'Digital City Daily' @HackneyHouse

The Olympic and Paralympic Games have been a catalyst for the regeneration of East London, not an instant solution in themselves, a conference on the legacy of the Games was told yesterday. Dennis Hone, the chief executive of the London Legacy Development Corporation which will oversee the process of transforming the physical space of the […]

A ‘digital divide’  is blighting the work prospects for young people in Hackney who are failing to develop careers in the new hi-tech economies of east London, a meeting was told today. The workshop at pop-up venue Hackney House heard that although there had been an estimated 30,000 jobs created in the digital industries in […]

The extraordinary event that has been the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games maybe drawing to a close, but the legacy it has left behind will change parts of East London forever. The regeneration of vast swathes of East London – blighted by neglect, under investment and a post-industrial landscape was a key element of […]

More than twenty budding business entrepreneurs were treated to a trip to Downing Street on a new version of the famous Routemaster London bus to celebrate being winners from the Hackney House Start-Up Games event. At Downing Street, the winners were presented with their awards by model, actresss and entrepreneur Lily Cole, who has her […]

Think creatively about your product, hire your people imaginatively and network like crazy – these are some of the pathways to success, budding entrepreneurs were told today at Hackney House. Addressing an invited audience from start-up companies around the world, Debu Purkayastha, head of new business development at Google, said those in the new digital […]

Two weeks of events at Hackney House designed to showcase the borough’s wealth of creative talent were hailed as a great success last night, as a triumphant party featuring local star Little Boots, brought it to a close. More than 12, 000 people passed through the doors of Hackney House during the two weeks of […]

Hundreds of people packed into Hackney House last night for a triumphant closing party as local resident and electro pop star Little Boots celebrated both the end of the Olympics and the end of two weeks showcasing Hackney at its creative best. Victoria Hesketh aka Little Boots is small in stature but has a big […]

“One of you in here will have a really successful business in a few years,” Jason Goodman, founder  of Hackney creative agency Albion,  told an audience of budding young entrepreneurs at Hackney House  yesterday. His  declaration was directed at more than one hundred 18 – 25 year olds from across London who packed out the […]

To mark Creative Hackney Day at Hackney House yesterday, visitors were treated to a free master class by The Prince’s Drawing School, based in Shoreditch since 2000 and founded by The Prince of the Wales.  Kerry Hopkins went along to try her hand… It was probably the biggest art class in England yesterday. Former graduates […]

 The variety of digital start ups in the area around Hackney House was graphically demonstrated to an audience of nearly four hundred people this morning for the venue’s Creative Day. Chairing a panel of four guest speakers from local companies, Nik Roope, the founding Partner of creative agency Poke, announced: “They have come probably no […]

For a public space that has become the symbol of the new creative digital economy of Hackney and the Tech City area, the so-called ‘Silicon Roundabout’ is to many people something of a disappointment. An embarrassment,  even. Now, an ambitious, multi-million pound new plan could transform Silicon Roundabout into a major civic space worthy  of […]

Hackney and the Tech City area is the best place in London for entrepreneurial digital businesses, Jules Pipe, the Mayor of Hackney,  told companies considering moving to the area. He was speaking at a lunch at Hackney House, which is hosting a series of exhibitions and meetings during the Olympics to showcase the borough to […]

A thriving beehive is the last thing you expect to find on top of a major City bank. But secret gardens run by The Golden Company, a social enterprise project based in Fellowes Court, are springing up across the rooftops of the square mile. They’ve even occupied the London Stock Exchange – apparently, the chairman is […]

The arrival of boutique hotels such as Shoreditch House and Boundary in Hackney confirmed that the East London borough was on its way to becoming a destination in its own right, able to compete with the capitals more conventional tourist attractions with its own blend of the digital and creative economies, street fashion, new music, […]

Homeworking, knitting and active ‘grannies’ are not normally associated with cutting edge fashion and supermodels. But then Hackney likes to do it differently. The North Circular, the knitting company based in Hackney and founded by models Lily Cole and Katherine Poulton uses elderly and retired people from all over the country to hand knit their […]

  The fact that the Olympic Torch was designed in Hackney proved to the world the abilities of the creative designers to be found in the borough, Jules Pipe, the Mayor of Hackney said today. Opening the Design in Hackney Day at Shoreditch’s Hackney House, he said:“We want to show the world what Hackney can […]

More than a hundred venture capitalists from all over the United States and the United Kingdom were given an insight yesterday into the potential for investment in advanced digital ventures in Hackney. The venture capitalists, in London on a two-day visit hosted by the Government’s Tech City Investment Organisation, which aims to bring capital into […]

The digital sector – largely based around East London – was the only part of the economy capable of delivering significant growth in the near future, the head of the Government’s Tech City initiative said today. Speaking to the audience at the Digital Shoreditch Creative Tech Day at Hackney House, Eric van der Kleij, the […]

Channeling creativity in the digital world was the theme of the keynote presentation by two leading City University academics at the Digital Shoreditch Creative Tech Day at Hackney House. Professor Clive Holtham and Habib Lesevic, both from Cass Business School, staged an entertaining joint discussion covering such areas as whether creativity can be collective or […]

City University will continue its support of the digital revolution of East London today, in an event designed to showcase how fertile the area is for investment. Visitors from all over the country and the world will get the chance to meet and greet some of the industry’s most promising and cutting-edge talent at the […]

Everyone in London knows that Hackney, at the heart of the East End, is an amazing centre of creativity – whether it is the rapidly expanding high tech digital economy, the imagination of its artists and its fashion designer or the skills of its chefs and food growers and the talent of its musicians. Now, […]