MEDIA CYMRU IN 2024: A Year in Review
2024 proved to be another very productive year for the Media Cymru team at PDR. In this second delivery year, we continued in our aim of facilitating others as they developed their ideas, created values for their industries and realised their full potential in Research & Development (R&D). The team delivered across multiple funding levels (Training, Seed, Development and Greening the Screen Development), engaging with over 70 creative practitioners and organisations. The result was that 2024 saw us build on our progress made in 2023 to create even more meaningful connections and collaborations.
As we kick off 2025, here are some of the highlights:
Wow – we did so many sessions (more than 150!)
With so many live rounds of funding this past year (Seed, Development, Greening the Screen and Scale Up Funds) we supported a lot of projects with multiple tailored sessions to help with their various innovation needs. To achieve this, we drew on the wider team at PDR, each bringing their specialised design and development knowledge.
To see more about our projects across Seed Fund, Development Fund, Greening the Screen 2024
Look at all the places we’ve been!
We’ve had plenty of opportunities to learn from the best in research and creative industries from around the world, enabling us to bring back useful knowledge and better connections.
Jo represented PDR’s Media Cymru team and attended the annual GDC (Game Developers Conference) in San Francisco as part of the Cymru Greadigol | Creative Wales contingent.
Safia attended DESIGN 2024 in Croatia to present her research behind our CO:RE Cards initiative. She brought home a Reviewers’ Favourite recognition and began a new exciting collaboration with the Kolding School of Design.
Both Andy and Jo visited Media Cluster Bergen in Norway to facilitate a workshop around exploring new ways for broadcast journalists to engage with younger audiences.
Safia visited Jesper Faalck Legaard at the LAB for Play and Design in Kolding to explore how card-based approaches can prompt reflective learning in different contexts. We’re hoping to share what we learned in an upcoming design conference, so stay tuned!
Testing, Testing...
We’re always promoting the importance of user testing and love it when we get the chance to escape the lab and get involved with end users. We’ve helped projects through observational research at a virtual production facility; we’ve talked to rugby officials in the development of an e-learning platform and football commentators in the development of a tool for research, commentary and game analysis; tested an Extended Reality (XR) game to reduce anxiety, a new knowledge-based game show, and, an immersive audio entertainment experience. Through these interactions we’ve helped upskill many creatives and had a great time in the process.
Sharing is Caring
The team supported more than 30 creatives in the annual Innovation for Creatives and Ideas Lab series, building their confidence in approaching future R&D projects. Our published article on how we introduced a user-centred approach toward innovation has gained much attention in the academic world, and we’re hoping to inspire more people as we go.
In March, to support the News for All project, Andy and Jo delivered a design-led workshop over 3 days at BBC Cymru Wales. The workshop explored future thinking for journalism to a mix of participants from BBC, Media Cluster Norway (MCN) and a range of community journalists. This resulted in Helge O. Svela, CEO of MCN, inviting them to Bergen for delivery the second leg!
We were thrilled to have a lot of participation in our PDR & CO:RE event series. Guest speakers from the creative industries— some of whom PDR has supported in the past— shared their design-led R&D journeys. In the spring edition, we delved into different experiences around making and developing prototypes. In autumn, we explored all about collaboration. The attendees had insights into how the future of immersive experiences can be built collaboratively, speculatively designed the future of the creative industries together, and challenged each other’s ideas in a round of competitive gameplay!
We’re looking forward to building on these activities in 2025, engaging with even more creatives, supporting more exciting projects and developing more knowledge to support the media sector.
