Advisory Board Meetings & Reports

MEI Region 10
New Media Industry Advisory Council

Thursday, February 10, 2005
11:00AM-2:00PM
Four Points Sheraton Hotel
San Diego, CA 92123

 

MEI Region 10 Industry Advisory Council Meeting Report

 

Thank you to all participants in the 2005 Regional Industry Advisory Council Meeting for the Multimedia & Entertainment Initiative. Within the California Community College system, Region 10 includes San Diego and Imperial Valley Counties. The community colleges served by this industry advisory council meeting include: MiraCosta College, Palomar College, San Diego Miramar College, San Diego Mesa College, San Diego City College, San Diego Continuing Education, Cuyamaca College, Grossmont College, Southwestern College, Imperial Valley College. The purpose of this meeting is to give a real-world snapshot from industry to educators.

 

The meeting was held on February 10, 2005 at the Sheraton Four Points Hotel, 8110 Aero Drive, San Diego, CA 92123 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

 

In attendance were:

Adine Merkin, EDS
Alfonso Saballett, San Diego Mesa College
Angie Ruiz, Imperial Valley College
Anita Sugar, Palomar College
Augusto Sandroni, San Diego Continuing Education
Bernadette Kubacki, San Diego Continuing Education
Bill Craft, San Diego Mesa College
Carolyn O'Barr, San Diego Continuing Education
Cassie Morton, San Diego City College
Cees Molenaar, JobSummit
Cheryl Mason, EDD
Chris Reardon, Corporate Strategies Group
Cynthia Scott, MEI Region 10
Denise Lee Yohn, Denise Lee Yohn Agency
Diane Kew, Cuyamaca College
Gary Chapman, Imagix Studios
Gary Moss, San Diego Workforce Partnership
Gina Concotelli, Employee Training Institute (Eti)
Gina Opilas, Greyhound Lines Inc.
Glenn DeLange, MiraCosta College
Gracie Fowler, Palomar College
James Miller, Palomar College
Janet Gelb, Grossmont College
Jean Cameron, City of San Diego Planning Department
Jeannette Gojny, Palomar
Jeff Uhlik, MiraCosta College
Jill Baker, San Diego Mesa College
Jill Malone, MiraCosta College
Jim Hotz, Grossmont College
Jim Vincent, San Diego Continuing Education
Joan Stroh, Southwestern College
Jodi Reed, Cuyamaca College
John Avakian, EWD Multimedia & Entertainment Initiative
John Grimshaw, Admanium Inc.
Kate Reifers, That Technical Bookstore
Kathleen Lopez, Southwestern College
Kathy McCurdy, San Diego Film Commission
Keva Dine, The Keva Dine Agency Inc.
Lillian Payn, Palomar College
Lowell Waxman, City of San Diego Public Library
Lynda Reeves, San Diego Continuing Education
Lynda Warner, San Diego Continuing Education
Lynda Weinman, Lynda.com
Margie Fritch, San Diego Mesa College
Mariane Gibson, Greenflash
Mary Thigpen, City of Chula Vista
Michael Wilson, Cuyamaca College
Mike Hampson, Interactive Multimedia Certificate Program
Monica Falk, Illumina
Neil Moura, MiraCosta College
Paul Burlingame, Qualcomm
Paul Norman, Discreet
Paul Richard, San Diego Continuing Education
Reginald Watson, Sony Inc.
Ric Matthews, Miracosta College
Rick Corlett, School of Digital Media & Design Kearny High
Rick Wagner, Green Bird Media
Robin Carvajal, Employee Training Institute (Eti)
Sarah Halstead, Employee Training Institute (Eti)
Steve Hensley, Producer/Writer
Susan Rust, Green Bird Media
Susan Schwarz, San Diego Mesa College
Terrie Canon, Palomar College
Terry Schulenburg, Apple Computer Inc.
Thomas Paine, Imperial Valley College
Tim Ryan, Apple Computer Inc.
Tina Walker, San Diego County Dept of Public Works
Valerie Edinger, San Diego Continuing Education
Valerie Rodgers, Imperial Valley College
Winston Butler, San Diego City College

 

The meeting began with greetings and a chance for community college educators from throughout the region to meet colleagues from other colleges and mix with regional industry members.

 

Cynthia Scott, Multimedia & Entertainment (MEI) Initiative Director for Region 10 called the meeting to order with a presentation about the Economic and Workforce Development (EWD) program based in the state Chancellor’s Office in Sacramento, the various EWD initiatives including MEI, and how the MEI program serves community colleges in San Diego and Imperial Valley Counties.

