BRUSSELS, Belgium – 19 March 2014 – The Future Media Lab., in cooperation with the European Crowdfunding Network (ECN) and the European Magazine Media Association (EMMA) is organizing a highly interactive and educational Crowdfunding Workshop on 2 April 2014 in Brussels. This one-day workshop is tailored specifically for media professionals in order to learn more about the opportunities crowdfunding presents.
“It’s not easy to introduce new ideas, products and services in today’s media industry,” says Oliver Gajda, co-founder and chairman of the European Crowdfunding Network. “Crowdfunding helps tackle this problem by letting media professionals raise funds, engage their target audience and test the market simultaneously.”
Gajda, who will be running the workshop with guest speaker Leo Exter, the founder of westartup, a community of over 3,500 first-time entrepreneurs, co-founders, mentors and investors, also notes that while crowdfunding is a relatively new concept in Europe there have already been a number of success stories. These include such projects as “De Correspondent”, an independent news site in the Netherlands, and “MATTER”, an online publication specialising in long-form articles about science, technology, medicine and the environment, both of which were realised as a result of crowdfunding initiatives.
Since the global crowdfunding market grew 81% in 2012 to a total funding volume of more than 2 billion euros, it is important to give special attention to this innovative method of funding projects and engaging with audiences.
“Crowdfunding should not only be seen as a way to raise funds for a specific project,” says Max von Abendroth, founder of the Future Media Lab. think-tank initiative and executive director of the European Magazine Media Association. “Rather, it should also be seen as a great way to connect with the audiences that strong media brands already have in order to test new ideas before putting them on the market.”
In addition to the crowdfunding workshops, the Future Media Lab. also recently published a “Crowdfunding Guide for Media Professionals” together with ECN and EMMA. This guide offers an introduction to crowdfunding that is relevant for media companies, as well as information on how to conduct a successful campaign and examples of crowdfunding success stories.[1]
People interested in attending the crowdfunding workshop can register by clicking here.
