October 27, 2005 In the ever-evolving media landscape, everyone is focussed on new and better ways of doing things and one of the more interesting think-tanks built in this landscape appears to have found a potent mix of all the key ingredients. Originating in Sydney, Australia, the X|Media|Lab began with the premise of putting the world's best new media practitioners to work with local project teams and companies on their own project ideas. The X|Media|Lab has now been held several times in each of Sydney, Melbourne and Singapore and events are now planned for Dubai, Mumbai and Shanghai with strong prospects it will be held at many of the world’s new media hotspots during 2006 and 2007. At each event, local and international projects are workshopped for several days by a stellar array of the world’s best in the particular nominated niche with the broad aim of improving the creative, technological, and business propositions of the project ideas, and improving the chances of them getting to market and achieving commercial success. If you think your project might benefit from being workshopped by a dozen people with international success in your field, applications are now open for projects in the areas of Factual Content (Melbourne, Australia, November 25-28) and Computer Games (Singapore, November 17-19). If you’re thinking, “just another event”, check out the project teams.

“It’s like having an elite and highly relevant international network suddenly available for your project,” says X|Media|Lab convenor Brendan Harkin. Though the X|Media|Lab is an international network of new media practitioners, it certainly began as Harkin’s personal network due to the international projects he had worked on for the Australian Government and a host of other international events. As it has grown, so too has the network and the elite nature of the people the X|Media|Lab is capable of attracting.

“The aim is to get a roster going of the very best people in any particular media genre across creative, technical and the business aspects and the gratifying thing is the momentum we continue to build in attracting these people to play mentor roles,’ says harkin.

For the Computer Games X|Media|Lab in Singapore, the list of mentors for the think-tank include Doom3 author Matt Costello, game guru Katie Salen and a list of people who have vast experience in almost every aspect of game creation, production and distribution.

"The opportunities exists on all levels,” says Harkin. “From Governments wishing to inject energy into their new media industries or new media companies to their shores, to international festival organisers wishing to add a unique facet to their event - most importantly, it brings the local companies involved abreast of international practices and thought. The Media Development Authority in Singapore is seeking international projects and we have a fantastic array of projects already for the Singapore event with six from Singapore, two from Australia and two from Indonesia.”

Similarly, the Melbourne event in the area of factual media has attracted a stellar cast of mentors with Sophie Walpole (Head of Interactive Drama and Entertainment at the BBC), Angela Beesley of the Wikipedia Foundation and Andrew Nachison (Director of the Media Center at the American Press Institute, and author of "The Future of News") just a few of the full roster.

“Probably the best thing about the X|Media|Lab format is that it is evolving and improving, mainly due to the creativity of the people flowing through. We’re developing on-line courseware for continuation of the process after the event and … most of the obvious benefits can be gleaned from the web site. People will know intuitively if workshopping their ideas in an environment like this will work for them.

Brendan Harkin can be contacted here.