New Media Business Alliance promises targeted voice for private sector

A group of Ontario entrepreneurs is creating a new lobby group to work with the provincial government on funding and incentive programs for digital media. To be officially announced in about a month, the New Media Business Alliance (NMBA) has been overseen by a steering committee chaired by Oberon Interactive Productions president Luda Tovey. Industry veteran Maxim Engel and McLelland & Stewart's George Goodwin have also been involved in the start-up of the new group. NMBA, which has been in the planning stages for a year, wants to serve as the voice for new media business leaders who may find organizations such as the Interactive Multimedia Arts and Technology Association (IMAT) too broadly-based in terms of its priorities and its membership. IMAT is primarily an Ontario association for new media professionals. "(We want to) build an organization very much like the Canadian Film and Television Producers Association is for the film and television industry," Tovey told Canadian NEW MEDIA. She says their goal is to create a "very focused, very business-oriented and a very effective lobby group that is listened to (and is) a gathering point for the industry." Tovey says the group is currently compiling a short list of priorities it will act upon once NMBA officially launches. Access to project funding, growth capital and incentive programs that encourage private sector investment and access to distribution channels top the list. "Access to, in general, distribution channels with respect to the Internet is a very broad consideration, and is very much tied to the fact that we're sleeping beside an elephant," he explains. "We want to make sure that it doesn't roll over before we're big and strong." The alliance will also concentrate on access to skills and the development of incentive-based tax programs. Tovey emphasizes that the NMBA doesn't intend to replace any existing organizations, but she hopes it will work closely with them. Early indications are that the alliance will likely be invited under the IMPAC umbrella within the year. "I want to make clear- that we are very much determined to work with anybody that's out there so long as we're working together collectively for the better good of the industry," she says. "Things are moving very quickly and what we have to do is pull together whatever positive resources we have in the community and collaborate as much as we can." New group will focus primarily on Toronto new media cluster NMBA will technically be a national organization, but Tovey says market realities in Canada mean it will likely focus on the Toronto cluster of new media companies. The majority of new media is produced in Canada's largest city, but it has yet to find a focused business voice such as that found in San Francisco or in New York City, she says. "There have been opportunities for idea sharing, collaboration, cross-sectoral initiatives and so forth, and there really isn't such a community here in Toronto," notes Tovey. "Part of the reason for that, we believe, is that there hasn't been that kind of business-focus leadership. What we are aiming to do is create a gathering point for the industry so we can create that kind of community, and, because we are a small community, that is so much more important." Details of how NMBA will be structured, and who will be invited to join, will be announced at a later date.

New Media Business Alliance promises targeted voice for private sector

News | 05/31/2000 4:00 am EDT

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