The GMCA has been working on a multi-day creative, digital and entertainment 'festival-within-a-festival' under the banner of Distractions as part of Manchester International Festival. It runs for three days from July 18-20 and the first day on Thursday July 18 has a particular focus on digital.
FuturEverything has put a brilliant day together to explore alternate futures and how they can be shaped in Greater Manchester. Speakers include Cllr Elise Wilson, Tech for Good, GCHQ, Wayne Hemingway, BBC, Digital Imagination, Manchester City FC, Sacha Lord and others. It will be an interactive day and include the chance to reflect on and shape the Greater Manchester Digital Strategy. The event is being held at the Kings House Conference Centre just off Oxford Road and 5 minutes walk from Oxford Road station. Details are at: https://futureeverything.org/event/alternate-futures/ and tickets to the event (which includes refreshments and lunch) can be booked on: https://distractions.seetickets.com/event/futureeverything-distractions/king-s-house-conference-centre-manchester/1385854.
The overall messaging for the wider Distractions programme is 'The future isn’t what it used to be' and it crosses over between the GMCA’s Digital and Culture areas. The intention is that this year’s event will test ideas that might result in a much larger festival in 2020.
The second and third days of Distractions are being organised by SoundCity and MIF respectively and are exploring 'the future of entertainment and music', and 'how science and technology are enabling us to reconfigure our minds, bodies and relationships with each other and the world around us' in turn. More information on Distractions as a whole can be found at https://www.distractionsmcr.com./.
