Looking at the future

The past year has been a year of change at BIMA, as we’ve been attempting to transform the way we organise our events, awards – and even how we run the association. The next few months will see this process step up a gear, with the launch of a re-designed website, new initiatives and a better way of communicating with you.

Throughout 2008, the formation of ‘working groups’ focussed our efforts across education, training and creativity within the industry. Importantly, the BIMA network is represented evenly within these groups, as they consist of both executive and non-executive members. The groups are a great way for any of you to help mould the future of BIMA and have your say on how things are done. The groups are always open to new members, so please get in touch if you’d like to take part.

Our biggest event of the year – the BIMA awards – was a roaring success, with Clare MacDonald at the helm. A big thanks to her and the rest of the Awards team for their hard work on a more refined structure and format for the night. As always, it was a chance to celebrate some of the fantastic work within the interactive space – and plans are already afoot for 2009. Clare will Chair the Awards again this year and will continue to improve the format based on everyone’s feedback. Cutting down the number of categories worked out well, but still needs a little polish – please leave a comment if you’d like to provide feedback on what you thought of the process and the night itself.

To support this, we’ve also decided to make a concerted effort to talk about what BIMA stands for, and its place within the industry. As such, we have laid the foundations of an enhanced communications plan by appointing Six Degrees to handle our PR. Talking to trade publications on a regular basis, and partnerships with both Revolution & Contagious magazine will help us to raise the profiles of some of members individually, as well as the association as a whole. Please write to Victoria if you’re a BIMA member and would like to write an opinion piece for either Revolution or Contagious - Vikki.Chowney at sixdegreespr.com

For the past year, the blog has been a big part of the way BIMA communicates, but we need to make this more of a focus. Another of the changes currently underway is the complete re-design of our website. The blog will be taking centre stage, as we hope that it will remain a place for thought-leaders to share best practice, as well as members to voice their opinions and interact with each other.

As for the coming year – you’ll see a focus on launching our ‘Inspiring Future Talent’ initiative with the introduction of ‘The BIMA Schools Digital Challenge’. This has been created to bridge the gap between schools and the digital media industry, and is the first of an annual competition & awards programme for students aged 13-18. Please email Mirage if you’d like to get involved in this initiative mi.mirage at googlemail.com

We’ll also be talking to you more regularly, with the introduction of a monthly newsletter. Starting from the end of January, it will contain an overview of what’s been happening, provide details of upcoming events and activities, as well as shine the spotlight on a different BIMA member each month. We’ll also be starting to ask you for your opinion on various industry trends and topics via this channel. Again, email Victoria if you’d like to contribute.

All in all, it’s been a great year – but the best is yet to come.

Wishing you all a happy and successful New Year.

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