Cross country for cross-media (13)

After two weeks of chewing on the presentations at CMID07, I am about to close the mini-series. I might to some of some of the presenters and their subjects later, but that depends on some of the e-mail correspondence going on. In this posting I look back at the conference Cross-media Interaction Design 2007, CMID07 for short.

The conference was being held in Hemavan, in the North of Sweden. It is a ski resort for Swedes. As far as I could see, it was not exactly a mundane tourist spot. But the nature is beautiful; I will not say anything about the snow. Still it is not exactly a venue where delegates flock to like the Milia or MIPTV in the Mediterranean city of Cannes in France.

Besides it was the first time that CMID07 was held. With the assistance of the EU regional fund, the organisation Akademi Norr in co-operation with the University of Umea, a programme was set up and experts invited. There were 40 people during the conference with the majority from Sweden. It was an intimate atmosphere and offered a lot of room for discussion. The conference itself was rather academic and focussed on interaction design in cross-media.

Will there be a second edition and would it be worthwhile to go there? The first edition was well organised. Yet, the continuation will partly be depended on the financial support, that the conference organisation will able to get. Not many paying delegates will head up North on their own accord and cost, I presume. Besides one would have to decide whether this conference will remain an academic exercise or an exchange between academia and business. In the latter case, people from the broadcast industry, gaming and advertising industry should be invited to spice up the conference with business cases of e.g. the Pirates of the Caribbean, Spiderman or Second Life.

Personally I liked the conference. I met new people, I had good discussions and I learned some new perspectives. My definition of cross-media is practical, but does not take the full value chain of cross-media in mind. Especially the role of the cross-media consumer has been underexposed. Still I believe that term cross-media will not be sustainable as cross-media is an integral part of the communication process. I also think that the discipline of interaction design should have a close look at the term in relation to cross-media. By using cross-media in the communication process the designer should not only put the action in the cross-media, but also activate the cross-media consumer. And I am still chewing on the liquid media.

Blog Posting Number: 618

Tags: cross-media