Smart Media Meetups

Media industry

The Flemish and Brussels’ media sectors employ over seventy thousand people. In total, this important economic pillar accounts for 2.5% of the local GDP.  (source: ‘Report on Data Analysis: Brussels’ media industry’ – Marlen Komorowski – SMIT, an imec research group at VUB – 2017).

The Smart Media Meetups aim to bring together all stakeholders to further boost these positive numbers and to connect local and international initiatives and opportunities.

Smart Media Meetups

The Smart Media Meetups target: 

• Stakeholders from media industry and related sectors
• Representatives from the various governmental levels
• Researchers

Its topical focus is twofold. Firstly, it provides insight in policy instruments from Brussels, Flanders or Europe. Think about the support from VLAIO, Innoviris or the imec.icon or imec.livinglabs programs. Also, the meetups can share opportunities and learnings from programs such as City of Things in Antwerp, whenever potentially relevant to develop or test new media services. 
Secondly, the meetups promote knowledge exchange between its participants and the local and international partners and members. Best-practices from the broad media ecosystem take the stage with the aim of stimulating growth, innovation and collaboration.

The Smart Media Meetups originate from the common denominator of two initiatives at imec:

• In 2017, imec started to support the Flemish media ecosystem, as described in its agreement with the Flemish Minister for Innovation, Philippe Muyters. In this context, imec collaborates with MediaNet Vlaanderen, the Flemish media cluster.
• In June 2018, SMIT – an imec research group at VUB – launched Mediahub Brussels. This project targets knowledge creation (new training initiatives, fundamental scientific research) and knowledge sharing (workshops, expert meetings, conferences), to stimulate growth. Mediahub Brussels results from a fouryear research on media clusters in Brussels and is funded by the Brussels Minister for Media and Brussels’ Affairs, Sven Gatz. 

Smart Media Meetups is the initiative that puts the spotlight on initiatives regarding knowledge sharing, demand-driven research and acceleration, which originate from the context above.

Partners

Smart Media Meetups is an initiative by imec and Mediahub Brussels (SMIT, an imec research group at VUB), with support from MediaNet Vlaanderen and the Belgian Association of Marketing.

Events and registration

All details on Smart Media Meetup dates and registration can be found on on the MediaNet Vlaanderen website and the events page of SMIT, an imec research group at VUB.

Contact

Any question or do you want to join the community? Send us an e-mail.

For media economics and media policy related training programs and research, you can contact Prof. Dr. Karen Donders, Head of the Media Unit at imec-SMIT. For Mediahub Brussels related questions, you can contact Olivier Braet, Senior Researcher at imec-SMIT.