Partnerships to become key focus for Liberty Village centre in second year

The Liberty Village New Media Centre is boasting a slew of new partnership successes on the eve of its official launch late next week in Toronto. Since the centre’s "soft launch" last November (CNM, Nov. 15/00), the group has continued acting as a networking resource, even without a physical space. Now, the chi-chi 2,700 sq. ft. meeting and office space is available to the new media community in Ontario, and executives are hoping to build on several relationships forged in the past 12 months to extend its reach beyond the province and into the national and international spheres. Liberty Village New Media CentreKathrine BrownExecutive Director416-516-7196kbrown@lvnmc.com20 Mowat AvenueToronto ON M6K 3E8Liberty Village was created as an initiative of several Ontario new media associations with financial assistance from the Ministry of Energy, Science and Technology’s Interactive Digital Media Fund. The new centre is designed in part to respond to what’s perceived as a need for more branding and marketing by the mega-city’s new media companies. While the showcase will be its state-of-the-art facilities in the Fashion district of Toronto, executive director Kathrine Brown says the group will also begin focussing on the two other legs of its mandate: national and international partnerships and an itinerary of training workshops. New focus on market "May 1 marks our year two and that’s our opportunity to move from an infrastructure and fund-raising focus to a market focus," she told CNM. "The first six months will be focused on major centres in Canada, and getting the word out in terms of the centre, encouraging people to come to Canada and forging relationships with people here. The latter six months will be focused on hitting selected markets in the U.S. "We’ve already started developing some of those international links," she adds, "but that doesn’t happen until year three when we start being much more proactive on the marketing from there." For example, the resource centre has forged ties with Scottish Enterprise, San Francisco’s Epicentre and Radiolinja, one of Scandanavia’s largest telcos, among others. Scottish Enterprise plans to bring a dozen or so companies involved in animation and film-making from its country to Canada to discuss business opportunities. Liberty Village New Media Centre makes its meeting facilities available on a fee-for-service basis to new media companies. Brown notes that one of its early clients, Digital Wizards, prefers to use the centre as its operations base rather than renting meeting space in hotels, which can often be sterile and impersonal. One of Liberty Village’s selling features has been its attention to detail, which is marked by the loft-style brick and beam décor popular with new media enterprises. Meeting rooms range in capacity from six to 150. Workshops and training The third component of Liberty Village’s mandate will be workshop training in areas such as financing and pitching. The Toronto chapter of Women in Film and Television has already signed on to teach a session. Brown adds that a prominent figure in the university and college community is also negotiating with the group to come on board as an advisor. Revenues at the centre are expected to exceed $2.5 million over three years, of which an estimated 40 per cent will come from the province. Liberty Village has already exceeded its one-year targets for sponsorship from the private sector – which has helped fuel demand for space at the centre. Executives are still seeking annual sponsors at the founding level.

Partnerships to become key focus for Liberty Village centre in second year

Broadcast | April 19, 2001

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us