‘300 teens left buzzing last year, we’re glad to be back’

Seventeen-year-old Niamh McCay from Culmore will join five other teens from across Northern Ireland in creating an event allowing young people to network and hear from renowned guest speakers.

Create:2015, which will be held on September 17 at the Playhouse in Londonderry, will feature eight speakers, including BBC Click Presenter Kate Russell, and four hands-on workshops.

Last year’s event, Create:2014, was given the thumbs-up by none other than cultural icon Stephen Fry on Twitter.

Niamh explained: “I’m excited to be joining the Create team this year, as I followed it closely last year. 300 young people walked away from the event full of excitement and eagerness to get stuck in with the creative industries, which is why we’re so pleased to be back again this year.”

Niamh is joined by Gareth Reid (17), Matthew Carson (19), Jordan Earle (18), all from Belfast, Sarah Semple (17) from Omagh and Anona Weir (18) from Cookstown.

Gareth Reid, heading up the team, said: “Create:2015 gives attendees a great chance to get creative.

“We really wanted to focus on audience involvement this year.

“With a diverse speaker line-up and interactive workshops, we’ve no doubt that Create:2015 will be even better than last year.”

A limited number of tickets will be available to the public. For school groups, the event is completely free.

Teachers interested in getting involved can email Gareth for further information at [email protected].

According to the organisers the Create team is currently raising financial backing from both local and international companies.

It’s doing so through a range of sponsorship packages to fund the event.

CultureTECH hosts the largest technology and creative industries event in Northern Ireland, runs one of the largest education outreach programmes and delivers a variety of innovation programmes across technology, the arts and social innovation.

The organisation’s aim from the start has been to encourage the growth of the digital sector in Londonderry and more widely, across Northern Ireland.

Over the last three years CultureTECH’s focus has shifted squarely towards working with young people (over 75 per cent of the festival audience is under the age of 25 years) encouraging them to get creative with technology across a range of cultural domains and creative industries.