A man walks into a bar.
Lucky bugger.
Anyway, enough of this joke-laden hilarity. Here’s your regular North East news roundup for WEDNESDAY.
SCREACHTV ROUNDS UP $2.5m
Screach was one of the first startups to benefit from an accelerator in the North East, taking part in the initial Difference Engine programme in Middlesbrough. A couple of years on, it’s working on interactive digital experiences from its base in Hoults Yard.
It’s just announced it’s raised $2.5m to boost the rollout of its ScreachTV system, which allows pubs to create a personal TV channel with social media feeds, special offers, news feeds and interactive games. The money has come from Northstar Ventures, Hotspur Capital Partners and other strategic investors. For more information, check the reports in places like The Next Web and digital signage blog Sixteen:Nine.
GET CHATTING WITH IGNITE100
The wheels are starting to turn on the 2013 version of the Ignite100 digital accelerator. The Newcastle-based programme aims to bash intriguing ideas into walking, talking startups over a 14-week spell, thanks to the guidance (and occasionally harsh truths) of experienced mentors. While it’s not open for applications as yet, it’s looking to have conversations (possibly over coffee) with potential candidates in the next few weeks. If you’ve got a great idea or an early-stage startup flying under the radar, fill in the form via the link.
STARTUP BEERS: A NEW DATE
The beery startup meet-up known as Startup Beers is shifting to a new date. The pub gathering for startup-related folk will now be held on Thursday May 9 as opposed to May 2, although it’s still taking place downstairs at The Town Wall. Following the success of February’s Pub Summit-related beers, the event has already sold out three rounds of tickets. There may be a few available next week.
Sendgrid will be providing free drinks at the event, and Martyn Davies will be about to chat on the night. Go here for more info.
APRIL REFRESHMENTS
Not much detail on this one at the moment, but monthly Tees event Refresh Teesside will be back at Sassari from 6pm on April 11 (that’s next Thursday). There will be a few five-minute talks on a variety of subjects. More will be revealed soon, but the guest list is already shaping up nicely. Add your name here.
GO GADGET GO
Visitors to the Gadget Show in Birmingham this week may well get a glimpse of the Bubblescope 360-degree camera attachment. Bubblescope is a small periscope thingie that clips onto a smartphone, allowing users to take 360-degree panorama pics or videos. Inventor Tom Lawton’s brainchild hit the market last year with an app designed by North East firm Fluid Pixel. The team will be in the Midlands until Sunday.
While we’re talking about Bubbles, here’s an interesting use of the product: Porchester Junior School in Nottingham used Bubblescope, Audioboo and others to create a multimedia digital tale called Kingdom. You can peer at it via this link.
ON BETAROCKET
We look at the $2.5m funding round which will help Screach push ScreachTV into pubs across the UK (ScreachTV scoops $2.5m in funding)
Ignite100 is looking to chat to interesting candidates as it prepares to open to applications next month (Looking to speed up your startup?)
BLOGPOSTS THAT ROCK
On Sramana Mitra’s One Million by One Million blog, Brian S Cohen discusses the little things that every angel investor wants from a startup. It’s number one in a multi-part series (What Every Angel Investor Wants You To Know)
Recent About.Com Reader’s Choice award winner MobiCart throws out some more sneak peaks of its version two build (MobiCart V2 Sneak Peak: iPhone Screenshots)
A quick post by Sam Lambert about how you can learn more about a failure by logging what took place. It also helps you to share that experience better (Share the Fail)
Tom Cheesewright looks ahead at the possible demise of the mobile phone era. Will it become a collection of wearable sensors connected wirelessly to a tiny storage brain? (The End of the Mobile Phone)
A FEW ANNOUCEMENTS
We’ve got a professor of natural computation up in Newcastle next week, as The University of York’s Jon Timmis tells the Skeptics in the Pub about why we needn’t fear the birth of the Terminator for some time. He’ll be at the Bridge Hotel on April 10 from 7.30pm.
Gateshead Central Library will hold a gaming workshop on Saturday from 10am for 12-to-18-year-olds looking for tips in how to get into the games industry. For older games industry heads, there will be a GameDevDrink event for industry professionals at Alvinos on Pilgrim Street from 7pm on April 11.
Oh, and Industry Conference is rolling ever closer, gathering up web industry professionals for practical talks and workshops on April 23 and 24. Get your tickets to the show here.