Today we've published our second interim report from the Digital Innovation Fund for the Arts in Wales, our joint programme with Arts Council of Wales.

This report covers the work we undertook with nine arts organisations to develop their proposals for R&D funding to test out innovative ideas for new digital products and services.

By all accounts, every arts organisation involved found this process to be highly demanding. As one of the participants fed back to us:

The process of turning our identified challenge into a digital solution required a steep (but rewarding) learning curve

There are plenty of improvements we feel we can make to the process to make sure that all participating arts organisations get the maximum benefit. However, we also feel that this feedback reflects the fact that our expectations were high and that the arts organisations put in a huge amount of time and effort to make sure their work was of the highest standard.

Our experience of delivering the fund to date is that there are more and more opportunities for arts organisations to use digital technology not just in their creative output but in the ways that they can reach new audiences and develop more resilient business models. So we are confident that this additional effort will help them to make the most of the opportunities out there.

Final showcase event

We are now nearing the end of the R&D phase of the fund and are preparing our final showcase event where we'll be presenting our work to date. The one-day event is free to attend, and takes place on Tuesday 14 March 2017 at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay.

We have some inspiring speakers lined up and there will be hands-on opportunities to try out the latest technology. It will also be a chance to see the working prototypes of the five projects supported by the fund:

• Artis Community: An 'impact portal' that collects data on the impact of community arts provision across Wales.
• Arts Alive: A guide to low-cost digital broadcasting for rural arts.
• Bombastic: An interactive classroom teaching tool for arts-based education as a means of going beyond the traditional touring model.
• g39: A digital gallery guide that can show you how your audience is really responding to the work you present.
• Hijinx: An integrated casting site and pastoral care system for supporting learning disabled actors to access paid acting work.

There are a limited number of free spaces still available, so we hope you will come and join us.