MIGS2010: Interview with Marie Claude Bernard
I’ve had the chance to sit down and talk with one of the people behind the biggest video games event in Canada and the East Coast of North America. Marie Claude Bernard is the Communications and Public Relations Director at Alliance numérique, the association behind the MIGS.
Marie Claude Bernard - Alliance numérique
The city of Montreal and the province of Quebec recently saw a major growth in the video games market with new studios opening in Montreal. Studios such as Warner Interactive Montreal, THQ Montreal, BioWare Montreal and Funcom Montreal. Along with the already existing and very big Ubisoft Montreal, Visceral Games Montreal (what was EA Montreal), Eidos Montreal and Behavior (recently renamed from A2M). These large companies along with the smaller ones such as Trapdoor manage to put the city of Montreal as the reference when it comes to digital medias. In fact, did you know that the video games industry encompasses more than 7 000 jobs in Quebec with 105 companies all related to video games and medias?
Montreal has become a reference within the industry and it is for that purpose that next year’s MIGS will be bigger, much bigger. When I asked Marie Claude what we could expect for next year she replied “Bigger, better and improved”. She sees next year as a challenge to one-up the success of this year hoping to bring all of the media sectors into one big festival with the integration of e-learning, mobility and Internet. They are viewing the MIGS as something more open and more accessible. It should be lasting longer as well.
All in all she labeled next year’s MIGS as Montreal Digital or as MTLDGTL and they even have a sweet logo for it.
Montreal Digital - MTL DGTL
Next year will be the Alliance’s 8th MIGS and I must admit that considering what I saw this year it will indeed be a challenge to build something even better. The MIGS received over 1 500 attendees and had 35 exhibitors and over 80 conferences as well as the D3D contest and the parties, cocktails and installations related to the MIGS. When they said Montreal Takes Control they really meant it.
