INSTAGRAM superstar Zoe Timmers, Oscar-nominated film director Michael Radford and some of the top names in the global music industry are all part of this year’s XpoNorth, Scotland’s leading creative industries conference and showcase.

A gaming and technology playground and the biggest pitch event for budding writers in Scotland are other highlights of the event which takes place this year at Eden Court Theatre and venues throughout Inverness on June 7 and June 8.

International industry insiders include Matteo Alessi, chief commercial officer in Europe and America for the internationally renowned design company established by Alberto Alessi in 1921, and Pedro Imeida, assistant professor of design at the University of Aveiro, Portugal.

They will be contributors to the Glasgow School of Arts events at the festival. The GSA’s School of Simulation and Visualisation (SimVis) and Institute of Design Innovation (InDI) will also have a significant presence with staff and researchers participating in panel discussions and SimVis hosting a virtual reality showcase in the Technology & Gaming Playground.

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?

THE only event of its kind in Scotland devoted to craft, textiles, fashion, games development, writing, publishing, screen and broadcast, design and music, XpoNorth is attended by leading creative industry insiders, who take part in workshops, panels and masterclass sessions over the course of both days.

Free to attend, the event is funded by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Creative Scotland.

This year the festival, which began as a small fringe music industry event 17 years ago with around 100 attendees, is expected to attract more than 2000 delegates as it showcases Scotland’s creative industries to the world.

The festival’s live television station, XpoNorth Live! will be training up the next generation of television production professionals under the eye of seasoned director Alan de Pellette, who was behind the creation of BBC Radio Scotland’s Off The Ball and hit BBC TV comedy Still Game.

XpoNorth Live! presenter, Siobhan Synnot will interview speakers and delegates while bands play live sets in Eden Court. XpoNorth Live! will also host a live recording of The Vic Galloway Show with BBC Introducing. Meanwhile Instagram’s Zoe Timmers, who has 84.2k followers on the social media site posting as @zobolondon, will be giving tips on how an Instagram portfolio can grow a creative business.

WHAT ELSE IS ON OFFER?

THIS year, XpoNorth’s Music Showcase will see more than 80 emerging acts play for delegates at venues throughout the city. Among them will be rising star Tamzene, a 20-year-old student from Cromarty on the Black Isle.

Some of the top names who work behind the scenes in the music industry on a global scale will also be present. New York-based Josh Rabinowitz, a producer whose Grey Music Seminar at the Cannes Lions International Festival has featured the likes of Tony Bennett, E Street Band, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and Courtney Love, will join M&C Saatchi Sponsorship’s co-founder and chief executive, Victor Cobos, for a special session entitled The Growing Importance of Brands in Today’s Creative Industries.

Unsigned bands will also be pinning their hopes on XpoNorth’s new A&R Listening Room which will put their songs in front of international industry insiders such as Steve Celi from FOX Broadcasting and Sat Bisla, who runs the influential LA-based music industry conference, MUSEXPO.

Also new for 2017, are two special late-night stand up comedy sessions hosted by Bruce Devlin.

ANY OTHER HIGHLIGHTS?

XPONORTH’S prestigious curated Film Showcase will be back at Eden Court, featuring work by filmmakers from the Highlands and Islands and beyond. Organisers received 3000 entries from 112 countries across the world and have programmed 47 films to screen in Eden Court’s Playhouse cinema on both days, while 26 short films will be screened at the start of every session of the conference. There will also be a curated programme from the Screen Academy Scotland and the BFI Highland Film Academy.

Two documentary filmmakers from the Highlands, David Graham Scott, from Caithness, and Tristan Aitchison, who lives on the Black Isle, will see special screenings of their films, The End of the Game and Sidney & Friends.

Film lovers will be drawn to a special conversation with Michael Radford, the Oscar-nominated writer/director (Nineteen Eighty-Four, Il Postino, The Merchant of Venice), ahead of the launch of his latest film, The Music of Silence, a biopic of tenor Andrea Bocelli.

XpoNorth’s craft, fashion and textiles network, which has a proven track record supporting designers operating in often remote communities, will showcase SHIFT, an international collaboration with Iceland, bringing together a diverse group of Highlands and Islands and Icelandic designers and makers to talk, explore, collaborate and inspire one another. The showcase is curated by ilka North, a group of designers, visual artists, curators, writers and creative thinkers all based in the Highlands.

ARE THERE MORE?

ASPIRING writers will be pitching their fiction and non-fiction book to a panel of leading publishers and agents. Last year, one of the pitchers, Iain Hector Ross, had his forthcoming publication The Whisky Dictionary picked up by Dingwall-based Sandstone Press so there’s a lot at stake.

The Power of Provenance is put under the spotlight at a special conversation session featuring Matteo Alessi and Lorna Macaulay, chief executive of the Harris Tweed Authority. This special event will be chaired by Don McIntyre, design director at the Glasgow School of Art’s InDI.

“XpoNorth is now firmly established as Scotland’s leading creative industries conference and showcase, and we are delighted to be supporting the event as an international platform for creative talent,” said Donna Chisholm, regional head of sectors, innovation and programmes with Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

“The two days provide an excellent opportunity for business people in the Highlands and Islands to meet other creative people as well as hear from a range of globally renowned experts in each creative field.

“Many people who showcase go on to become successful. It’s fantastic to have speakers and delegates from all over the world of such high calibre here to share their expertise.”