DMMA focus on education in digital industry

, a non profit organisation that aims to grow and sustain a vibrant and profitable digital industry, recently announced at its annual convention that this year there would be an increased focus on driving the growth of the industry within a South African context.

The convention, which was held at the Fire & Ice Hotel in Cape Town, laid out the DMMA’s objectives for 2012. “Our goal is to develop and share knowledge, build new skill-sets and enhance and empower a fresh generation of media and marketing thinkers as the industry transforms to digital,” explains Nikki Cockcroft, Chairperson of the DMMA and Head of Online at Woolworths.

In order to meet these goals, the DMMA has laid out its objectives for 2012 as part of a comprehensive strategy which it will be driving through a series of initiatives, including hosting South Africa’s leading digital awards, The Bookmarks, in November this year.

This focus will include:

• ·         Value proposition: The primary focus of the DMMA is to foster a member driven association that engages the nation’s digital community in order to boost industry growth and development.
• ·         Engaging the digital community:  By inviting the digital industry to participate and share their opinion on hot topics being debated on the DMMA social communities such as Facebook and LinkedIn, they aim to encourage industry input and participation in the following DMMA portfolios:

-          DMMA Knowledge Network: This includes launching a Transformation and Training pledge amongst other initiatives. As part of this pledge, members are encouraged to implement internship programmes at their companies to promote the growth of a new generation within the digital landscape.

-          Research: Conducting extensive formal and informal research to be shared with members as part of its annual ‘state of the nation reports’, including monitoring social media industry trends and standardising social media measurement through the sourcing of the various industry stakeholders’ feedback.

-          Measurement: The DMMA will publish a manual of measurement standards that can be used to quantify social media in South Africa.

-          Expansion into Africa: The DMMA is engaging with similar representative digital bodies in Africa to share knowledge and create communication platforms for our members enabling growth beyond our borders.

-          Increasing membership benefits: This includes member discounts for DMMA-endorsed events and training programmes, and collaborating with leading educational institutions to create and implement digital media and marketing training courses.

• ·         Trial Membership opportunity: In order to grow the digital industry in South Africa and support digital start up companies and growing businesses, the DMMA is now offering a free one year, non-voting membership to the Association which aims to encourage these companies to offer their assistance in meeting the DMMA’s objectives of Education and Transformation, foster engagement with those in the digital industry through networking opportunities and to encourage entry into the DMMA’s Bookmark’s Awards.
• ·         Recognition & Reward: This includes growing The Bookmarks awards with a view to recognising and rewarding the best digital work in South Africa. A newly launched award category, “DMMA Greatest company contribution to digital” will be awarded at this year’s November Bookmarks event and will only be eligible to voting and non-voting DMMA members.

“We believe that transformation and training go hand-in-hand; transformation must lead in providing enrichment and skilling to previously disadvantaged communities, while the newness of the digital medium will require ongoing training as the platforms evolve,” concludes Cockcroft.

Companies and individuals interested in getting involved and assisting the DMMA in meeting its objectives are encouraged to join the DMMA Facebook  or LinkedIn communities to stay informed of association activities. Should the company or individual wish to be contacted directly by the DMMA in regards to particular objective’s that they would like to offer their expertise, they are requested to leave a private message on the Facebook Page with their contact details and areas of interest in either of the DMMA portfolios which include measurement, research, education and transformation, agencies or publishers.