Kevin Hnatiuk, Industry Development Entrepreneur

Providing inspiration

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"The difference that I want to make in the world is about providing inspiration, getting that light clicked on in people's heads.

"No, it might not be New Media or it might not be video game development that you're interested in and that might be the thing I happen to be talking about this week or this month.

"But if you see how enthusiastic I am about that topic and you say, "You know what? I'm really enthusiastic about cycling and I want to have that same enthusiasm that Kevin has, about cycling. I want to do that!"; if I can help inspire that, that's my ultimate goal: to help other people find their voice."

Images from my workplace

Where I work

New Media Manitoba (NMM) represents professionals in graphic arts, new media and video production. We have over 350 members who attend and facilitate training sessions on industry related topics.

There are only two employees: myself and my co-founder. Between the two of us, we plan and run all of the sessions with the help of volunteers and other trainers.

New media

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"Interactive Media is, for me, one of the most rewarding industries because it facilitates so many other things and it's part of what everybody needs. Everyone needs the ability to go on-line and do research now and that wasn't something that existed ten or fifteen years ago.

"It's an industry that allows you to create your own path. There are a lot of industries out there that don't. This industry allows you to do so much self-exploration and learn things on your own.

"So if you're a self-starter, you couldn't pick a better industry."

Grassroots model

NMM is unique because we've modeled ourselves around the needs of the New Media Developer. Where other associations focus on larger, macro-type presentations, we offer smaller sessions on micro-topics like Ajax or Ruby on Rails.

We're user-group modeled and community-minded. The user-group model targets the end producer; the people who actually do the work in each of their respective companies. We enjoy the business benefits while promoting the needs of producers.

As a result, developers from competing companies are partnering with one another on larger jobs. It's grassroots, community-focused versus top-down, corporate models.

Work hard, play hard

One of the myths about the New Media industry is that playing video games is the same as making them. It's definitely fun to create new media but it doesn't mean that your day-to-day work is fun. You're very often working long hours and it's hard work.

Typically, a person walks into a new media company and sees a foosball table or video games and their first reaction is that these guys do a lot of playing. I'd say the closest analogy is that you work hard to play hard and successful people in this industry take both work and play seriously.

Challenges

One of the biggest challenges for us is working with a limited amount of funding. I'd like to be able to attend more trade shows and expositions out of province and abroad but we simply don't have the funds.

We need to maintain enough investment dollars so that we can attend important industry events and conferences. So if I could change one part of my job it would be to get more dollars for travel in order to bring more training back home.

Build-it-yourself

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"Living in the neighbourhood that I did, there wasn't a lot of money to go around to buy the latest and greatest.

"There was no keeping up with the Joneses because there were no Joneses on our street. It was build-it-yourself.

"And so I guess I've sort of taken that "hack-it-together" mentality with me where I am today. And working with limited funds has I guess helped me do what I'm doing today."

Entrepreneur vs. 9 to 5

My parents both came from rural Saskatchewan and so they had a very strong farming mentality. My father worked at a government job with the Canadian Wheat Board and my mother was a librarian. Coming from traditional, nine-to-five jobs with benefits, pensions and annual pay increases, I think they wanted the same for me.

Unfortunately, that's not really in my nature. The people I admired the most growing up were all entrepreneurs. They were people who were doing their own thing. And that's what I wanted to do. I've taken a lot of my parents' advice and tried where I can to incorporate it into an entrepreneurial lifestyle.

Stay-at-home parents

My wife and I are stay-at-home parents. We keep home and work life balanced by separating work and life spaces. There's a floor between the household and my office, which is down below. At end of the day, everything gets turned off and I go and I immerse myself in my family.

Whether it's family life or work life, I like to focus my full attention on whatever it is I'm doing at that moment. But when I'm ready to switch it off, it gets switched off.

Time off

My time off usually consists of immersing myself in the new technologies I love to talk about during the day.

I also love going for a ride on my Vespa. I'm an avid scooter enthusiast so I drive my Vespa around town pretty regularly.

One of the other ways I reward myself is to explore the latest gadgets and technology and play video games.

Cost of living

I love many things about living in Manitoba. All of my family are here and I really enjoy all that the province has to offer. The cost of living is one of the major benefits of living in Manitoba.

For example, in addition to my job, I can afford to have other investment projects. I buy properties and rent them out and that's something that I can do in my spare time. Owning a rental property isn't a possibility for many people in other provinces. It's just too expensive.

Varied hours

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"My schedule is pretty flexible because, by the nature of the industry I'm in, I need to be available at different times of the day. So when I say that I work seven-and-a-half to eight hours a day that might not be consecutive hours.

"It's working three hours in the morning and then a two-hour break, or something like that, and then I'll be working for another several hours up into the evening because there's an industry event going on that evening."

Morning workout

My schedule begins with my workout. I get up at around 6-6:30 am and go to the gym before I start my day. This is the foundation of how well my day is going to go. When I don't have that workout, my day breaks apart and I'm not so focused.

