1. THE PATH DEPENDENCE OF TORONTO'S MULTIMEDIA CLUSTER John Britton University of Toronto

2. What is path dependence? Toronto's Multimedia cluster: Origins: initial conditions, corporate clients Talent pool Spatial concentration Reality shock: clustering incentives intensified Conclusion

3. Path dependence? · Technology view: qwerty and all that (David 1985) · Geographic view: "places produce path dependence" (Martin 1999) · How is an industrial cluster a product of its local ‘ environment?' 1. learning : "trial, feedback and evaluation" 2. untraded interdependencies : circulation of tacit knowledge 3.Places evolve in terms of their institutional identity

4. Origins of Toronto's Multimedia Cluster Business segment: banks, advertising agencies Entertainment segment: cultural industries + policies  film/television products  antecedent firms and skills Talent pool Convergence of skills and technology Standardized platforms made learning-on-the job and imitation easier

5. Spatial concentration Downtown + growth  labour churning  flows of tacit knowledge Reality Shock Are clusters flexible? The ‘dot-com bust’ as a test case - 1997 profile - 2003 cluster characteristics: more collaboration, more subcontracting - Industry associations? Conclusions