“Made in Utah” Collaboration Grows from Utah Breakfast Club

Written by: Dan Bammes

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At the first meeting of the Utah Breakfast Club on Thursday, January 15th, leaders in the digital media and movie production industries talked about the need for a place where new startups and established businesses could connect with colleagues and with potential financial backers. One outgrowth of that conversation is the new Made in Utah page on Facebook. It was created by a member of the panel invited to discuss the film and digital media industries, former Electronic Arts Vice-President Jon Dean. Dean is now the CEO of XacFAQ, which develops applications for mobile phones and other platforms and also provides consulting services.

“We’re taking our lead from Made in New York,” said Dean in a follow-up conversation with the Utah Foundation. “That organization has been very successful in bringing film and gaming organizations together.” He’s hoping to hear from enough interested artists, business leaders and others to begin hosting monthly meetings in Utah.

Dean says these issues have been discussed in Utah for years. In fact, they were the subject of a report from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development in 2011. Now, he says the Made in Utah Facebook page can be a place where a critical mass of interested people can come together and help to implement that report’s recommendations.

The meeting itself was recorded on video and can be viewed at this link. The Utah Breakfast Club is a program initiated by Salt Lake City attorney Drew Clark, who based it on a similar program he hosted in Washington DC. Utah Foundation is a founding sponsor.

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