The second Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum (DELF) got underway with breakfast at the Cyberport Arcade. All images © 2005 Hong Kong Cyberport Management Co. Lt. All rights reserved.

Cyberport is as futuristic as its name implies. The 59-acre digital IT hub on the southern coast of Hong Kong Island is an intricately planned coexistence of gleaming commercial and entertainment facilities with pristine residential complexes surrounded by an organically manicured park-like setting. Virtually every nook and cranny is interwoven with the latest technologies — audio-visual displays pepper the premises, smartcards and interactive kiosks provide an interface to shopping and business, and all flavors of telecommunications are represented. Step into Cyberport, and you step into the future of digital city living. At U.S. $2 billion, this flagship project is an unquestionable symbol of Hong Kong’s determination to become the digital city for the region. It is also an interesting embodiment of the decisions facing the region’s digital entertainment industry.

Through the veins of any digital city course substantial opportunities in content creation, distribution and consumption. It is as vested in offering the goods as it is in connecting consumers to receive them, with a particular advantage in interactive content such as games and interactive television. A well-designed infrastructure can reach beyond local borders into other consumer markets. The same infrastructure can be equally viable in offering international companies the latest tools and technologies alongside trained employees to man the switches. Content creation can often be better served in a high technology environment, where development can be streamlined and distances and time zones cease to be deterrents. But while technology and infrastructure provide some level of universality, content does not translate across borders as readily. Does the digital world offer content creators an edge in the entertainment industry or are story and content truly abstracted from technology?

Keynote speaker Jun Tang of Shanda Interactive declared that online games are a cultural business.

Francis Ho of the Government of Hong Kong SAR and Nicholas Yang of Cyberport welcomed a second forum of international guests to the Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum (DELF) to chew on the issues facing the digital entertainment industry and to shed some light on future paths. As a one-day conference the organizers gathered a solid sampling of digital entertainment expertise across film, animation, special effects, online and mobile games, audio, ITV and themed attractions. Although the role of digital technology in content creation and distribution was prevalently discussed, the intriguing insights came from the natural juxtaposition of the 15 international speakers who gave a strong voice to distinct consumer values and preferences from different parts of the world.

Interactive TV and Multiple Platforms
Interactive television (ITV) took center stage as four of the 15 speakers shared their respective headway into this relatively young market. Frank Boyd, creative director at Unexpected Media in the U.K., discussed the time spent researching how and why people use technology, and in particular, how and where people use their TVs. In the U.K., he noted, TVs tend to be in the living room and in Italy they tend to be in the kitchen. PCs in the U.K., he added, are often tucked into a cupboard or in an empty space under the stairs. What begins as seemingly innocuous viewing habits actually leads to relevant questions about the context of use. Are living room viewers watching by themselves or is the whole family tuned in? Which forms of interactive entertainment, therefore, are best suited for an individual and which for group participation? If everyone is in the kitchen, are people too busy eating or cooking to even bother interacting with the TV?