Three Concordians travelled to Munich in mid-October to participate in Medientage, an annual event in the Bavarian capital.

It’s a showcase for media education, representating all the German media, from print to electronic to multi-media to cinema, through kiosques and panel discussions.

Christopher Jackson, Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, gave a presentation on Hexagram, a consortium of academic and industry-related research in new media, of which he was until recently interim president. Dennis Murphy, Executive Director, University Communications, and Associate Professor, Department of Communication Studies, gave a presentation on media and questions of ethics.

Amely Jurgenliemk, Administrator, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, gave a talk on the cinema program at Concordia and options for professionals.

All three took part in a panel discussion on the state of media education in Quebec, and arranged for exchanges of interns and faculty in media studies with Bavaria. Medientage 2003 will feature a Quebec day on media training with universities, private training academies and professional representations from documentary and animation producers.

The other three Quebec presenters at Medientage were Michel Desjardins, of Groupe Image Buzz, a special effects company, and Quebec Animafix, a consortium of 17 independent animation production groups; Louise Spickler, of the Institut National de l’Image et du Son (INIS), a private academy; and Jean-Pierre Desaulnier, Département de communications, UQAM.

Assistance for this trip was provided by the Ministry of International Relations, Quebec Office in Munich, and by Marie Labelle, Montreal officer for international projects with the Quebec Ministry of Culture and Communications.

For more on Medientage, see http://www.medientage-muenchen.de/.