AN ANNUAL conference which helped establish Bournemouth’s reputation as a boom town for the digital and creative industries will not be returning this year.
Matt Desmier, who has run seven Silicon Beach events in the resort, said he could not see it returning as a standalone event.
He made the announcement on You Are the Media, the podcast hosted by Mark Masters of the Poole-based ID Group.
Silicon Beach was described as a “TED-esque” event, in reference to the TED (technology, entertainment and design) that started in the US. It brought together leading speakers from business, marketing, technology and the creative sector.
Mr Desmier had previously voiced hopes that the September fixture could link with other events such as Bournemouth’s Arts by the Sea Festival to become the UK’s equivalent of the South by Southwest festival held in Austin, Texas.
He hosted the latest incarnation of a London spin-off event, Silicon Beached, this week, with the speakers drawn exclusively from under-25s.
Mr Desmier said this week’s event was his 10th in total and “will be the last for the time being”.
He told the podcast; “I’m tired, I’m exhausted. There is a proliferation of similar events, I don’t have the budget to compete with them, to compete with their audience. I’m just going to let someone else take the mantle for a bit
“It will come back in some form or another, I don’t know what it will be.
“I can’t see me right now, with the lenses or perspective I have, I can’t see me staging another standalone Silicon Beach event.
“Whether or not I get involved and curate a stage at someone else’s conference or whether I get along and input into someone else’s conference, that’s as may be. But a standalone Silicon Beach conference, I can’t see it happening.”
Mr Desmier, of the marketing and innovation consultancy Wise Old Uncle, lobbied for Bournemouth to be included in the Tech Nation report of 2015, which concluded that the area had the UK’s fastest-growing digital economy.
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