Friday, February 13, 2009

Q&A

Schupbach to help Mass. score with games, film industries

By Brendan Lynch

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Jason Schupbach has been tasked by Gov. Deval Patrick to bring as much attention to the companies in the Massachusetts “creative economy” as those in traditionally strong tech sectors like biotech or software. To do that, Schupbach was named the state’s first creative economy industry director at the Massachusetts Office of Business Development. He spoke with Mass High Tech staff writer Brendan Lynch about video games, movie technology and other creative industries.

Schupbach: What the governor did when he created the creative economy director position, he said, You know what? The creative industry — film; television; design, very broadly defined; video gaming; advertising; digital media — all of those businesses in the state are every bit as important to the economic development in the state as what some people might consider the more traditional sectors — manufacturing, IT, life sciences, clean energy, all those sectors.There’s a ton of (creative economy) companies — about 70 video game development companies, about 38,000 designers, in the state, tons of different film companies. I think we had a $2.3 billion digital marketing industry. These are significant industries that we really weren’t doing anything to reach out to. We weren’t paying specific attention to them and making sure they understood what the state has to offer, business development-wise.
My job, at the most basic level, is to make sure all those companies that we haven’t been talking to, we are talking to, and I’m helping them either grow (or) stabilize. It’s all about job creation and job retention. That’s the point of the Office of Business Development, that’s what we’re measured on.

MHT: Talk about the growth potential for the local gaming industry.
Schupbach: I think there’s enormous potential. We have the fourth-largest development community in the country. In the middle of the economic crisis, last November, video gaming had its most successful month ever. It’s a $50 billion industry now, so I think we’re going to continue to see growth. There are video game companies locally that are still hiring. There’s probably 50 to 100 positions open at any time.

MHT: Are you a gamer yourself?
Schupbach: I’ve been known to play Rock Band. Who hasn’t? I think everybody on the planet’s played it at this point. (Harmonix) just signed their first-ever licensing deal with the Beatles, too, which is very exciting. That’s going to make my mom want to play it.

MHT: How does your office plan to help grow the local video game industry?
Schupbach: I think there’s a lot of great innovative policy work we could be doing to support these industries. I’m not sure what all of those are just yet, because we’re just beginning the conversation. If you look at manufacturing, we’ve been in conversations with manufacturers for hundreds of years, right? There are very solid industry support organizations that work with the industry to help us figure out what our policy should be to help support it. We’re just kind of gearing that up around the creative industries. … It has to come from a collaboration between government, the university system, the businesses themselves, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists — all those people need to be speaking with the government to help us grow the industry.

MHT: How do creative economy companies create and retain jobs in a recession?
Schupbach: It’s different for all of the different industries I’m working for. For the service-based industries — design, advertising — they’re having a tougher time than something more entertainment-based. Entertainment-based industries  — video gaming, film, television — they’re all doing very well right now. People are going to movies, people are buying video games, people are watching TV. Those guys are booming, so it’s a question of, How can we support their growth? For design, advertising and publishing, they’re in a struggle right now, so it’s much more about what we can do the help them retain jobs. Re-trainings — how can we bring their work force up to speed to make sure they’re on the innovative edge of what they should be doing. There’s broader policy issues around what’s affecting design right now — the fact that there are no buildings being built because of the banking crisis.

MHT: How do you plan to encourage entrepreneurship in the gaming industry?
Schupbach: We have a lot of different entrepreneurship resources in the state. The MIT Entrepreneurship Center were some of the first people that actually helped Harmonix. … We have the Massachusetts Office of Small Business Development and Entrepreneurship, which has centers on UMass campuses all over the state. … Making sure (entrepreneurs are) aware that system exists is one of my big jobs right now. There’s a great example of where those folks have been incredibly useful to some young entrepreneurs. Firehose Games, a new company founded by a young guy out of MIT, he needed some assistance with a tax issue. I hooked him up with a Small Business Development Center, got it solved like that (snapped his fingers).

MHT: What about the film industry?
Schupbach: The film industry is interesting because there’s a lot of digital tech industries that surround the film industry. There’s a lot of digital -animation firms, digital special effects firms. A lot of those folks are absolutely booming right now, like Brickyard VFX, which is based here in Boston. I think it’s almost tripled its staff in the last couple of years because of all the film work that’s been coming to the state.  

I think there’s a lot of opportunity with the film studio projects (South Boston Film and Television Center, Southfield Studios in Weymouth and the Plymouth Rock Studios Project) currently under way to create those connections between the films that are going to be coming here and those on-the-ground tech jobs that support films. The more of that background, secondary work on films that happens in the state, the better. 

MHT: What’s your involvement with the three studio projects?
Schupbach: We’re providing all the same typical resources that we provide to all major businesses that are looking to move into the state, like when Bristol Myers-Squibb came — infrastructure funding, help with the zoning process, other business connections or incentives.

MHT: How was the California trip?
Schupbach: We had a lot of incredibly important high-level business meetings. We met with some of the largest information technology companies in the world. We met with one of the largest video game publishers in the world, if not the largest. By that standard, meeting with the CEOs of those companies, it was very successful.