VIDFEST organizers promise ‘purely and deeply’ new media event in Vancouver

The packed early summer new media festival circuit in Canada sees the second annual VIDFEST being held June 15-17 on Granville Island in Vancouver. Organized by New Media BC, and with the financial support of Industry Canada, Western Economic Development and Telefilm Canada, along with private sponsors including Radical Entertainment and Electronic Arts, executive producer Linda Brown,who heads New Media BC, tells Canadian NEW MEDIA this year’s event will feature a "purely and deeply" new media agenda that has international partnership building as a key goal. The festival, which will be held less than a week after the similarly themed nextmedia interactive media event, will feature five themes – up from the four topics explored at last year’s edition. On tap this year are concurrent sessions exploring mobile content, video games, digital sound, interactive design and digital animation. The themes will be explored through a series of master classes and concurrent panels, as well as keynote speeches. VIDFEST will also again feature an international partnering forum. Arranged as a series of "speed dates" that match companies up for brief meetings based on their profiles, Brown says the event was an important practical success last year. Last year, she says, among the 48 companies from nine countries represented, business arrangements resulted from about half of the meetings, according to feedback from participants. "It’s a really high rate of return. As a corollary to that, we have all these international folks there who hadn’t come to Vancouver previously, or hadn’t really thought of Canada as a new media kind of centre of excellence, if you will. So, meeting with these companies, a lot of feedback that we got was, ‘wow, I had no idea this is what’s happening in B.C., and this is what’s happening in Canada. I’ve been thinking about moving out of my office in the Bay area, so I should really be looking here, because you’ve got amazingly talented people.’" The Canadian focus is deliberate, Brown says, and she notes that the festival had its genesis at New Media BC as an industry-building initiative. Says Brown: "Our goal is to make the media world that much smaller - to build those connections. New media really is a global economy. When we create new media product, we tend to think about it for a number of international audiences, and not just local audiences. So, making that world smaller and connecting people is a really important role for VIDFEST. From a secondary approach, getting Canadian product out there is really important to showcase the expertise. We’re just not very good at that as Canadians. You go to conferences around the world and you see countries that don’t necessarily have as deep an expertise as we do – man, they’ve got the marketing machine down. They understand how to position themselves. They understand how to attract business. They understand how to develop trade. In our small way, we’re trying to have pride in the new media industry and say, ‘hey, we’ve got some of the world’s best new media producers right here. Come take a look.’" Despite the close temporal proximity of VIDFEST to nextMEDIA – about which producers are quietly grumbling – Brown says there is a role for both festivals in building Canadian new media capacity. She has maintained contact with the organizers of nextMEDIA, and sees the two festivals evolving in different directions. "(We’re) trying to keep our heads above water and look at this from more of a national perspective and what would best help the industry. There’s a huge need on the TV and film side to better understand convergent opportunities. Next could serve that audience much better than we could. That’s not an area that we really focus on much in terms of VIDFEST. So, I do think it has its role. If I put my national hat on, I think we need a longer-term, overall strategy in how we look at the different areas that need development across Canada and look at how each of the regions will because stronger because of the activities that we do. That’s kind of my longer-term vision."

VIDFEST organizers promise ‘purely and deeply’ new media event in Vancouver

News | 03/14/2005 5:00 am EST

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