Today, the National Eisteddfod announced details of its app for the Vale of Glamorgan Eisteddfod, enabling visitors with an iPhone to access information about the festival with a few taps of the finger.
This is the third time the Eisteddfod has published an app for festival week, and this will be further developed over the coming months, to enable organisers to keep in touch with users throughout the year.
The Welsh Government has contributed funding towards the initial stage of the project, and the Minister with responsibility for the Welsh language, Leighton Andrews, said: “Our new Welsh Language Strategy, A living language: a language for living, places great importance on the role that technology and digital media will play in the future of the language. My ambition is to ensure that everyone can experience all the benefits of new technology through the medium of Welsh, should they wish.
"I therefore welcome the fact visitors to this year’s Eisteddfod can use the latest technology to enhance their enjoyment of the event."
Eisteddfod Chief Executive, Elfed Roberts, added,
"We are grateful to the Welsh Government for their support to enable us to develop the app this year. Using technology through the medium of Welsh is an important part of the Government’s vision for the Welsh language, and we very much appreciate their support this year enabling us to offer an app for the third time.
"This app is different to the tool published last year and in 2010, and our hope is that our visitors will download the free app before coming to the Maes in Llandow. It’s a great resource for anyone keen to plan their visit, as you can search for activities by day, location and by categories like 'music' and 'family'. It also includes information how to reach the Maes, either by public transport or car, and you can also order your tickets easily by tapping straight through to our online shop from the app."
This year, there's a great emphasis on the language and technology on the Maes, and the Welsh Language Technology Festival is held during the week. This is a week of sessions organised by Hacio'r Iaith, aimed at anyone interested in using technology in Welsh. The sessions are held in Cefnlen, sponsored by Imaginet, and this is also the company responsible for developing the new app.
"We’ve worked with Imaginet for many years," says Elfed Roberts, "and we are very grateful to them for sponsoring Cefnlen this year. Our hope is that people of all ages interested in using Welsh in social media will call into Cefnlen for some practical advice and help. We are also grateful to Aberystwyth University for supporting this project."
Speaking from their offices in Cardiff, Imaginet's Marketing Manager, Paula Dauncey, commented:
"We're firm supporters of the National Eisteddfod and are really pleased that we could develop a bilingual iPhone app for the event as well as sponsor the technology festival. We're extremely experienced in developing multi-lingual websites for our clients and hope to share some of our knowledge in this area at one of the week's drop-in sessions."
Details of the sessions in Cefnlen have been published on the Eisteddfod website, www.eisteddfod.org.uk, or can be downloaded as part of the Eisteddfod app.
The Vale of Glamorgan National Eisteddfod is held on the old airfield at Llandow near Cowbridge and Llantwit Major from 4-11 August 2012.
