More than 300 students, professors and industry professionals from across the Nutmeg State participated in the 2019 Digital Media CT Summit held at UConn’s Stamford campus in late September.

The one-day gathering of experts in digital media is an annual highlight of Digital Media Connecticut, a statewide initiative created to support a talent pipeline by connecting K-12 students, higher education, and industry professionals through speaker events. The program is organized by UConn’s Digital Media & Design  department and funded with a $150,000 grant from the Connecticut Economic Resource Center in collaboration with the Connecticut Office of Film, Television, and Digital Media.

“We are working to build an initiative that connects industry, higher education, and K-12 institutions. This state has tremendous potential in digital media and there are exciting things already underway,” says Matthew Worwood, associate director of Digital Media & Design in Stamford and co-principal investigator on the grant. “If successful, everyone interested in film, television, and digital media will find something of value from our effort.”

The 2019 Summit was Digital Media Connecticut’s largest event to date and featured keynote remarks from George Barrios, co-president of WWE; Carlota Charles, user interface/user experience (UI/UX) designer with Cigna Health and KC Lathrop, program manager of CIO Design Operations at IBM; and two industry panels on UI/UX Design and Content Design.

Attendees had the opportunity to participate in hands on IBM Design Thinking workshops and students, professors, and industry professionals broke into small groups to walk through a user’s problem step by step, led by IBM CIO Design designers. UConn was represented at the summit by faculty, students and alumni.

“I think the most rewarding part of the summit was seeing so many students and industry professionals from across the state in one room,” says Cat Boyce SFA ‘15, ’19, Digital Media Connecticut’s coordinator. “We had students from six universities, three high schools, and one middle school. I’m looking forward to seeing the DMCT effort continue to grow and see how we can continue to build a pipeline and help students enter the digital media industry in Connecticut.”

Cindy Chin SFA ‘15 and Garrett Hourihan SFA ‘97, both of IBM, led workshops. Hourihan earned a bachelor’s in Illustration and a minor in graphic design and with more than 21 years of working experience in the creative field today is the senior UX/UI visual designer at IBM CIO Design. Chin, who earned a bachelor’s in Web & Interactive Media Design, has spent the past four years working as a UX/UI designer at IBM CIO Design.

Heather Elliott-Famularo, head of UConn Digital Media & Design and co-principal investigator for the grant says this year’s summit is an example of what UConn is doing to assist building Connecticut’s creative economy.

“We know that we and the other universities in Connecticut are graduating talented digital media creators, but we collectively need to do a better job of showcasing their skills and helping connect students and graduates with employers,” she says. “This event was an excellent move forward in this direction, and I look forward to seeing more companies grow and move into the state through the strength of the Digital Media Connecticut initiative.”

“The Digital Media Connecticut Summit was a really great experience,” says Chris Janocha, a senior game design major in Digital Media & Design at the Storrs campus, in describing his experience at the summit. “Aside from the benefit of being in the same space as so many innovators in this field, there were a lot of informative panels and a helpful workshop that I really enjoyed.”

To learn more about Digital Media Connecticut, including other upcoming events, visit www.digitalmediact.com. The website was created by UConn Students through the UConn Digital Media & Design Digital Experience Lab (DX Lab) which explores the cutting edge of digital experience design.