
• Cube Interactive
• Face Group
• FreshNetworks
• GigLocator
• Howard Baines
• Illumina Digital
• KMP Digitata
• Likecube
• Little World Gifts
• Littleloud
• Mendeley
• Mobilized
• MOFILM
• Moonfruit
• MusicMetric
• Nsyght  
• oneDrum
• Orange Bus
• PageDo
• Pixeco
• Plug-in Media
• Qhub
• Rummble
• Silence Media
• Skimlinks
• Slicethepie
• Smidgn
• SubHub
• TweetJobs
• UberVu
• Vibio
• Videojuicer
• Wolfstar
• WorldTV

Detailed information and contact details for each company is available from the official Digital Mission website: http://www.digital-mission.org/sxsw10-companies

The Difference Engine, a program to increase the growth of start-ups in Europe has been launched in the North East this week and will provide start-up capital of around £20,000, mentor support and a working environment that will allow ten teams of digital entrepeneurs to get their business up and running. 

We got in touch with The Difference Engine's Managing Director, Jon Bradford for the deets.

CHINWAG:  Can entrepreneurs can apply from anywhere in the UK?

Teams can come from elsewhere in the UK and beyond (subject to working visas). They will be required to relocate to the region for the duration of the programme.

The Crunchies are to technology what the Oscars are to Hollywood and January 2010 will be the third incarnation of the start-up and technology sector's annual awards ceremony hosted by TechCrunch, GigaOm and VentureBeat.

Last year's winners included Google Reader (best service), Cooliris (best design), Shop Savvy (best application) and Facebook (best overall start up).

TechCrunch Europe's grand fromage, Mike Butcher, offers the following advice,

"...it will be of interest to European startups that they have a good chance if they nominate themselves in Best International StartUp

SXSW Interactive festival is the digital conference to attend. Yes, it helps that it's based in sunny Austin, Texas and that the BBQ food is *awesome*, but it's also packed full to bursting with top notch panels from the brightest minds in tech

There are hundreds of networking events hosted by industry leaders and an unbeatable line up of special programs showcasing the best new websites, video games and startup ideas the community has to offer - all happening over 5 days!

Congratulations to Dom, Seb and Juliet and the crew at Plug-in Media on their win at last night's Children's BAFTA awards held at London's Park Lane Hilton.

Juliet joined the Digital Mission to LA & San Francisco earlier this year as part of the group of 14 companies showcasing the best of the UK's digital talent. Applications for the South by South West interactive trip are still open.

Hosted by favoured kids presenters, Dick'n'Dom the team picked up the Interactive BAFTA, a hefty golden visage, for Big and Small Online produced with Kindle Entertainment for CBeebies. Check out the post-award interview with the winners.