See a month-by-month overview below and save the dates!
September
Sep 13-17: IBC Show & Study Tour
13 Media Cluster companies will be at the Media City Bergen Village at IBC, a joint stand showcasing world class media tech innovations and solutions from Media City Bergen. The stand will be set up for the second time, after a successful debut in 2018.
Members and partners of the Media Cluster are also invited to join a study tour to IBC, having a complete guided tour of the trade show, including the Media City Bergen Village and visits to all the Norwegian Media Cluster companies that are present at IBC. You will meet the cluster companies and visit their stands, network with industry leaders and see how the cluster members work during the IBC. You will also be able to try out and be updated on the latest technology, and get a glimpse of whats emerging. No technical skills are required to attend.
October
Date tbd: Innovation workshop with Dan Olsen
We are excited to announce that Dan Olsen, author of The Lean Product Playbook, is coming to Bergen to organize an innovation workshop for our members. Olsen is passionate about product management and helping companies adopt Lean Startup principles. More info and dates to be announced.
Oct 1: Show & Tell in the Media Lab
All members and partners in the cluster are invited to join our Show & Tell, our informal, laidback arena, where you can meet other cluster members and learn about the latest innovations in the cluster. Save the date – more info to be announced.
Oct 22-24: Game Changers. Norway Investor Summit 2019
One of the leading private investment funds in the world, Horizons Ventures, and BKK join forces to host an investor event showcasing the most exciting startups in Norway. It brings together the founders of Horizons portfolio companies, the full investment team in Norway and special guests for a weekend of experiences and a two day (closed) conference, and in every destination Horizons choose for their TechCracker their full investment team spends a full day scouting for investment opportunities. For Norwegian startups, this is a massive opportunity to connect with one of the most respected investment funds in the world, and join their portfolio alongside companies such as Facebook, Impossible Foods, Slack, Endless West, Spotify, Demetrix, Zoom, Deepmind, Spaceship, Waze, Skype, Nanoegg, Siri and more.
In addition to Horizons Ventures, investors from all over Norway will join the investor days to scout for interesting companies. Two full investor days with ongoing pitch sessions in the grand auditorium at Media City Bergen will put the game changers of Norway on stage. Startups will showcase their products and services in the exhibition space, and you can also expect a number of popup talks from founders of Horizons portfolio companies and other prominent guests. All startups pitching during the summit will be handpicked by Horizons, BKK Spring and the advisory board.
Read more and apply to join here
November
Nov 13-15: Study tour to Cardiff/London
Members and partners are invited to join us for a study tour to visit media and media tech companies in Cardiff/London. More info to be announced.
December
Dec 12: NCE Media Christmas Special
Join us on December 12 for a pleasant and entertaining afternoon in the Media Lab. We have plenty of surprises in store, as well as awards, entertainment and of course a recap of the year.
Other projects/events
Launch of the Cognitive Center
The launch of a new Cognitive Center was announced during the mcb tech conference in June. Industry clusters in the Bergen region, the City of Bergen, Bergen Chamber of Commerce and Industry, VIS Innovation, Helse Vest and several of the academic institutions in Bergen join forces to establish a national center for cognitive technologies with IBM as the technology partner. The ambition is to raise expertise and competence in artificial intelligence.
The project is initiated through the close collaboration between IBM and NCE Media, with IBM also being a partner in the Media City Bergen Media Lab. It is the complete and full ecosystem with solid industry clusters, a strong academic environment, and a forward leaning public sector that makes the region particularly attractive and suitable for such a center.
For now, the center will be located in Media City Bergen, where NCE Media already has established a cross sector environment for project development, prototyping and innovation. Several new partners will be included into the consortium on an ongoing basis, as the cognitive center will have an open innovation platform.Stay tuned - more info to be announced soon. Read more about the Cognitive Center here.
Activities with the NCE Media Stavanger Node
The cluster organization NCE Media is expanding to Stavanger by establishing a formal satellite with around 20 media and media tech companies including NRK Rogaland, Stavanger Aftenblad, Mediafarm and the University of Stavanger. The region is also especially rich in media tech startups, and are also working on a project to co-locate several media companies and publishers under the same roof in Stavanger.
– In addition to activities starting up in Stavanger, the main mission is to execute joint projects between the two ecosystems so that we together can create new markets and opportunities. The distance between the two cities is short, and it is easy to generate traffic on the bridge between them. It is also important that value creation is distributed – it shouldn’t only happen in Bergen, but also in Stavanger. By enrolling Stavanger as a collective hub into NCE Media, it is both necessary and desirable to work dedicatedly in the Stavanger region to contribute to growth and value creation there, says Anne Jacobsen, CEO of NCE Media.
A task force is established in Stavanger to coordinate activities and work closely with the administration in Bergen. Furthermore, there is a clear ambition to situate a designated project manager in Stavanger. Read more
Signage at Media City Bergen
Some of you may have noticed the new signage displays that have been installed in Media City Bergen. The system was piloted during the Future Week in June, and can be used for way finding and promotion of relevant events taking place in the building. More information on how to use the screens will be posted shortly. In the meantime, tenants in MCB can contact us at [email protected] to get started with signage.
As always, you can also expect hackathons, courses, breakfast meetings, workshops as well as numerous other events in the Media Lab in the months to come. Sign up to our newsletter to stay updated: http://bit.ly/NCEmedianyhetsbrev