Ten days and counting until we switch on NEoN – or North East of North if you prefer. Dundee’s first – and most glamorous – digital arts festival.

Bringing together some deeply fascinating people from the worlds of gaming, design, animation, television, music and general digital goodness, NEoN promises a unique look at the history, evolution and future of the digital world as a whole.

That’s true too. I wrote it for them, so it must be…

Taking place on November the 13th and 14th, NEoN is a blend of speakers, interviews, presentations, workshops, installations, culminating in an open day on Sunday 15th, prior to the Videogames Live concert in the Caird Hall.

It’s looking like it will be a GREAT weekend. Check out the line-up…
Bud Luckey – animator, character designer and the brains behind Woody from Toy Story, the Pixar short Boundin’ and some of the original animations on Sesame Street. This man is a legend! He’ll be interviewed live on stage and YOU, yes, you can ask him questions. Submit your questions to the NEoN social network.

David Jones – local hero. Founder of DMA Design, the chap behind Lemmings, Grand Theft Auto, Crackdown (and Body Harvest, Wild Metal Country and Tanktics fact fans) Find out what Dave’s up to right now. All new, all original content (it says here).

Ian Anderson – the founder of The Designer’s Republic – the team responsible for the graphic design of the original Wipeout as well as some of the original design for GTA (y’see, it all goes around Dundee…)

Colin Anderson – aka Big Chief Denki. His talk on Creative Assembly Lines is a must see – and I’m not just saying that.

Alice Taylor – Commissioning Editor, education for Channel 4. Alice’s role at Channel 4 encompasses online and social gaming, interactive projects and ARGs. She’s also a Quake legend and founder of the Wonderland blog.

Simon Parsons – Head of Children’s Programming, Scotland for BBC. Just what are the BBC’s plans for digital media and programming? How can programmes from the UK’s public service broadcast giant incorporate more digital media?

Plus there’s MORE to come. Yann Seznec, Dundee’s visiting mad professor and inventor type will be running a workshop, as will Adobe, Hewlett Packard and Autodesk.

Hosts are Chris van der Kuyl (himself a bit of a legend in the games business) and fingers crossed – another notable digital media pioneer too.

Even the programme promises to be cool – having been created by two of Dundee’s most notable designers.

The Denki crew will be there in force. So if you fancy a weekend of digital goodness, games wonderment and goold old-fashioned entertainment, we’d recommend you head to Dundee.  Tickets are going fast…