Awards tell a story

I have been going on dissecting the Finnish book Community Created Content this week. And when I though I was finished with the Finnish, my friend Cai told me that summary of the MindTrek Award book is online. So I am going to extend the Finnish week on my blog with a posting on MindTrek.

MindTrek is the name for a key digital media event, the Mindtrek Media Week, which has been held in Tampere, a southern Finnish industrial city for 10 years. During the week the activities have been an important and active cathelyser in networking with scholars, industry professionals, financiers and students with each other through series of seminars and round table discussions. Most famous are the MindTrek Media Awards, the national recognition of the best multimedia products from Finland. At the Gala of this competition people could take a peep at the future. In 2007 MindTrek celebrates its tradition of 10 years. In the short history of digital media in Finaland, the MindTrek Media Week has become a remarkable milestone. Moreover, it has grown to an event, which has become an essential part of the network of European media events.

At the Europrix Top Talent Award 2006 in Vienna I received a 123‐paged book about MindTrek. Except for my salutary contribution, which was in English, I was unable to read a word of it, as the rest of the text was in Finnish. So I was longing for an English translation. But now one of the co-authors, Tommi Pelkonen (a Fin living in the Netherlands and working for Satama) has made an interesting summary, which tells about the Finnish multimedia industry, the competition and the awards.

During its existence, the MindTrek Media Awards have been able to represent and reflect the status of the Finnish competencies in digital media productions. It is absolutely clear that there is a constant demand for this kind of forums. Additionally, the competition has been one of the first location to have a sneak preview to some later commercially very successful projects(e.g. MaxPayne and Habbo Hotel). MindTrek’s ambitious mission to network the whole value chain of the digital media to the broader economy and society as a whole it something also European decision makers should look for. There are far few locations in where this kind of fruitful interaction is carried out. For the Finnish scene and especially for the Tampere region, Mindtrek has succeeded in creating this natural networking in its own original style.

The summary is very interesting as it illustrates trends among awards. It like with popular music; with a particular songs you remember the period and place when and where you heard the song. The awards have been guiding for the future. And Tommi has noticed this: ‘The capability of MindTrek to attract the new talents to present themselves should not be neglected in the future. The field of digital media is constantly evolving and the competition should reflect its time. In practice for 2007, MindTrek could e.g. open an innovation competition for web 2.0 and mobile 2.0 productions, modern communities and mash‐ups, also via mobiles. This kind of initiatives would carry continue logically the original spirit competition had in the mid 1990s’.
The summary of the commemorative book can be downloaded.

Blog Posting Number: 646

Tags: multimedia industry, multimedia awards