The Future Media Lab. aims to help media professionals explore new opportunities to develop their business. Innovative ways of funding quality journalism and other media projects are one way to achieve the extra bit needed, as many examples across Europe prove already today.
It is not easy to introduce new ideas, products and services in today’s media industry: there is always a lack of funds and issues with market acceptance. Crowdfunding can help tackle these problems.
The Future Media Lab., in cooperation with the European Crowdfunding Network and the European Magazine Media Association, has published a “Crowdfunding Guide for Media Professionals” to serve as an introduction to how crowdfunding works and how it can be applied within the media industry.
In addition, the Future Media Lab. runs a series of highly interactive, inspirational and educative Crowdfunding Workshops that aim to bring participants up to speed on how to use crowdfunding within their own business context.
We currently do not have any workshops scheduled. Please check back at a later date or contact us for more information.
Following the Future Media Lab. conference in Ghent in November 2012 on “creative funding for creative media” a team within the Future Media Lab. network worked on developing a one-day workshop format on “crowdfunding for media companies”.
Generally, crowdfunding is a very simple way to collect money and to test innovative ideas on the market: when putting out a project idea to the public via so-called crowdfunding platforms (online) you will see immediately if people like your idea or not. In the best case they are even willing to fund the project. In addition to needing a project that is attractive, it is useful to have a community at hand that trusts you. In this respect, media brands are very well positioned.
While crowdfunding is a well-known and widely used concept in the US for asking stakeholders/citizens/readers/users/friends to fund specific projects in media (i.e. magazine launch; investigative article; film project etc.), in Europe this approach is practically unknown. One of the reasons is that the legislative framework in most EU Member States is currently not fit for crowdfunding purpose. But thanks to lobbying activities of our workshop partner the European Crowdfunding Network, the legislative environment is currently being shaped at EU level in order to boost crowdfunding across Europe.
The Future Media Lab. is therefore starting a series of workshops while these changes are taking place in order to allow media companies to embrace these new opportunities. The aim is to show to media professionals how this innovative way of financing could also be used by “traditional” media companies. The workshop is run by crowdfunding experts and lawyers. It is tailor-made for media people (magazines, newspapers, digital, TV, radio, film…). The workshop is interactive and based on case study. It is designed in a way that participants have a good understanding of how crowdfunding works, for what kind of projects it is appropriate and, by the time the workshop finishes, they should be equipped to start their own crowdfunding activity. They will receive a crowdfunding guide with practical information for crowdfunding in media companies.
The workshop aims to attract strategic thinkers of media companies from all areas, people involved in business development and innovation and in particular the ones that want to start a new project but don’t know how to fund it. As the workshop is practical, it makes sense for people to attend who are going to use this concept in their company.
Oliver Gajda
This workshop will be run by Oliver Gajda, the cofounder and chairman of the European Crowdfunding Network in Brussels. Oliver is a hands-on operational and strategy consultant focusing on innovative and open businesses. A former journalist, he started his career in the early 1990s in the publishing and business information industries at a subsidiary of Deutscher Fachverlag and moved later to the UK where he worked, amongst others, for Euromoney Institutional Ivestor. The past decade, Oliver has worked with venture capital, microfinance, technology and social entrepreneurship in both commercial and non-profit settings in Europe and the USA. Oliver is an Executive Committee member of CF50 Inc., the New York-based global think tank on crowdfunding. Oliver holds Masters degrees from Solvay Business School and from the University of Hamburg and studied at SEESS (UCL) in London.