Ontario trade mission set to storm the UK this fall

Building on the bonds forged through a relationship that goes back as far as the pivotal Baddeck International New Media Festival at the turn of the century, Interactive Ontario (IO), UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) and Scottish Development International (SDI) have set up a trade mission to the United Kingdom this fall.Given IO's long-standing ties with UKTI, "it was just an organic thing," says Sarah Baird, IO's director of operations. "There was just a buzz coming out of ICE 07, and they wanted to do something that would continue the buzz between that and the next ICE.""It's a relationship with the Toronto office of UKTI that we've been cultivating, and it's become a strong friendly relationship," confirms Ian Kelso, IO president and a proponent of strengthening the ties between Canada's most populous province and the United Kingdom.To help defray the costs for Canadian companies to participate, UKTI is providing some funding for travel and accommodations within the UK for those companies selected, which will be drawn from a wide variety of ICT-related sectors including wireless content, e-learning, interactive marketing, social media, and more. Already confirmed as participants are Waterloo ON Blackberry maker Research in Motion Ltd. and the Canadian Film Centre.Although IO, UKTI and SDI have been planning the trade mission for some time, a new partner officially joined the delegation yesterday in the form of the Ontario Media Development Corp. (OMDC). The provincial media development agency is facilitating the participation of additional companies - namely Ontario-based interactive content producers - by providing additional monies to help with their travel from Canada to Britain. "It's just really finding a way to be as inclusive as possible," Baird adds.The UKTI has played a strong role in both financially backing and sending delegates and speakers to Interactive Ontario's two annual conferences to date, most recently the ICE 07 conference in March. And certainly, many in new media have become comfortable working with UK-based partners through their work on broadcast convergence projects. "There's always been a pretty natural relationship on the TV side especially, a fair amount of co-production activity," Kelso notes.Kelso himself has traveled through the island nation to meet with digital media industry types in the more obvious destinations such as London and Glasgow - both of which the delegation plans to stop in this time - but also to cities such as Ipswich and Dundee that one might not normally identify as being new media hotbeds. He says a visit to Dundee is a possibility again on this latest trip, as well as to the southern English seaside town Brighton.However, the partnership between Ontario and the UK is mostly thanks to one English city in particular. "We had a relationship with Manchester going back past the old Baddeck new media conferences , which turned into nextMEDIA," the conference now owned and operated by Achilles Media Ltd.A key player in that relationship is Mike Ryan, managing director at Idaho Technology Limited and a Manchester native, who appeared on stage at Interactive Ontario's iSummit in 2006. Although it's not officially on the itinerary yet, Kelso says a stop in Manchester might be possible thanks to the OMDC's involvement. The UK trade mission runs from October 29 to November 2, and the application deadline for UKTI funding is September 13. IO and OMDC, meanwhile, will host an information session on September 6 at IO's Toronto offices to announce guidelines for the funding provided by the province.

Ontario trade mission set to storm the UK this fall

News | 08/31/2007 4:37 pm EDT

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