newmediaMike

interactive Ontario iLunch 7.01

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Normally when I’m going to an iO event I fire off an email to Samantha at the iO office a couple of days or the day before the event. What can I tell you? I’m a typical Canadian, I leave it till the last minute. So yesterday I remembered about the upcoming iLunch, so I fired off a message to Samantha through Facebook. Not 2 seconds later she replied “Sorry, it’s sold out!”

I said that was too bad, I really wanted to go and she placed me on a waiting list. By 5 yesterday I was registered.

MORAL OF THE STORY - stop procrastinating!

So today I was off to the lunch which was held at the Gladstone Hotel. The format was a panel discussion on funding for interactive projects. Taking part in the panel were: Mark Bishop from marblemedia (This is Daniel Cook, This is Emily Yeung), Trevor Fencott, from gaming company Bedlam Games and Jody Shapiro, who comes from the old media side as a Filmmaker.  The session was moderated by Charles Zamaria, who teaches at Ryerson and is the Financial Director of the Bell New Media Fund.  I know Charles, he contributed semi-regularly to Visual Convergence.

Some of the key points from the discussion that stood out for me were:

- Charles told (or reminded) the audience that “Canada produces some of the top interactive media content in the world” He repeated this mantra a few times.
- When you produce interactive media content and services, either cultural or commercial; you are a  business and businesses need investment
- This is a point which was driven home to us, but we now have to drive into the heads of the politicians: Canada’s well respected Interactive industries create highly-skilled, well-paying jobs for Canadians and generate significant revenues for Canada
- Governments ROI on interactive media is phenomenal. The $14 million Canada New Media Fund has helped emerging companies create a multi BILLION dollar industry. But as always, it’s not enough and more funding is necessary to continue this growth.
- In regards to broadcasters and interactive elements for TV series; it wasn’t that long ago that a website was tacked on to a production and called the interactive component. Today broadcasters are asking up front what are you doing for interactive and are requiring a significant interactive component in the pitch.

For me, this is big news. A whole market is now opening up for me to work with producers and create properties which are not only interactive but are tapping into the burgeoning social media scene.

Special Thanks

I want to thank GCI Group for sponsoring the lunch, and John it was great to meet you, thanks for the mention in your blog, who doesn’t like link love.  Also a special thank you to Samantha Fraser at interactive Ontario for helping me get a seat.