That's why I recommend exercising before work, especially to people who sit in front of a computer all day. It wakes up your mind and everything else falls in place. Whether you're answering email or handling phone calls, those tasks just naturally fall into place.

Pace and stress

The pace and stress load of my job depends on the person. I don't consider my job very stressful but that's because I don't let it get stressful.

I'm working for myself and so I have a little more freedom over when I work and how I work. Because I'm not working under anybody I don't have pressure to put out fires. I definitely have to answer to people but I can respond to that in my own way.

I think it really depends on your personality; whether you let things go, or deal with them immediately. I deal with things directly if I'm feeling stress. Otherwise, I go out for a walk, or get on my scooter, or go and visit people working in the industry to remind myself why I do this.

My own boss

One of the biggest sources of stress in my job stems from being my own boss. I have to know when you're taking too much on. That can at times become a little frustrating or feel a little overwhelming.

And other challenges occur when I'm coordinating members, volunteers and other trainers or sponsors and they aren't going about things the way i had hoped. It's sometimes very difficult juggling everyone's expectations and finding a successful or happy conclusion. But I think I do a pretty good job of it.

Always cutting edge

The most creative thing about my day to day work is that it's always different. There are certainly repetitive tasks that I take great comfort in doing because I believe that some repetitive things can help you relax.

But I love the fact that there's always a different training topic. There's always a different trainer that requires new content. I love the fact that I'm always working on something that I feel is very cutting-edge.

Passion for New Media

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"It's very easy to be a Training Coordinator for an association, to just keep carrying that from job to job to job. But I think to be really effective at it, you have to have a passion for the industry that you're in.

"I was just very fortunate that I had a real strong passion for new media and interactive media and I was able to turn that into a Training Coordinator position, something that I enjoy doing on a day-to-day basis.

"It seems obvious: have a passion? Do something you like. It's intangible, but it's true. You just have to really love what you do and the money will flow from it.

"And if the money doesn't flow from it? Well hey, you're doing something you love doing. So what's better than that?"

Entrepreneurial skills

Most of my skills are primarily entrepreneurial. This job involves a lot of listening and then analysing what I've heard to look for an opportunity in that.

More specifically, when I'm doing research for a particular training topic, I need to see the underlying benefits and how it's going to improve the work flow for our members. This kind of thinking is critical to my work.

Communication Skills

- active listening
- excellent written and oral communication

Technical Skills

- advanced computer and software
- Website management

People Skills

- social networking
- presentation and public speaking

Business Skills

- securing funding and financing
- publicity, marketing and industry analysis
- time management

Self-created job

I never planned to have this career. I worked as a project manager, developer and programmer for about nine years before I progressed into this position. Before any of this happened, my co-founder and I had to convince a lot of people that there was even a need for a new media association in Manitoba.

We started out with nothing. I planned the training sessions on a monthly basis and got in contact with vendors who could provide the training materials. After we had established the need for the association, we received funding for our jobs. So my position is self-created. We started from scratch and went from there.

Coordinating sessions

I'm responsible for the planning and execution of our professional training sessions. We evaluate what kinds of training will benefit our members and then select an appropriate industry sponsor for the event.

The sponsor provides training materials and specific direction for my trainer. All of this involves a lot of coordination. From scheduling to choosing particular messages we wish to deliver through the training.

A positive influence

I feel that we're having a positive effect on the Manitoba new media industry. We're helping to promote the province and the industry. We're creating jobs and we're working with people who have a desire for more education and more knowledge.

Professionals attend our training sessions and then partner on jobs together. That's probably the most meaningful part of this for me. It's very satisfying to know that we're actually having a positive influence on new media professionals, their companies and new media in Manitoba.

Greatest accomplishment

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"My greatest accomplishment in the job perspective is facilitating a higher education but not in a university setting and not in a college setting. Facilitating the desire to want to learn.

"A big part of the training that we provide is helping getting people enthusiastic. And when you see that light turn on in people's heads and they do the "A-Ha!", that's my greatest accomplishment.

Enthusiasm

I like to describe myself as a pretty enthusiastic person. If there's one aspect of my personality that has helped me in my career path it would definitely be my enthusiasm. When I take something on, I take it on very passionately.

To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson, "nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." He was absolutely right. It's what carries you through all the challenges. If you want to be successful you have to be enthusiastic about what you're doing.

University

When I went into university after high school it wasn't to plan a specific career path. I went to university because I just thought it was the right thing to do, and that education has been invaluable to me.

I did a Bachelor of Arts in English and Film at the University of Manitoba but I also took Computer Science. I took it to satisfy a Science requirement. Little did I know I'd become so enamoured with it

In addition to university, I took a self-employment program through Meyers Norris Penny and a lot of informal technical and design courses. I've also done a lot of-self-taught or self-explored training. That's how got started in New Media.

Make things

A lot of people ask what kinds of training you need to get into the New Media industry. Well the answer is pretty straightforward: make something. Build a multimedia Flash presentation, create a digital interactive video or build a game.

