This text is part of the special Hub Montréal notebook
More than 130 foreign guests will converge in Montreal for the 7e edition of the Hub Montréal business development event, from October 16 to 18. Major brands, creative studios or renowned museums come to immerse themselves in the Quebec basin of digital creation to develop partnerships and taste its specificity.
“HUB Montréal is based on a reverse commercial mission: we bring internationals to come and discover our ecosystem here, on site,” underlines Marie Côté, associate producer and international development consultant at Hub Montréal.
Since the launch of the event in 2017, the producer, supported by Quebec representation offices abroad, has explored international markets. The team thus approaches buyers, investors and contractors from the four corners of the globe in the fields of multimedia, performing arts and experiential. A hunt for privileged partners which takes place with the complicity of Quebec creators. “Certain markets are particularly interesting for our studios, which this year told us they wanted to work with the Middle East, in particular the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia,” she says.
Result: Hub Montréal 2023 will have guests from Abu Dhabi, Dubai and even Riyadh. In total, there will be some 130 participants from all over the world attending the event, including the Chanel and Calvin Klein brands, creative studios (Ogilvy, Disney), the Harbourfront Center (Toronto), the Arts Council of Korea or museums: Papalote Museo del Niño (Mexico), Musée d’Orsay (Paris), Museo del Prado (Madrid), among others. A list that grows from year to year, even if Hub Montréal wants to keep its format on a human scale. “We don’t want to become one of those events with a hundred thousand delegates where finding the perfect business partner is like looking for a needle in a haystack,” explains Marie Côté.
Montreal, a unique breeding ground
Many agree that if Hub Montréal has stood out on the global digital creativity scene, it is thanks to the unique ecosystem that creators form within the metropolis.
“The size of creative industries in Montreal is disproportionate to the size of the city, and their international impact is significant. I’m really excited about the diversity of companies, new and established,” says Dave Patten, head of new media at the Science Museum Group and president of the Hub Montréal international jury. It also highlights the collaborative dimension of the ecosystem. “The desire of companies to exchange and work together seems stronger here than elsewhere,” he adds.
A particularity which finds its source in the geographical and cultural obstacles which stand between Quebec and the cultural industries, according to Jonathan Roberge, full professor at INRS and expert in digital culture. “The digital environment in Quebec finds itself in an obligation to survive which, strangely, is the strength of its creators. » The reason: the province is positioned at a predominantly French-speaking cultural crossroads, while being on the outskirts of major centers of culture and entertainment, particularly California, explains the teacher. “Quebec had to find a niche for itself fairly early on in a global ecosystem that didn’t necessarily want it. »
This niche? Having appropriated technologies governed by an English-speaking culture by associating it with creativity thought in French, indicates Jonathan Roberge. “The ability of Quebec creators to be so interested in digital language as a language of expression is a tour de force. »
An observation that is also made from abroad. “There is a fairly natural convergence between technologies and creation, storytelling. I have always seen Montreal as a hub that managed to combine technological use – advanced at that – with an interactive dimension,” underlines Morgan Bouchet, global head of immersive and emerging technologies at Orange.
This natural connection between culture and technology has benefited from the support of the province through interventionist cultural policies, underlines Jonathan Roberge. “Quebec has notably succeeded in positioning itself well thanks to the structure created in the 1990s that forms the CALQ, which supports artists, and the SODEC, which supports the cultural industries. » A model to which was added, in 1996, the famous tax credit on multimedia titles and which notably contributed to attracting the video game giant Ubisoft. “It cost the State dearly, but it made it possible to create a video game industry made in Montreal,” underlines the teacher.
This desire to organize digital creation into an industry of its own, into an “ecosystem”, seems to be specific to the province, and even more so to its metropolis.
“This “ecosystem” dimension is very visible at Hub Montréal, which presents a wide variety of immersive projects in the broad sense, without them all being devoted to virtual reality. The meeting of start-ups and visions that make up [ce vivier] is particularly enriching,” says Morgan Bouchet.
Meet the needs of international markets
This content was produced by the Special Publications team at Duty, relating to marketing. The writing of the Duty did not take part.