Village Gamer

From bestselling authors to award-winning actors and chefs, Indigo and Chapters stores nationally host free, interactive and exclusive events through the month of October for the whole family.

Book Signing With Activist & Bestselling Author Sister Souljah – Saturday, October 1^st, 2:00pm – Join Sister Souljah – New York Times bestselling author of The Coldest Winter Ever and Midnight – as she discusses and signs her latest novel Midnight and the Meaning of Love, the dramatic and inspiring adventure about young, deep love, including the ways people across the world express it and the lengths they go to have it. Chapters Location: 52 Quarry Edge Drive, Brampton. Read the rest of this entry »

Big Blue Bubble, in conjunction with DIG 2011 Game and Web Developers Conference, has created a great game design competition for anyone with a game design idea. All you have to do is describe your game concept in less than 500 words, attach up to two relevant images or sound files, and submit your idea to the judges. Final day for entry is October 3rd, with the winner being announced on November 7th. The winner will get to work with a team of Big Blue Bubble programmers, artists and producers to create their very own game. There are a few conditions which apply, so please see the full competition guidelines below: Read the rest of this entry »

With a contingent of more that 70 participating companies, Canada’s audiovisual industry will be out in force at MIPCOM 2011, showcasing an outstanding line-up of television and digital media products. The companies will benefit from the enthusiastic support of Telefilm Canada, highlighting their vitality, creativity and solid international reach.

As part of its solid and diversified programming, the Canadian industry’s youth production activities will be prominently featured at MIPCOM this year. Indeed, 42 of the exhibiting Canadian companies either produce or distribute youth content, and for half of these companies youth production constitutes their main area of activity. Read the rest of this entry »

Produced by Victoria’s Reboot Communications, the 13th Annual Privacy and Security Conference will take place at the Victoria Conference Centre next February 15th through 17th. The conference is recognized as one of the top tier events in North America, and anyone working in the information privacy and security fields will benefit from the speakers, discussions and networking at the conference. Attendees from every level both within government and private industry with an interest in cutting edge policy, programs, law, research and technologies aimed at the protection of privacy and security will find topics of interest to them.
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iStockphoto has announced the first Italian iStockalypse, a five-day photography event being held in Milan and surrounding villages this September 28th through October 2nd. The Italian iStockalypse is organized in partnership with Canon, a world leader in imaging products and solutions, which will provide its leading photographic equipment and educational resources as part of this sponsorship. Read the rest of this entry »

Distribution360 will be  showcasing more than 200 hours of content including new kids, lifestyle and factual series at MIPCOM 2011.  Attendees can sample the offerings and meet with Distribution 360 representatives at Booth #02.10 when the conference takes place this  October 3rd through 6th in Cannes, France.

“We look forward to a successful MIPCOM, and are pleased to bring strong content in the kids, lifestyle and factual space,” said Stéphanie Röckmann-Portier, Head of Sales, Distribution360. “We’re very excited to meet with potential buyers in the market for fresh new content that is sure to appeal to a wide variety of audiences.”

In the Kids and Youth genre, Distribution360’s slate includes: Read the rest of this entry »

Merging Media 2011 has announced that Jennifer Newman Rutsky and Sean Elbe have each won a full pass to the October 27th & 28th conference after participating in a Twitter and Facebook promotion. Tickets for the conference, which will be taking place at The Woodwards Heritage Complex, are still available for purchase.

In other event news, the deadline for Pitch 360 and a chance to win this year’s $10,000 BC Film Development Award has been extended to October 5th in order to encourage more up and coming media producers and developers with innovative projects to participate.

Eight participants with innovative cross-media projects will be selected to battle it out a la ‘Dragon’s Den’ style for the grand prize at the Pitch 360 sessions on October 28th, hosted by new-dad-to-be Victor Lucas. The organizers are accepting early to late stage development projects for consideration, so get your submissions in today. If I had more confidence, a lot more knowledge about production, a team and a fully fleshed out plan, I’d enter the Pitch 360 program in a heartbeat. The BC Film Development Award would at least get the cross-media project idea I’ve been sitting on for a year off the ground.

On October 1st and 2nd Concordia University will be presenting Games Colloquium, part of Entretiens Jacques Cartier 2011. The first day of the colloquium is open to the public and will feature four panels with academic speakers and industry representatives engaging in focused discussion on a single game. The evening will feature a keynote presentation by David Cage, founder and CEO of the Paris-based studio Quantic Dream and lead designer for Omikron: The Nomad Soul (1999), Fahrenheit (2005) and Heavy Rain (2010). This keynote is co-sponsored by the Montreal chapter of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA). Admission to Day one is free, however registration is required. Day Two is by invitation only. Read the rest of this entry »

The Langley Social Media Meetup Group and We Make Stuff Happen are hosting two events this week with guest speaker Kevin Knebl, dubbed “the most recommended man on LinkedIn. The first is a Meetup tonight at the Guildford Sheraton, which is located at 15269 104th Avenue in Surrey. Tickets are $39.20 (+HST) per person, and the doors open at 7:00 p.m. Your ticket price includes a copy of Kevin’s latest book, The Social Media Sales Revolution. Read the rest of this entry »

Mobile game developer XMG Studio and the National Post are calling all Canadian college and university students to bring their game-ideas to life at Great Canadian Appathon². Over the weekend of September 30 “HUBS”, where students can gather, will be set up at over 20 participating colleges and universities, across the country, to give student game developers and designers the chance to work around the clock and compete for $50,000 in prize money.

Similar to the Great Canadian Appathon, the largest ‘hackathon’ to be held in Canada, GCA² guarantees participants 48 hours of intense fun, meeting new people, learning stuff, and building a game on top of the world’s leading mobile API’s. Some of the talented designers and developers from XMG will be on-site at the major universities’ “HUBS” to motivate and mentor the teams. All other coders can rely on a 48-hour support line for questions and advice on how to work with the latest interfaces. Read the rest of this entry »