Liberty Village to launch this month with meeting space, networking opportunities

One of the first recipients of serious money from the Ontario Interactive Digital Media Small Business Growth Fund is set to open its doors with a soft launch later this month. The Liberty Village New Media Centre, with the help of $1 million in provincial funding over three years and significant private sector support, will be opening its meeting facilities and networking space in the King Street/Dufferin Street area of Toronto by the end of November. An official launch is planned for the first quarter of next year. The provincial money will cover half the cost of a new $2-million business hub to attract investment and create jobs in interactive digital media. Liberty Village Advisory CommitteeMitzie Hunter, SMART TorontoAisha Wickham, City of TorontoNate Horowitz, Centennial CollegeGreg Connor, MM Venture PartnersLuigi Ferrara, DX/NETJohn Godfrey, MP, Don Valley WestAurel Langlois, IMATMichael Lewkowitz, The Leaf InitiativeSandy McMillan, HRDCEric Meerkamper, d-code and Spadina BusSara Morton, OFDCSam Punnett, Multimediator Strategy GroupEvan Pyatt, City of TorontoStewart Hall, New Media Business AllianceJulian Wharton, QED Media and GigaThonRichard Wolfe, Poststone and e-conspiracy Ex-Officio MembersBrigitte Danzig, Ontario Ministry of Energy, Science and TechnologyBob Eisenberg, York Heritage PropertiesThe official opening has been timed to coincide with the one-year release anniversary of a seminal report on the needs of the Toronto new media community by PriceWaterhouseCoopers. The centre hopes to meet one of the main goals of that report — to encourage stronger branding and marketing efforts by Toronto new media companies. It will also work to attract investment and jobs in new media. According to the PWC report, Toronto has been losing as much as $3 billion per year and 30,000 jobs because it is not reaching its potential as a new media cluster (CNM, March 20/00). The Liberty Village centre is designed to combat this shortfall by providing meeting space where new media developers can market their ventures without incurring the cost of hotels or similar facilities. "Beyond the marketing and promotion of the industry itself, what’s really interesting is there’s a lot of players that want to support the industry and profile their companies to the new economy, but there’s no physical space for them to do that," says new Liberty Village executive director Katherine Brown. "We’ve been pleasantly surprised at the enthusiasm we’ve seen from our initial conversations with potential sponsors. The idea of having a physical space where their participation can be profiled on an ongoing basis is very appealing to them." Confirmed sponsors for the space include SGI, Bell Canada and Adobe Corp. Other unnamed sponsors are also set to hop on board. Besides providing a wired space for business, the centre will also take an active role in helping Toronto firms form new partnerships both here and abroad. Brown says they have already had initial discussions with similar organizations, including Scottish Enterprise about serving as an incubator for international alliances. Brown also sees Canadian trade consuls and other government organizations playing a similar role. Brown was previously a program consultant for the Ontario Film Development Corp within its skills development and marketing initiatives department. She says she was surprised to find that Toronto lacked a new media hub. "Ontario’s known for having the bulk of the new media companies in Canada, and a lot of people have asked ‘when does Toronto reach critical mass?’ I would argue that it has reached critical mass – long ago," she told Canadian NEW MEDIA. "When you’ve got that critical mass, there’s an expectation the coordination will come naturally. In fact, it requires you to be even more proactive." She says part of the problem is that new media entrepreneurs in Toronto tend to work in isolated pockets. But when given a chance to "come up for air and meet each other", she notes that they do take advantage of the opportunity. The centre will also help coordinate professional development programs, likely in tandem with organizations such as Interactive Multimedia Arts & Technologies and the Interactive Multimedia Producers Association of Canada (IMPAC). Brown says the centre will leave the lobbying to IMPAC or organizations. Liberty Village won’t be membership-based, although it has applied for membership to IMPAC.

Liberty Village to launch this month with meeting space, networking opportunities

News | 11/15/2000 5:00 am EST

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