New Media Business Alliance to fill lobbying niche with Ontario cluster focus

The lack of an effective national lobby organization for new media has prompted content players in Canada’s largest city to take matters in to their own hands. Luda Tovey is the newly elected president of the New Media Business Alliance (NMBA), a two-month-old group that plans to lobby both the Ontario and federal governments on a range of issues affecting new media producers, particularly those associated with access to capital. New Media Business Alliance mandate(www.nmba.ca)1. "Collect and Connect" digital media business leaders and all levels of government to stimulate growth of the digital media content industry in Ontario; 2."Collect and Connect" the Ontario digital media content industry and key industry sectors to promote local talent and stimulate growth; 3. promote the digital media content industry, in its own right, as distinct from related digital industries such as hardware, software, telecom and other digital infrastructure industries; 4. gather information from Ontario digital content business leaders to identify trends and set priorities to target needs in this rapidly changing field; 5. develop industry focused recommendations and promote these recommendations to all levels of government for the direct benefit of the digital media content industry; 6. function autonomously, in partnership with other industry associations, with a targeted focus on the business of digital media content development; and 7. seek recognition from all levels of government as the definitive voice for the digital media content businesses of Ontario.Tovey says slow progress at the national umbrella organization, the Interactive Multimedia Producers Association of Canada, has hurt the Toronto cluster’s ability to press for changes to tax credit and funding structures. She’s hoping that a new group with a strong local membership base will be able to pick up the slack. "We’re a little bit disappointed (IMPAC) seems to be in a hold pattern right now," Tovey told Canadian NEW MEDIA. "The national association is a good thing, and we would be actively participating in that, but we believe very strongly in being extremely active in our local, immediate cluster. Essentially, that is how the industry develops – by economic growth within very specific geographic areas. The potential to expand that out or to build affiliations at the national level is certainly something that we see as a good thing. But, from a business standpoint – one of the main reasons NMBA was formed – there wasn’t any kind of group or entity that represented business interest of the new media content industry locally." The 25-member-strong NMBA launched in late May, and has since incorporated itself as a not-for-profit body (CNM, May 31/01). The organization had wanted to join IMPAC, something that was considered almost a given one year ago. Still, Tovey holds out hope that when IMPAC announces a new structure, likely this fall, that the NMBA may yet be involved (see story in this issue). Tovey has also ruled out creating formal ties in the short-term with other organizations in Ontario such as the newly-formed Liberty Village New Media Centre or Interactive Multimedia Arts and Technologies (IMAT), although both she and co-founder Stewart Hall (president of Viewz) have informal ties with both organizations. Tovey is a former IMAT board member and Hall is heavily involved with organizations such as Liberty Village. To date, NMBA has been entirely self-funded through membership fees. It had applied for funding under the Ontario Digital Small Business Growth fund, but was turned down. Its reliance on membership dues means the organization isn’t as financially strong as Tovey would like. The group has raised enough money to hire an administrative and support person, but needs a larger budget for ongoing research. "We could be doing it much faster if we had more money, and had a full-time person dedicated to it. But, we are very active given our resources," she says. She’s hoping to entice as many as 50 member organizations from the top tier of the Toronto new media community to join the NMBA. As it grows, the group plans to focus on improving the industry’s access to capital, by tackling such issues as project and R&D funds, and tax credits. The group’s executives have already met with Ontario’s Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Recreation to discuss programs. Tovey says NMBA is also working to set up a government advisory committee that would bring together the various agencies responsible for the new media industry. One of the hurdles facing industry, she says, is that the new media file is fragmented among different government departments, including the Ministry of Energy, Science and Technology, as well as culture and TVOntario, at the provincial level, and federally by both Industry Canada and Canadian Heritage. She hopes an advisory committee can help government organize itself more effectively to serve the sector. The group will also continue with its Smart Lunch series of business development seminars, the first of which was partially funded by the Ontario Media Development Corporation. Despite the challenges, Tovey says the group achieved broad consensus on the barriers blocking the industry’s growth. "You would think that when you set out to form an organization that might involve working closely with your competitors, you would expect that there would be the potential for dissension. That hasn’t, in fact, been the case. I think the reason for that…is that the issues are very black and white." One of the most important of those is the need for growth capital to grow those companies which have survived the dot com slump, and to break out from the reliance on professional services work. Citing the ability to hire talented staff at affordable rates, Tovey says, "it’s actually a great time for building out a business, provided that you can work in a back-to-basics, profit-focused, really high business value perspective…those of us who have focused on the bottom line are really not hurting."

New Media Business Alliance to fill lobbying niche with Ontario cluster focus

News | 07/12/2001 4:00 am EDT

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