I believe that once you've done that, or until you've done that, you really can't know if you want to be in this industry. Do that first and then take the courses you need to become somewhat accredited in this industry.

Soft skills

Everyone's looking for experience. But those who don't have experience should have talent or expertise in a specific area - like interactive graphic design for example.

Employers are also looking for passion and business acumen. What I mean by business acumen is: Does the candidate take notes? Do they converse well with the client? Things like that are invaluable.

There are so many people who have great talent but cannot articulate their ideas. Without those skills, people will just stare at you blankly. You may be the most ingenious person in the world but they won't understand you or buy into your ideas if you can't explain yourself.

We've taken off

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"My thoughts about the industry sector and its future in Manitoba are that we've finally taken off.

"It's been a long, hard battle over the last five to ten years. But when you don't have to convince people why they need to develop a web site any more, that's a big relief, because that was frustrating for many, many years.

"And now, with interactive video game development taking off here locally I just see so many people who are going to be migrating from standard Flash and web development into either online games or true console games. And they've got all these skills of interactive media development behind them.

"I think Manitoba is going to do really well and I do believe that."

Learning and exploring

What I want most in life is to continue learning about technology and providing training topics on technology. I also want to able to spend as much time as possible with my family and do fun and creative projects with them.

Those two can even merge as I satisfy both of those needs by bringing technology and my family together. I want to keep getting inspired by the technology that we're creating.

Game development

In five years I plan to be doing what I'm doing now but on a larger scale. For example, there's a strong push here for local for video game development.

I want to be coordinating and reining in game development right here in this province and I want to be facilitating the partnerships and the collaborative groupings between game developers locally and abroad.

Back to school

I'd love to go back to university to take some more courses. I'm very interested in religion; World Religion and Religion and Mythology, in particular. They actually carry over a lot into my framework today.

But I also want to take a lot more technical courses and keep taking things related to Computer Science, web development and video game development. I think that's just part of who I am and what I do on a day-to-day basis and so I want to know about those things.

A new perspective

If there's one thing I could change about the industry in Manitoba is our member's reluctance to partner on projects. If you look around Canada, Alberta, or east or west of us, those places have no problem partnering with one another and feeding work back and forth from different companies.

There's much more of a sense of abundance out there. The people that are really successful at it, and I'll note Frantic Films as an example, know that you have to partner to get a job done and that's how you become really successful. But we'll need a change in perspective and a different mentality in order to achieve this.

Job market info

The links below take you to federal and regional government information on employment, education, salary ranges and long range prospects for this career.

The official title for Kevin's occupation is Senior Managers - Financial, Communications and Other Business Services and its NOC* code is 0013.

Manitoba Job Futures

Manitoba Labour Market Information - Who Hires?

*Each occupation has an official name and unique number called the 'National Occupation Classification' code or 'NOC'.

Education

Useful High School subjects

- English (Communication)
- Business
- Computer-related courses

*Source: JobFutures.ca

MB4Youth - New Media Master Classes
MindSet has partnered with the new media industry in Manitoba to develop over 100 young people. High school students submit samples from their new media portfolio to be judged by new media professionals who choose the most promising talents for 4-6 sessions with outstanding Manitoba professionals in new media. The program is run in Winnipeg, Brandon and locations in Northern Manitoba"

For those out of school, Adult Learning Centres can help you get or upgrade your high school diploma, including adding subjects that are required for work or further education. All Manitobans are normally entitled to 4 free courses.

After high school

Below are links to various programs and courses that will you on the path to a career as a Training Coordinator and Senior Manager:

Red River College

Creative Arts Department
Digital Multimedia Technology
Business Administration

University of Manitoba

Computer Science
Asper School of Business

Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface

Communication multimédia
Administration des affaires

Winnipeg Technical College

Web Design

Brandon University

Computer Science
Business Administration

Assiniboine Community College

Web Design
Media Production
Business Administration

Essential Skills

The most important Essential Skills* for Small Business Owner/Operators are:

- Oral communication
- Problem solving
- Decision making
- Job task planning and organizing
- Significant use of memory
- Finding information
- Working with others

Professional resources

New Media Manitoba
Dedicated to providing networking, resources and training opportunities for Manitobans in Graphic Arts, New Media and Video Industry and provides a space for new media professionals to discuss issues that are relevant to their areas of specialty and the industry in general

Manitoba Interactive Digital Media Association (MIDMA)
A professional association devoted to promoting the objectives of Manitoba's digital media industry and media producers

Manitoba Innovation Framework-Culture and New Media
A summary of the Manitoba government's commitment to cultural and new media development strategies.

Related careers

Graphic Designers and Illustrators (NOC 5241)

Professional Occupations in Public Relations and Communications (NOC 5124)

Senior Managers - Trade, Broadcasting and Other Services (NOC 0015)

Computer Programmers and Interactive Media Developers (NOC 2174)

Web Designers and Developers (NOC 2175)

College and Other Vocational Instructors (NOC 4131)