 

John Avakian, the Statewide Director for MEI, then addressed the audience about the new curriculum database hosted at the College of San Mateo. The database lists all the multimedia-related classes and programs offered at community colleges in California. It is a self-entered database, and it is very easy to register and enter programs. Mr. Avakian encouraged audience members to enter their programs on the site.

 

A link to the curriculum database is available from the California Community Colleges’ Economic and Workforce Development website, www.cccewd.net/resource.cfm?i=7. Or, go directly to the database at www.smccd.net/accounts/curriculum/.

 

Within the table packets for each participant was a copy of three industry reports relevant to the multimedia and entertainment industry. The reports are available online for downloading:

 

1.The 2005 Horizon Report from the New Media Consortium based in Austin, Texas.
www.newmediacenter.org/horizon/index.shtml

2.The 2005 Aquent Salary Survey
www5.marketingsalaries.com/aquent/index.html

3.The Entertainment Economy Report
www.cccewd.net/resource.cfm?i=7

During lunch, participants at each of the tables engaged in discussion about current experiences and future trends in technology. The table seating was designed to mix educators with industry members, and to mix educators from various parts of the region. The compiled results are at the end of this document.

 

After lunch, Cees “Case” Molenaar, from JobSummit, and Gary Moss, from the San Diego Workforce Partnership, gave a presentation on Industry and Employment Trends in the region. They gave an overview from the employers’ point of view, and regional economic trends including research and opinions from:

 

Brent Altomar, Groovy Like A Movie
Dave Menkes, Sony
Nanci Rossi, SignDiego
Tracy Bucherre, Dakota Group
JobSummit and San Diego WorkForce Partnership staff
CGChannel.com and siggraph.org

 

Next, Lynda Weinman spoke about her experiences in the industry, and reported on the significant technological advancements coming out in Tiger, the new Macintosh operating system. Lynda Weinman’s company has developed a new service for community college educators, which is a bulk account to allow multiple users to access her online training library that can be administered at the local level.
For Region 10, the MEI grant has purchased a 25-user account at Lynda.com that can be used on a monthly basis by educators for professional development. Some participants signed up at the meeting for access to the bulk account. Other faculty (contract and adjunct) can request access by sending an email to Cynthia Scott, cscott@sdccd.edu with faculty name, college affiliation, email address and phone number.

 

Finally, Kate Reifers from That Technical Bookstore explained the story of how the home-grown technical bookstore went through several locations and transformations and has ended up at 8909 Complex Drive, San Diego CA 92123, 858-614-4323. She brought a poster showing the best-sellers at Qualcomm, their biggest client, to show trends at that leading company. Also, she brought a gift certificate as a door prize to give away.

 

Announcements from the floor included faculty openings at MiraCosta and Cuyamaca.

 

Cynthia Scott then thanked participants for attending and collected the Predictions and Future Trends reports from each table. Here are the results of the table conversations. Note: not all tables answered each question.

 

Advisory Council Meeting: 2005 Predictions and Future Trends

February 10, 2005

 

 

1.In your opinion, what programs/software should be taught in a multimedia certificate program?

 

Table 1 —Broad range of skills: Quark, Photoshop, Illustrator, Final Cut Pro, InDesign (dovetails with e-publishing) Adobe Acrobat, After Effects, Dreamweaver, Flash, iDVD Studio Pro

 

Table 2—Flash, Illustrator, FinalCut Pro, Photoshop, Page layout (Quark and InDesign), Premiere… New Media is no longer “new” and the term “multimedia” is too vague.

 

Table 3 —focus on the basics: Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash. The advanced track: Director, Audio/Video tools, object-oriented programming.

 

Table 4—Accessibility, Final Cut, Motion, Flash-advanced, HTML, Corel, Photoshop, QuickTime, CDMA, Perl, Action Scripting, Dreamweaver, Cold Fusion, Image Ready, AfterEffects, 3D Studio Max, Acrobat

 

Table 5—Sony products, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere

 

Table 6 — Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, Director, Final Cut or Premiere, After Effects or Motion, GarageBand or ?

 

Table 7—Everyone should take Photoshop, Macromedia Suite, survey class of each tool and terminology, Cleaner and web streaming, then specialize in a specific track. Also should include How To Tell a Story. Suggest a class at the end that discusses the portfolio, job search, interview and cover letter.

 

Suggested curriculum tracks

Game Art: 3D animation, 3DS Max, 2D animation Adobe Photoshop, Fine Art classes, team skills, understanding how the development pipeline works, creating a portfolio and demo reel, storytelling.

 

Programming skills: C++.

