X Media Lab Founder, Brendan Harkin, Receives Prestigious China Creative Industries Award
Internationally acclaimed creative think-tank, X Media Lab, has over the last seven years established itself as a digital media industry icon. In recognition of his contribution to China’s industry, the company’s founder, Brendan Harkin, has been awarded the International Contribution Award at the Fifth China Creative Industry Awards.
(Vocus/PRWEB) November 22, 2010
When Brendan Harkin established X Media Lab at the Sydney Opera House, his objective was clear: to create an international, industry-led forum that brings together the world’s outstanding creatives, executives and power-brokers to work as mentors with local companies on their own creative project ideas.
His commitment to this goal has now been acknowledged in China at the Fifth China Creative Industry Awards.
It has just been announced that Harkin is the recipient of the prestigious International Contribution Award, organized by the China Copyright Centre, the International Culture and Creative Industry Expo (ICCIE) and China Guanghua Foundation.
The Creative Industry Awards are the most authoritative and powerful public interest awards in China. Their aim is to promote and develop the creative industries in China and to showcase China’s creative talents -- tens of thousands of companies, hundreds of industrial parks and fifty cities in ten provinces are involved.
The winners of the National Awards included He Jingtang, the designer of the China Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo; Han Sanpin, the CEO of the China Film Group; Yu Peixia, the Chairman of the China Animation Association; the renowned architect of traditional Chinese environmental building, Li Meizong; and famous film directors, games developers, and artists.
In accepting his award, Harkin said “The creative industries, which underpin every industry, are China’s next great stage of development. It’s a privilege and an honor to be recognized for X Media Lab’s contribution to this dynamic industry.”
As a timely illustration of this involvement is the X Media Lab Beijing: Immersive Media, which is being held 25-26 November 2010.
It is the seventh event the company, which is represented in China with offices in Beijing and Shanghai, has conducted in China. Previous Labs have included ‘Digital and Virtual Economies’, ‘Wealth of Animation’, ‘Serious Games’ and the ‘China Animation Market’.
X Media Lab Beijing: Immersive Media
Being held at the China Science and Technology Museum, “X Media Lab Beijing: Immersive Media” will explore the unlimited potential of ‘immersive media’ to improve:
Education
Training
Science
Entertainment
Business
Art
X Media Lab Beijing: Immersive Media is the first event in an international touring program of exhibitions and public participation in immersive media. It is comprised of two parts -- the Conference Day on November 25 (General Admission) and then an invitation-only, round-table discussion on ‘The Potential of Immersive Media for China’s Future’.
X Media Lab Bejing - Key Partners
The success the X Media Lab platform is in no small part a result of the development of strong partnerships that the company develops with local government, educational and industry organizations. Its partners for the upcoming Immersive Media event in Beijing are:
The Ministry of Culture Chinese Association of Science and Technology China Science and Technology Museum Haidian District Government Zhongguancun Science Park Tsinghua University Communications University China Renmin University Zhonghai Serious Games Research Lab X Media Lab - World Focus
X Media Lab plays an active role in the creative and digital media industries worldwide. It creates high-value networks among the emergent digital media markets of China, India and the Middle East, and North and South Asia.
The company has an enviable reputation for assisting local companies to get their ideas successfully to market by connecting them directly with the world’s leading digital media practitioners.
With dedicated industry-focused staff and offices around the world, it is ideally situated for the delivery of information on emerging trends in this dynamic industry.
About Brendan Harkin
Brendan Harkin is Director of X Media Lab which he founded in June 2003.
He has held a number of high profile positions in new media industry development: founding the first Asia Pacific Multimedia Festival; and as Australia's first General Manager for Public Awareness at the National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) and was awarded an “Australia Day National Gold Medal” by the Australian Government for his services.
Brendan’s most recent honours include:
Awarded The Fifth China Creative Industry Award Awarded the “International Contribution Award” at the Fifth China Creative Industry Awards International Jury Member for the Interactive Emmy Awards held at MIPTV in Cannes Appointed “Foreign Expert Advisor” to the Beijing municipal government on Digital Media industry development Appointed Visiting Professor to Beijing Culture and Language University Consultant to the Suzhou Industrial Park on Animation industry development Named as one of the “Top Ten Most Influential People” in the Australian Digital Media industries Named as one of the “50 Most Influential Australians in Asia” by the NY-based Advance Organization Panellist at the 4th Al Jazeera Media Summit in Doha
In the past year he has been an invited international speaker at many creative industries events around China including the ICCIE Summit in Beijing, the inaugural "Academic Alliance of International Cultural Industries" at the Communications University Beijing, the Animation Summit in Xi’an, the Creative Industries Forums at Foshan, Shangdong, Wuhu and Shenyang, the Games Forum in Zhonghsan, and the Creative Industries Festival Week in Shanghai.
Brendan combines his involvement in the Digital Media industries with an academic background in philosophy, and was awarded a Doctoral Scholarship by the University of Melbourne where he studied ‘philosophy and technology’.
He has consulted to the United Nations Committee on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the European Union’s EUROPRIX initiative, most of Australia’s leading creative industries and media agencies; and has served as an Advisory Board Member to a large number of digital media, cultural, and technology events throughout Asia.
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