Steve Downes
Managing Director
Juice Digital
steve.downes@juicedigital.co.uk

“Fudge has been a part of the Big Chip for a long time and the awards

are the most relevant outside London. They are full on awards – not spin-off awards or awards for the sake of it.

The awards evenings themselves are a great night – they’re glamorous, you know many of the people there and you can network  - we’ve had good business out of it!

Those who attend are well respected and out of all the award ceremonies we attend across the UK for our sector, the Big Chip awards are the ones the staff want to go to and these are the awards we want to win. It is great to be nominated but ultimately we do want to win!

The best moment for us was in 2007, winning the Peter Saville Original Modern award. To get recognition not only for our digital work but from a world-renowned designer was something really special for us.

And the worst moments – well, there aren’t any apart from the morning after!

The work Manchester Digital does as an organisation to promote our industry outside London is  key to the success of the sector in this region. And this sector is booming at the moment as it has been over the last few years – and we haven’t even really started yet. The Government has already said that it’s the digital economy is what will keep the UK going and although people were wary of the digital sector following the dot.com boom now, there is a great deal of confidence again. Just look at the plans for mediacity.

What I love about this business is the pace – things move so fast, there is always something new, some new technology or trend and audience interaction, which constantly changes.

And the people who have been doing it well so far are getting better and more digital companies are being formed, giving us some healthy competition.

We are looking forward to this year’s Big Chip – we have some cracking public sector projects – so watch this space!”