 

Film and Visual: Compositing, After Effects, Combustion, Cleaner, Editing software (Premiere/Final Cut Pro), 3D Animation-3DS Max, Scripting, Fine Art and Adobe products.

 

 

2.From your point of view, what is the state of the local job market for entry-level multimedia workers (web design, video and sound production, print)?

 

Table 1 —web design, video and sound production are stronger; print is flatter; municipal—good ; multimedia design firm—good (need fluency and background in all three (web design, video and sound production, plus print); work on people skills and organization skills; project management type of skills; work on grammar.


Table 2—Gaming is hot. Motion Graphics versus Film and Sound people; must bring whatever skill sets to the job; never multimedia AND entry-level together.

 

Table 3 —was great, then awful, now starting to come back.

 

Table 4—Jobs are there, but a lot of people are competing for those jobs. Certification is important, it goes a long way (industry certification versus Associate Degree); in conjunction with non-multimedia training like hardware and software issues.

 

Table 5—good, but pay is lower than other market regions; a lot of animation jobs; difficult to get jobs without experience, but non-paying internships difficult because cost of living; need to develop paid internships via education/industry partnerships.


3.What do you see happening with mobile platform computing

(video to cell phones etc)?

 

Table 1 —more built-in components for wireless; hasn’t reached us much yet; bigger in Asia; equipment needs to withstand more abuse due to mobile nature; must have more durability to find new applications; mostly executives are using it at municipal level.

 

Table 2—Explosion; miniature (nano) technology, phone function is the same, smaller or bigger, must spend money to upgrade.

 

Table 3 —yes, multiple platforms for different phones.

 

Table 4—HUGE!!! Converging technologies, wireless is the driver by student demand; security an issue for wireless.

 

Table 5—multi-function products; SMS and MMS as marketing platforms

 

Table 7—The mobile platform industry will be rapidly growing over the next few years. Students will need to have an understanding about this industry and how it applies to business and game development.

 

 

4.What is the coolest new product/service you’ve heard about?

 

Table 1 —wrist device for phone, video, etc (saw on Today Show); Light Scribe (two layer DVD); flexible screen (portable, attaches to iPod); computer chip that attaches to glasses and projects; iChat AV

 

Table 2—Shuffle (Apple), Apple mini (no bigger than a hard drive) upcoming miniaturization.

 

Table 3 —MPEG4, good advance; iPods.

 

Table 4—Convergence of DVRs-Tivo; iPod—huge potential to deliver multimedia; ten years out—nanotechnology which allows further miniaturization and increased computing power; interactivity on cell phones

 

Table 5—thin cell phone size; small (??) camcorders; (??) viewing now has more content; (??) desktop, indexes all contact on your hard drive; free download; Mac OS 10.4 with search capability on hard drive; Firefox browser; Ricochet cell phone type Internet service

 

Table 6—Tiger—all Apple products

 

Table 7—Breeze and Live Meeting

 

 

5.What technology do you now find indispensable?

 

Table 1 —email; digital messaging, cell phone, laptop, computers, high speed Internet.

 

Table 2—Blackberry-web connected; iChat, IM, for doing business and paying bills; HD TV, MP3s


Table 3 —Tools that enable interactivity, Flash and Director

 

Table 4—Email, Browsing the Internet, Simplification of powerful programs (image manipulation and video editing) for general consumer market)

 

Table 5—satellite radio; Treo phone-email access; Tivo; iPod; cell phone with camera; thumb flash drive;

 

Table 6—Tivo

 

Table 7—Broadband connections; wireless keyboards and mice, wireless; email (conducting projects entirely on email); operating systems (knowing how to troubleshoot it); online learning (that’s how many keep up to date on skills; USB flash drives; DVD burning

 

 

6.What technologies do your students/co-workers find indispensable?

 

Table 1 —cell phones and games, IM, text messaging, much the same

 

Table 3 —email, hand held devices, cell phones

 

Table 4—Email, text messaging, high speed connection

 

Table 6—The Lynda.com library


7.What are your predictions for emerging technologies?

 

Table 1 —marry technologies (i.e. gaming) with educational design and instruction in all aspects of curriculum (academic, character education, etc); SMALL AND FAST! Smaller in scale and fast in capacity; clandestine uses for devices to help others with skills i.e. language support

 

Table 3 —more mobile tools and super fast Internet; nanotechnology; smaller, all-in-one devices that do everything; completely wireless campus

 

Table 4—Convergence, cell phone, video, content, wireless and mobile, smaller and faster

 

Table 6—More capabilities, faster and easier integration.

 

Table 7—more e-learning; cell phones adding new features; PDAs with all different services (music, phone, Internet, photos); voice over IP; communicating with computers.