Please join us on December 5, 2008, as the Mobile Experience Innovation Centre will be hosting an event at the Ontario College of Art & Design in downtown Toronto.

A half-day forum to discuss recent research findings into the current state of Ontario’s wireless and mobile industry, there will also be sessions discussing future strategies for the new and exciting changes in the Canadian Wireless Context. Join us for an afternoon of engaging discussion with industry leaders as we look towards creating a new wireless future.

The MEIC is a public-private consortium led by the Ontario College of Art & Design, and funded through the Entertainment and Creative Clusters Partnership Fund, Ontario Media Development Corporation). For more information, please contact Michele Perras at mperras [at] ocad.ca.

• Date: Friday, December 5, 2008
  
• Time: 3pm-7pm
  
• The Auditorium, Ontario College of Art & Design, 100 McCaul St, Toronto.
  
• Admission: Free
  

Schedule:

3pm

Opening remarks, Karen Thorne-Stone, CEO and President of the OMDC

3:05pm         

Opening Keynote by Gary Schwartz, President, Impact Mobile, Chair, Mobile Content Committee, Interactive Advertising Bureau and CWTA, Board of Directors, MEF Americas

3:50pm

MEIC Research Discussion: Michele Perras, MEIC Coordinator; MEIC Working Group Chairs Avi Pollock, Head, RBC Applied Innovation and Gabe Sawhney, Co-Founder, 33 Magnetic and Echo Mobile, with MEIC Research Consultant Ray Newal, Co-Founder, Jigsee, Inc.

4:30pm        

Break

5pm

Panel Discussion: The AWS Spectrum Auction - New Strategies for the Canadian Context, with Dominique Sebastien Forest, Director of Digital Content and e-Commerce, Quebecor/Canoe.ca, and Anthony Lacavera, CEO, Globalive. Moderated by Thomas Purves, Founder, WirelessNorth.ca

5:45pm

Strategy Round Table: Next Steps for a Wireless Canada, with President Sara Diamond, OCAD; Dr Mark Green, UOIT; Diane Williamson, VP Interactive, marblemedia; Karel Vredenburg, Director of User Centred Design, IBM; and moderated by Sebastien Chorney, Chair, Interactive Ontario's Mobile Committee and Founder, mypetbrainstorm.

6:15pm            

Closing remarks, Networking reception

7pm            

Reception Wraps

MEIC Overview

A partnership of industry and academic organizations actively involved in the mobile content and services space, the MEIC continues the development and implementation of a centre of excellence for applied research, design and commercialization in Ontario’s mobile content and services industries. Focusing on the role of user experience and usability design, the commercialization capabilities of advanced mobile and embedded services and content, and the value of strategic foresight in cultivating a climate of innovation, Phase 2 of the Mobile Experience Innovation Centre will scale the results, partnerships and practices of Phase 1 to sustain industry-academic and industry-industry linkages and build capacity for excellence in mobile design and innovation, with a scope both local and international.

The MEIC aims to advance Ontario-based mobile content, services, application and technology developers, as well as related industry and academic partners, in this expanding global market opportunity. The MEIC Initiative encompasses two stages, Phase I, for which OMDC funding has been granted, is currently underway and encompasses Strategic Development, Business Case Development, a series of Research and Prototyping Initiatives and Collaborative Practices to be synthesized into a final report discussing feasibility and models for growth.