Like many in our community, my colleagues on the Digital Alberta board and I were feeling quite drained heading into the holiday season, so I hope you will excuse us for not putting out a December update. It’s a new year now, and as a Board, we’ve added new team members and are once again finding our stride. Here’s to a solid 2022 and the work ahead.

2022 Provincial Budget

Our government advocacy team has been hard at work over the past two years to ensure our provincial leaders recognize the need to “level the playing field” with other Canadian provinces in the Interactive Digital Media (IDM) sector, in what is a $200 billion global industry. While Alberta has had a lot to celebrate in terms of jobs and investment across the broader tech scene in recent years, IDM investment and job growth has been muted over the same time period.

We are continuing outreach this month to ensure we stay on track and get a better read on progress, and we will have a full assessment posted after the budget drops on February 24.

Ember Awards announcement coming soon

The 2020-21 Ember Awards winners have been notified, and our committee is now working furiously to pull together the videos, web updates, and social messaging to make our big announcement of the winners! In total, 125 applications were made to this event, which celebrates the best and brightest in Alberta’s Interactive and Digital Media landscape, and I would like to send out a big thank you to everyone who submitted an application.

I also want to thank our incredible sponsors (Alberta Blue Cross, Alberta Esports Association, Amii, Calgary Economic Development, Communo, Critical Mass, Edmonton Screen Industries Office, FKA, Innovate Edmonton, Kick Media, Lift Interactive, Taproot Publishing, ZGM) for making this even possible at all!

I’d also like to acknowledge Alberta Innovates, Digital Alberta’s industry supporter, for supporting this and other programs we will be launching in the next year. It’s exciting for me to see Digital Alberta build up the resources needed to offer a wider range of learning and networking opportunities for our community, and I’m excited about the opportunities we can explore together.

Recruiting for the board

We recently added two new board members to our team: Mark Speaker, an Industry Solutions Executive with Microsoft; and Paisley Churchill, Manager of Client Experience at Vog App Developers. They both bring excellent industry and fundraising experience to the board, and we are thankful to have them!

We’re also looking to fill a couple more spots on our board, to strengthen our communications, marketing and programming efforts. We will be posting more details on these roles soon, but if you have any questions about Digital Alberta board opportunities, please feel free to reach out to us at hello@digitalalberta.com.