National Digital Media Day: A Metro Vancouver Tour

It’s here! Today is National Digital Media Day and I’m going to be embarking on a tour of Metro Vancouver, stopping at various points to live blog and promote digital media in our region. Why am I doing this you may ask?

… As you may know, there is wide speculation that the federal government may not renew the $14.5 million Canada New Media Fund (CNMF) when it’s current contract expires on March 31, 2009. You may have read about this issue on the front page of Saturday’s Globe and Mail.

The annual $14 million CNMF, administered by Telefilm, supports new media and Internet-based content creation and marketing activities. The loss of this fund has far-reaching implications for New Media BC’s membership and the BC Digital Media industry as a whole…

… It is of the utmost importance that the Canadian government supports domestic creators of Digital Media content so that our exciting industry may continue to flourish in a province rich with innovation, new ideas, and intellectual property. New Media BC and the CIAIC will continue work on your behalf to ensure our collective concerns are heard. [Ning]

I’ll be picking up Raul and then heading to Ricky’s at Central City in Surrey for some hearty breakfast. If you’re in the vicinity and would like to join us feel free to stop by around 9:00am.

We’ll be collecting items for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank all day, which we’ll be dropping off this afternoon so please help us load up the Zipcar with donations. Rumour has it Buck Pierce and the Grey Cup will also be at the Vancouver Food Bank today at 2:30pm in preparation for Tackle Hunger this weekend.

From there we’ll head to Burnaby for some coffee (location to be determined, check the live blog once it’s going.)

There is also a “Kiss” event taking place at a secret location, meet up at the Art Gallery at 11:30am to find out where to be for this national smooch.

We’ll the be at Salt in Gastown for lunch at 1:00pm. Farmstead Wines will be there with some tasty samples.

After downtown we’re going to cruise over to Richmond (location suggestions are still open!) and wrap it up back over on the North Shore (do you think Waves would be the best pit stop there?).

We’ll then head to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank to drop off donations, then I’ll take Raul to the Vancouver Blogger Meetup before heading to my live blog for the Keall Foundation. Please join us along our route today, either in person or on the blog.

Our travels today are made possibly by Zipcar. If you would like to sign up today, please use this special Miss604 reader discount link where you will receive an annual membership for just $30.