CENTER FOR COMPUTATION & TECHNOLOGY

Baton Rouge, La. - Business, government and nonprofit leaders have aligned to create the Baton Rouge Area Digital Industries Consortium, a group that will seek to leverage the burgeoning digital entertainment industry into a larger economic driver for the region.

The consortium is made of the Mayor-President's Office, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber and LSU.

“All of these organizations came together and said growing the digital media industry in the Baton Rouge area is important to us from an economic development perspective, and we want to work together to make it happen,” said Stacey Simmons, the consortium's first executive director.

As LSU's Center for Computation and Technology director for special projects, Simmons was co-creator of the Red Stick International Animation Festival. In the past three years, the festival has lured hundreds of animators and video game developers to Baton Rouge every April.

All consortium partners are sponsors of the festival, and members of those groups, looking for more ways to promote digital industry development in Baton Rouge, formed the consortium.

“The Consortium is important because it allows us to be a partner in a very vibrant and growing industry,” said East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Melvin “Kip” Holden. “It allows us to showcase this city and parish to let people know not only in the state and the nation, but also around the world, that we have quality here, that we are going forth and we are not willing to take a backseat to anybody.”

Members of the consortium will work together to attract more digital media businesses to Baton Rouge, building on the early success of the animation festival and state tax credits targeted to digital media companies that are similar to the film tax credits that have drawn movie production to Louisiana.

“Louisiana is one of the only states in the country that has an incentive solely focused on the digital media industry. We want to make the most of our competitive advantage in this area and work to grow this stable, knowledge-based industry in our region,” said Stephen Moret, president of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber.

The consortium will promote the area for video game design, animation rendering and all other digital businesses that are sweeping the world with the advance of electronic devices and the Internet. The consortium also plans to develop programs to train people for jobs in the digital industries.

Simons feels Baton Rouge is poised for success in the digital industries. Several video game development companies have already located to the city, and the consortium is actively recruiting filmmakers, digital rendering, game publishers and other digital media companies to bring their businesses to Baton Rouge.

“Ten years from now, I want Baton Rouge to be a digital media Mecca,” Simmons said. “All these plans are in the works, and I think we are going to be very successful. Baton Rouge is going to be synonymous with digital media.”