SMART Toronto absorbs Liberty Village and promises content players a real voice

The head of the newly named SMART Toronto Technology Alliance (STTA) says digital content players should look forward to a stronger voice on the local, provincial and national stages as a result of the merger of SMART Toronto and the Liberty Village New Media Centre (LVNMC). STTA president Cindy Pearson tells Canadian NEW MEDIA that fears the content industry will be the redheaded stepchild of the new organization are unfounded, even if some rival association members say they’re skeptical. On November 6, SMART Toronto and the LVNMC announced a merger of their operations, moving into a new 10,000- square-foot facility at 74 Fraser Avenue. The news ends months of speculation that the predominantly technology-oriented SMART would absorb the troubled LVNMC initiative, just a few months shy of the latter running out of provincial funding (CNM, July 10/02). STTA 2002Board of DirectorsGary Anderson, Sympatico Russ Cook, Royal Bank Jocelyne Cote-O’Hara, C20 Terence Donnelly, Mandrake Michael Eubanks, Canadian Tire Nancy Ewings, Deloitte and Touche LLP Jack Gorrie, University of Toronto Gordon Gow, Gordon Gow & Associates Brad Henderson, Telus National Systems Mark James, Adobe Systems Canada Karen Lawson, Bell Canada Scott McDonald, Scott McDonald & Associates Michael O’Neil, IDC Canada Bill Ostrander, Gowlings LLP Jo-Anne P. Raynes, Harbinger Ventures Group Mauro Spagnolo, CIBC David Terry, G2M Tom Turner, Rogers Communications Ian Vaudry, Hewlett-Packard Dave Wharry, Alias/Wavefront 2002 Ex-Officio Directors David Kennedy, Ministry of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation Brenda Librecz, City of Toronto Andrew Maxwell, Innovations Foundation Mark Romoff, Industry Canada 2002 Honourary Director George Fierheller, Four Halls Inc.LVNMC staff, including interim executive director Julian Wharton, have been hired by SMART. Wharton now heads up the STTA’s digital media committee, which will continue the activities previously undertaken by the LVNMC. The former board of directors of LVNMC has been incorporated into the amalgamated institution as a new digital media advisory board and the former chair of the LVNMC board, Bruce Graham, joins the STTA board, which otherwise remains intact from the former SMART association. The newly amalgamated organization’s name, heavy on technology but with no mention of content, has raised flags in the new media community, which had lent significant support to the LVNMC. Stewart Hall, publisher and editor of Viewz.com and treasurer and VP of the New Media Business Alliance (NMBA, see story in this issue), says he’s not sure that SMART will be an effective advocate for the content industry. "All sorts of people were involved with Liberty Village," Hall tells CNM. "So to just sort of close it so quickly without any explanation of what was going on, and then to have SMART Toronto say, ‘well, we’re going to represent the digital media industry in some way,’ doesn’t really make any sense. It does the digital media community a disservice…Liberty Village had its faults but it also provided a lot of value. Lots of value. And (former executive director Kathrine Brown) had all sorts of export relationships that she was building up. She had a relationship with digital media people in Scotland and in Germany. So what’s happened to those relationships? Where are they going? Who’s following them up?…The Liberty Village web site and their newsletter were a big source of information to the community. So what’s happened to those things? "It could be at the end of the day (the merger) is a very positive thing, but right now we don’t know that. I’m skeptical. Very skeptical." Pearson, however, says the digital media community should view the amalgamation as an opportunity. "There is a digital media advisory board," she says. "And it will be the job of that advisory committee – working with Julian Wharton who is the executive director of what we’re now calling the digital media program – that will drive the initiatives for the digital media sector in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). They will be our eyes and ears for industry and that’s where I believe bringing the organizations together is even stronger. If we think about digital media, it cuts across every sector. It’s not a silo. So bringing it together with makes perfect sense…There’s nothing but opportunity here for them." The STTA will also create two membership-based organizations specifically targeting digital media companies in the GTA. Liberty Village worked on a sponsorship model and didn’t compete for members with organizations such as the NMBA. Competing for members Pearson is confident the STTA will attract digital players into the fold. "I think that members vote with their feet. I’m hoping that, going forward – and we’ve already established some partnerships – that there will be some shared memberships going forward. There will be a number of public activities that will be open to anybody in the sector and then, of course, as a membership-based organization we do have to offer those member-only value-add propositions so that there’s a reason to join the association. I would hope that individual organizations will see a value and consider a membership with SMART Toronto Technology Alliance," she says. "The GTA is fairly fragmented with a number of associations. My mandate as president of (STTA) is to collaborate with those associations on specific initiatives. …It just gives us so much more breadth and depth to ensure that all sectors of technology are represented through the various advocacy components – whether it’s ITAC, whether its CATAAlliance, even when we’re working closely with folks such as the York Technology Association. There is room for all of us in the community to work collectively." "Because we have taken the activities of the Liberty Village and kept them whole, by calling it a digital media sector program, the activities will actually be beefed up. The activities of the association overall, if we address those in terms of a SMART peer program, a SMART growth program, monthly educational meetings, keynote speaker opportunities, the opportunities to showcase applications, the opportunity to get into a room with another member, because Liberty Village wasn’t, of course, a membership-based organization. "So, when you take a look at a membership-based organization, all of the benefits that that brings, you now have an opportunity to get into a room full of peers that hopefully for them creates a business-to-business opportunity."

SMART Toronto absorbs Liberty Village and promises content players a real voice

News | 11/14/2002 5:00 am EST

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