ICC bring technology future together

The International Convention Centre Birmingham (the ICC) will be hosting ‘The Festival of Code’, an annual showcase event for aspiring tech superstars over 31st July —2nd August 2015.

Every year the festival, run by Young Rewired State, brings young people together from across the UK to build apps, websites, games and write algorithms to solve real-world problems. 

Beginning on 27th July at 70+ locations around the UK, over 1,000 young people aged 18 and under work at dedicated centres under the guidance of 300 expert mentors from a variety of organisations, from universities to tech start-ups, charities and larger companies. The teams will then head to the ICC on 31st July to present their digital prototypes during a weekend showcase.

Ruth Nicholls, Managing Director of Young Rewired State said: “Once a year our Festival brings together young people from all parts of the UK to meet up, make new friends and create exciting new web and mobile apps. The ICC was the perfect venue for this year’s showcase event as its flexibility allowed us to put our own stamp on the event, whilst still being able to cater for so many attendees – not to mention the great event support from a dedicated team of experts.”

The whole event is free to attend for participants and supported by sponsors from a variety of sectors including SAP, Google and Pearson. Following the success of hosting a remote centre in Kosovo for the duration for the 2014 festival, Young Rewired State is opening up participation to centres in Europe for the first time, giving young coders in the UK the opportunity to share skills and collaborate with their European counterparts.

Ruth added: “We chose Birmingham because its central location and easy transport links are perfect for us considering that we have participants from all across the UK and Europe. With computer coding now part of the national curriculum, The Festival of Code is set to be bigger than ever, and the ICC has really helped us take this event to the next level.”

James Elston, Sales Director at the ICC echoed the enthusiasm of the event being held in the second city saying: “We are thrilled to be hosting The Festival of Code for the first time and welcoming so many talented young people to Birmingham. Here at the ICC we believe in helping our clients see their events grow, so we are delighted to have provided the opportunity to The Festival of Code. We help achieve this mutual aim in two ways; through the ICC’s location in the heart of the UK - which offers unrivalled connectivity by road, rail and air - and an expert event management team helping our clients’ vision to become a reality.”