As the new media community winds down from the Convergencetv.com conference in Toronto, the East Coast is gearing up for its own celebration of multimedia and the Internet. The Baddeck International New Media Festival (formerly known as the Atlantic Digital Media Festival) will take place in Cape Breton, n.s., Oct. 19-21.

The festival will bring together multimedia producers, developers, distributors and animators, as well as broadcasters, educators, publishers, telecommunications and cable professionals, industry suppliers, film and video producers, investors and government representatives to both honor new media and discuss the industry’s future.

This is the festival’s fourth year, and in past editions it has attracted an international contingent including delegates from Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland, South America and the u.s. Some of the influential industry players who have attended the event have represented companies such as The Walt Disney Studios, DreamWorks, aol, TV Globo, ictv and Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios.

One of the most popular features of the festival is an awards ceremony which doles out 30 prizes plus honorable mentions for websites, disk-based shows and animation products. Excellence will be recognized, both nationally and internationally, in the following areas: sales, marketing and promotions; education, information and training; entertainment; and personal and independent projects.

The Telefilm Canada New Media Award will be presented at the festival. The $5,000 cash award is open to Canadian incorporated companies with 250 employees or less and encompasses non-promotional original entertainment or educational new media products for the Web or cd/dvd completed and made available to the public between Oct. 1, 1999 and Sept. 1, 2000.

New awards include the Atlantic Industry New Media Prizes ($2,000 and $1,000), sponsored by cbc and Eastlink Communications, and a $5,000 scholarship sponsored by Halifax’s Telecom Applications Research Alliance. Deadline for awards submissions is Sept. 1.

The three-day program also consists of new media screenings, demonstrations, displays, workshops, pitch sessions, keynote speakers and interactive panel sessions with industry leaders. The workshops are titled ‘Digital Story Telling – The Passion and the Process,’ and they will explore the areas of creativity, technology and business, with emphasis on e-commerce and online merchandising. *

-www.baddeckfest.com