Building on the City as a Platform event that took place during the Conservative Party Conference 2010, this full day of panels and breakout sessions will explore these issues and opportunities, presenting case studies including Maverick Digital’s groundbreaking NHS Local project and the Screen WM/Channel 4 supported ChromaRoma, which uses the London Underground Oyster Card system as a playing piece in a city-wide social game.

The pair of us are running the liveblog there. If you’re on Twitter you can follow along on the #caap2011 hashtag or by following the liveblog below. Comments, thoughts and so on are all welcome.

Screen West Midlands are hosting City As A Platform, at Aston University Business School and Conference Centre this Thursday, 17 Feb.

In an era of public sector cuts and greater emphasis on local engagement, what happens when a city opens out its public infrastructure, technologies, data and buildings to digital media content developers?

The event starts at 9.30, and contemplates ‘The future for the creative industries’, with a variety of sessions and speakers throughout the day, including keynote speaker Jon Kingsbury, Director, Creative Economy Programmes at NESTA.

Panellists will explore the contours of these emerging ‘urban operating systems’ and consider the implications for society and the built environment through sessions including:

• Open data: the challenges and opportunities
• Contracting: navigating the public sector procurement map
• Make it local: developing public services
• Library as a platform: opening up archives
• Transport: playing the daily commute
• Healthcare: bringing greater benefits through digital

Panellists and speakers come from across the public and private sectors, including the Greater London Authority, Rewired State, Rattle, University of Warwick, Maverick TV, Digital Birmingham, Mudlark, Podnosh, Birmingham City University and In Cahoots.

Limited places are available for this event. For more info, full list of speakers and to sign up, visit the Eventbrite page.

Travel advice aside, arts and culture will be getting a foot in the door a few times over the duration, including this lot:

• Jonathan Watkins (Director of Ikon Gallery) has been invited by Jeremy Hunt MP to speak on Sunday. His speech will apparently “highlight the cultural wealth of Birmingham and promote Ikon’s ambition for the creation of a new museum of modern art in the city”
• Screen WM are putting on a fringe event called City as a Platform (reminiscent of the much-referenced, lesser read Dan Hill post) on Monday
• Ed Vaizey MP will be off and about on Monday. He’ll be officially opening Zellig and later on checking out BCU’s Skillset Media Academy
• Rosie Kay Dance Company will be performing Double Points: K at the Symphony Hall on Tuesday

There’s probably more happening too, but those are the ones I’ve come across.

I’ve also been invited, with a bunch of other local bloggers, to go and meet Sayeeda Warsi (Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party and Cabinet Minister without portfolio) and Andrew Mitchell (MP for Sutton Coldfield and Secretary of State for International Development) later today.