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For immediate release New media producer Michel Blondeau wins 2004 Global Television Network Broadcast Communications Award The Banff New Media Institute (BNMI) is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2004 Global Television Network Broadcast Communications Award is Michel Blondeau, new media producer and founder of Toronto-based ecentricarts inc. The award was made possible through a generous five-year commitment of support made by CanWest Global Communications Corporation to The Banff Centre in 2001. Blondeau will receive $5,000 toward participation in training and mentorship at the Banff New Media Institute. “Michel Blondeau is a strategic thinker, a generous networker and a key Canadian new media industry developer and advocate,” says Susan Kennard, producer of the Banff New Media Institute. “Michel was chosen as our 2004 CanWest Global fellow specifically for these reasons. While in Banff, he will engage with our rich community of artists and producers, using the opportunity to research project concepts and participate in high-level international think tanks related to convergent media and new media research.” The Banff Centre encourages specialists in convergent media, entertainment, games, media policy, and intellectual property law from across Canada to apply for the award. Past recipients have included performance artist and writer Ahasiw Maskegon-Iskwew, intellectual property law specialist Christene Hirschfeld, and composer and broadcaster Jowi Taylor. BNMI has been at the centre of new media convergence and content development for 15 years. The Institute provides research opportunities, summits, resulting research prototype labs, professional development workshops, co-productions, partnerships, project commissions, academic exchanges, publishing, and business incubation. Bio — Michel Blondeau Founder, CEO and “Idea Guy” at Toronto-based ecentricarts inc., Michel Blondeau has been an accomplished new media producer and developer since 1995, working in a variety of emerging technologies and formats. His achievements include development of the first enhanced audio CD in Canada (SELF = TITLE by Treble Charger), an online educational site entitled “The Empire of the Bay” to accompany the CTV series on Peter C. Newman’s history of the Hudson Bay Company, and the development of the National Film Board’s media education site, Mediasphere. With his team at ecentricarts inc., Blondeau has developed a specialty in, among other things, online education in Canadian history and culture. The company has created sites for organizations including the Virtual Museum of Canada, the Canadian Music Centre, and Canada’s National History Society. With a graduate degree in political science from the University of British Columbia, Blondeau currently teaches a course in Virtual Culture in the University of Toronto’s graduate school of Museum Studies. — 30 — Media Contact
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