Digital Alberta mission to China, a recap
November 20, 2007 - Just returned from a whirlwind trip in leading the first Alberta digital media trade mission to China from Oct 27 to Nov 6. Our delegation included George Georgeadis (Dreamgazers Interactive), Blaine Bertsch (Fission Media Group), Susan Kennard, Angus Leech, Rupinder Deol (Banff New Media Institute), Denean Tomlin (Calgary Economic Development), Josephine Choi, Kelly Xu, Jessica Jiang (Government of Alberta) and Sandra Jiang (Foreign Affairs & International Trade Canada). I was on the mission on behalf of both Hotrocket and as President of Digital Alberta. We met with many and saw so much during our (brief) 11 day mission across Hong Kong, Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing. More photos from the trip at www.flickr.com/photos/hotrocket.
We spent most of our time in Hong Kong visiting with companies and organizations located in Hong Kong Cyberport, the city's hub for digital media. While at Cyberport, we visited Dream Cortex, Outblaze and listened to presentations from Mocha Multimedia and 3 Dynamics.
I was also invited to speak on a panel at Cyberport's Digital Copyright Day talking about emerging business models for digital media. We also took a tour of several sites including City University of Hong Kong, LEAD (Learning through Engineering, Art & Design) and the Alberta-Hong Kong Trade Office (which felt like home!).
In Hangzhou, we met with and visited several sites and companies in Hangzhou, including the Hangzhou National Animation Industry Base, ZN Zhongnan Animation Studios, and were hosted by the Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture and the Hangzhou Animation, Comic and Game Association. We also took part in a day of meetings and presentations where companies from our delegation and companies in Hangzhou shared some of their work and discussed opportunities for collaboration.
In Shanghai, we visited the Shanghai Multimedia Park, met with several animation, game and interactive companies, checked out Motion Magic (one of the largest animation studios in China), hooked up with a digital media delegation from Montreal, and of course, had several fantastic meals.
You can just feel the energy as the digital media industry across China continues to ramp up towards becoming a major international player. There's definitely opportunity for Alberta companies to enter the market through collaboration with local companies. Programs like this mission give companies the opportunity to make those face-to-face connections.
It was a fantastic trip and we're looking forward to putting together more missions next year. If you're interested in participating, let me know. Now, to follow up on everything...