“My personal mission,” says Jessica Leigh Clark-Bojin, “is to have all classes graduate with zero fear of change.”

Jessica has a vision of the future. And it’s a vision that could make many an entertainment executive break out in a cold sweat. It’s a vision that keeps them up at night.

Because the business of entertainment isn’t just changing – it’s changing fast. It’s difficult to keep up in a team when online media has come of age, video games are a creative and economic force, and mainstream entertainment is consumable by phone. Think about that. To some, this is terrifying.

But to the right people, it’s never been a more invigorating time to be in the business of entertainment.

Jessica is one of those people. As Head of the one-year Entertainment Business Management program, that excitement is exactly what she aims to impart to every single student.

What Jessica sees is a business in which the only constant is change.

“Entertainment continues to be one of the most recession-proof of industries,” she explains. But it’s becoming clear that after decades of relative stability on the business side of entertainment, a lot is changing.

“Issues of piracy, multiple distribution platforms with multiple fee structures, sponsors themselves becoming content creators… They create challenges for traditional media producers. Not insurmountable, but certainly challenges that they did not have to deal with before.”

Creativity is flexible. There’s always going to be demand for creative expertise and experience in entertainment. But for the businesspeople in a world where entertainment is consumed a million ways, the business has been turned on its head. That’s the realm of Entertainment Business Management.

Under Jessica’s guidance, students in EBM learn how to navigate this new world of film, TV, animation, games, and music – and the infinite ways they combine and diverge. It’s about much more than just “the business side” of these entertainment sectors. It’s a top-to-bottom education on how properties are developed, produced, and brought to audiences.

“‘Entertainment Business Management’” is a catch-all that in our case refers to all aspects of entertainment property and entertainment business life cycles,” Jessica says.

“It isn’t enough to make a great film and understand how to manage all aspects of its production. Before the shutter opens, before a pixel hits the screen, you must also have a rock solid strategy for how you are going to make an audience care about your great film.”

In other words, let someone else do the sweating. There’s no apocalyptic hand-wringing here: EBM students are trained to rise above and make the most of the changes. Or, as Jessica puts it with a smile, to “eat change for breakfast.”

“For individuals looking to join the ranks of the old guard of film, TV, and music producers, [a changing industry] means ‘don’t hold your breath’,” she says. “For everyone else, it means a level playing field and tremendous opportunity.”

Jessica’s seen it from the trenches. She’s a veteran of this particular war – a designer, brand strategist, and filmmaker who ultimately became a founding executive of Vancouver’s Zeros 2 Heroes, a unique mash-up of online comics and social networking that extended into film, TV, and interactive space. That experience at the leading edge is something she brings to EBM students.

“I worked with national broadcasters, game companies, production companies and private IP holders to develop properties and extensions that had the best chance of capturing an audience’s attention and hearts,” she says. “Now, as a board member at Zeros 2 Heroes and the head of EBM, I continue to write articles and speak at seminars and conferences about the convergence of entertainment sectors and outreach strategies.”

“Convergence.” It comes up anytime Jessica talks about her vision for the program. It’s a big part of her vision of the future.

“Cross-platform, cross-media, transmedia, convergence… in a nutshell it comes down to recognizing that audience attention has fragmented, and to keep up, entertainment properties need to follow the eyeballs.”

The idea isn’t new – part of the genius of Star Wars was that George Lucas held on to the lucrative merchandising rights. But the trend is accelerating and expanding. Convergence is more than just a by-product of entertainment – it’s becoming one of its driving forces.

“One, if a property has been successful in one medium, it means there’s a built-in audience that you can port to the other medium rather than starting from scratch,” she says. “Two, if you’re unsure as to which access point or medium is going to strike the biggest chord with your audience, developing for all of them covers your bases. Three, if your property is actually successful, you stand to make a much greater profit across all the platforms.”

“EBM is exciting because I think we’ve found the perfect balance between learning and doing. Students are chucked in the deep end on day one so that they can start racking up the real-world accomplishments, but in a supervised and safe environment,” Jessica explains.

Jessica wants to arm students with the experience they need to conquer this new entertainment landscape. The side benefit? An answer to the first question a graduate will be asked by any potential employer, financier, or collaborator: What have you done so far? “Yes, you know how to keep books and manage a project and produce a film… but how many units have you sold? How many fans have you connected with? How many articles have been written about you? How many seminars have you spoken at?”

With that in mind, students actually graduate from EBM with a bonafide portfolio, not just theoretical ‘mock’ projects. It comes down to real accomplishments – and in a changing industry, that’s about the most valuable thing for a newcomer to have.

Of course, if you’re in the business of championing creative properties, it also helps to care. “‘Making magic’ takes a tremendous amount of blood, sweat and tears, and if you’d just as soon be managing a mutual fund as producing a video game, save yourself a lot of headaches and get a traditional MBA,” Jessica says.

“But if, like me, you get a high out of seeing an audience embrace, claim, and give life to a new entity that would never have existed without you, then this is the industry for you.”