All those who've heard of Ottawa's Digital Media Cluster, hands up!
OK, not too many, but you may want to pay attention to what could become a key player in Ottawa's economy.
Right now in the region there are between 200 and 300 companies in the digital media space including Artech, Magmic Games, Fuel Industries and Mercury Filmworks. There's a lot of video game development but also e-learning, mobile applications, TV, animation and social media. In short, it's the content people want to use on the web and other platforms.
In mid December there was a party in Ottawa to launch the cluster which goes by the name "GENERATOR". The event was like something out of the heyday of Ottawa's tech boom. Lots of young people with a ton of ideas and a desire to make things happen. Scott Simpson, CEO of BitHeads and head of GENERATOR climbed up on the bar to tell the crowd "this is an exciting time for Ottawa." This week Simpson tells me things are happening and "we ignore this area at our peril ... Ottawa has the talent, the brains and a great history of telecom that can be combined with this content to get it out to the customers. Ottawa is a unique place to jam all these things together and see what happens."
Fifteen years ago Simpson helped co-found BitHeads, a custom software shop that's worked with all the big tech companies. Then he spun off HeadGames to work in the gaming sector. He also helped start up the cluster for Ottawa's wireless companies and having seen the success of that group he wants to replay it for digital media. Next Monday and Tuesday reps from Ottawa will head to Stratford, Ont., for Canada 3.0. At the inaugural conference last year 1,500 people showed up to talk about the digital media. Simpson says investors are beginning to pay attention and he notes governments, especially in Ontario, seem to get it and are making more money and programs available.
On May 15 there will be a boot camp held at the OCRI offices for those who want to start up a company. Details can be found at ocri.ca.
Website of the week: cdmn.ca
The Canadian Digital Media Network is working to bring together all the elements of this new industry.
This Sunday on TECH NOW, a look at the safety of ocean-going oil rig platforms.
