BANFF, ALTA – The creators of the Crossmedia conference series announced today the launch of a new event in Banff this September that will feature Dr. Eric McLuhan, son of the legendary Marshall McLuhan, as the keynote speaker.
The two-day Crossmedia Banff conference will be held September 23 and 24 at the Banff Centre, which has partnered with Crossmedia to present the event. It will showcase 40 top media and digital innovators from companies in motion, mobile, marketing, publishing and games.
The Banff event will feature Crossmedia’s unique “quick fire” format of seven-minute demos from leading creators focused on building the technologies and experiences that will connect and engage with the audiences of the future across the digital ecosystem.
Dr. McLuhan, who co-authored Laws of Media with his father, will open the conference as keynote speaker. He is an award-winning lecturer on communication and media who has more than 40 years’ teaching experience in subjects ranging from high-speed reading techniques to literature, communication theory, media, culture, and Egyptology.
Dr. McLuhan is also deeply involved in the exploration of media ecology and communications, and will discuss the relevance of his late father’s controversial and prophetic theories, and explore the ways in which the idea that the “medium is the message” and that we are a part of a “global village” affects digital media business models and strategies today.
“The Banff Centre is known for inspiring visionary leaders, and convening trailblazing researchers and ground-breaking artists. We are delighted to work with Jumpwire Media in bringing Eric McLuhan among the top minds from the media, entertainment, mobile, advertising and distribution industry together to participate in Crossmedia Banff,” said Banff Centre president Jeff Melanson in a release.
The conference will also feature a special presentation by his son, Andrew McLuhan, who will preview the McLuhan Library, a collection of more than 6,000 notes, texts and books which comprised Marshall McLuhan’s working library. The collection, which will be housed and open to the public at the University of Toronto’s Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, shows Marshall’s entry to the study of media and communications through the works of literature he studied, providing a record of his intellectual development and maturity.
Other speakers slated to appear at Crossmedia Banff 2013 include:
- Trevor Doerksen, CEO and Founder, Mobovivo
- Brian Eoff, data scientist, Bitly
- Candice Faktor, general manager, Wattpad
- Guy Gal, founder of Kingmaker
- Deborah Hall, head of mobile, Torstar Digital
- Asif R. Khan, founder and president, TheLBMA.com
- Dr. Rhonda McEwen, assistant professor, University of Toronto, Institute of Communication, Culture and Information Technology,
- Gavin McGarry, founder, Jumpwire Media
- Shahrzad Rafati, founder, BroadbandTV Corp.
Additional speakers will be announced in the coming weeks.
For more conference and registration information, visit www.crossmediabanff.com.
