MTL DGTL Deemed A Success

Gail Chiasson, North American Editor

The first MTL DGTL, a new event sponsored by the Canada Media Fund, drew nearly 2,100 digital industry professionals to Montreal Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 from Quebec, Canada and around the world.

Organized by Alliance numérique, MTL DGTL included four separate events on mobile technology, the Web, video games, and the CINQ Symposum on development and research of partnerships for projects in media technologies.

The digital out-of-home/digital place-based sector seems to have gotten short shrift at this event, rather surprising in that companies such as Zoom Media, Astral Outdoor, Telecine, Arsenal Media, Ayuda, X2O Media and many, many more in the digital signage industry are located in Montreal. (Maybe they were there and we don’t know, since we only had one email about the upcoming event back in early September – not exactly great marketing to the press!)

However, since the word ‘digital’ seems to equate only with ‘online’, game development (very strong in Montreal), and, lately, mobile, in much of Canada, we’re not too surprised.

“We hope that MTL DGTL will position Montreal as a hotspot for interactive digital media,” says Pierre Proulx, general manager of Alliance numérique. “Quebec companies show excellent potential and appeal for business development opportunities and agreements. In fact, this is the idea behind MTL DGTL’s mission, which is to showcase the province’s creativity and talent on the international scene.”

Representatives from the Quebec’s mobile industry and their clients attended Mobiz, a conference that explored different technological advancements, integration possibilities, local and global consumer trends, and other hot topics in the field. Speakers from Microsoft, Google, Orange and Samsung gave presentations on mobile wallets, the Cloud, convergence, m-Marketing and e-Health.

This event concluded with the Mobiz Awards a competition showcasing creative mobile projects.

Collaboration between research and industry was the main theme of CINQ Innovation Symposium, which aimed to increase the competitiveness and productivity of interactive media firms in Quebec. This workshop included a series of conferences and networking activities relating to various research topics, such as 3D animation, motion capture, previewing, facial animation, interactive projections, design and virtual collaborative environments, and digital content management.


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