Roland
Grunder, Secretary General of the Swiss
multimedia Association, SwissMedia.
How would you define your Association?
SwissMedia is one of Switzerland's national
ICT and multimedia associations. The association
seeks to regroup and defend the interests
of all enterprises and organizations active
in the field of ICT and multimedia. Its
primary role is to offer its members the
support they need to establish and strengthen
a healthy business and information industry
network.
What best describes, in general
terms, the multimedia domains of activity
in which your members are active?
SwissMedia is open to a wide array of industry
players, from telephone operators to website
hosts as well as companies focused on multimedia
software and application development. Our
members are also companies who are avid
users of multimedia tools and applications
in different industrial domains of activity.
What are, at the national level,
the Multimedia areas of activity your Association
has identified and is currently working
on?
Our association has three objectives in
mind: 1) economic and business promotion
for our members; 2) Network development
and 3) training. We elaborate our initiatives
from these three objectives in particular
business matchmaking, market analysis and
continuing education and training for enterprises.
An important preoccupation of ours is how
to be of relevance to our membership by
always identifying and responding to their
needs.
If your Association is currently developing
business relationships with other associations
abroad, can you specify the reasons and
the strategies?
It is as a response to our daily issues
that we are developing our international
relationships. Business links with other
associations allow our members to establish
new relationships with new markets. They
allow us to develop the network and eventually
establish interesting partnerships. Furthermore,
opening new markets, positioning our enterprises
abroad, analyzing the evolution of multimedia
technologies and establishing bilateral
exchanges are essential objectives of our
mandate. Let's not forget that ICT and multimedia
have no frontiers…
Does your government play an important
role in developing the multimedia industry
in your country?
The Swiss government supports directly and
indirectly the ICT and multimedia sectors.
Directly through a program called SOFTNET.
However, support for start-up creation is
essentially the responsibility of municipal
authorities (cantons). Indirectly, government
help, may it be national, cantonal or local,
is undertaken under the responsibility of
industry associations or through association-generated
projects. Two examples: the Digital Media
Dictionary was realized and published thanks
to the governmental support of the Canton
of Vaud while SwissMedia's participation
in the European project NAME- European Multimedia
Analytical Nomenclature - had the support
of our federal government.
How is your Association responding
to the rapidly changing digital environment?
The digital environment is in constant evolution.
Observing and reacting to market changes
is our responsibility and in collaborating
with technical schools, developing a strong
information network and through conferences
and forums, we can remain competent and
competitive in our activities and initiatives.
Nothing is simple but ICT and multimedia
have a bright future ahead of them if we
take the time and make the effort to consolidate
their foundations.
|
