Our Mission
To promote collaboration
between Kansas City regional stakeholders in the digital media industry
Our Vision
To establish the Kansas City area with a world-class digital media industry that succeeds through its robust talent pipeline and the innovation of its entrepreneurs
KC IMAGINE grew out of a need for a program to formally promote collaboration between our region’s digital media stakeholders, as our digital media industry is extensive, but very decentralized. We bring together area leaders from educational, business and civic organizations to explore ways to improve how we prepare talent to serve the region’s digital media industry.
KC IMAGINE provides a forum for stakeholders to address their talent pipeline challenges, as well as bringing students into some of those forums to explore regional career possibilites. In 2017, Mid-America Regional Council research indicated that digital media is an economic cluster worthy of greater development support, with Kansas City ranked 9th among our 31 peer cities.
“Kansas City has nearly 50,000 workers employed in industries related to digital storytelling. This figure has grown 60% between 2011 and 2021 with the computer system design industry seeing the bulk of that growth.”
KC IMAGINE believes that a consortium of regional educational institutions, digital media firms and civic programs can accelerate growth in this industry by:
Helping colleges adjust curricula to better meet the talent requirements of digital businesses
Establishing career readiness programs that encourage high school students to explore occupations in digital media
Building national and community awareness of our region’s digital media industry
Fostering entrepreneurial growth in digital media
Providing forums and continuing education to promote best practices in digital media business and technology
“The KC metro has seen 24% growth in occupations related to digital storytelling between 2011 and 2021. Growth was particularly strong on the technical side with software development and computer user support growth surging.”
