Village Gamer

TELETOON at Night fans have spoken! The votes are in and Vancouver, BC’s Sheryl Vedamani and Lemoyne, QC’s Philippe Ramsay Gaudreau have 10,000 reasons to gloat today as their animated films have been named the winners of the TELETOON at Night Pilot Project and TÉLÉTOON la Nuit Projet Pilote contests, respectively. As the winners, both Vedamani and Gaudreau have won $10,000 CDN and a trip for two to North America’s largest animation conference and festival, the Television Animation Conference and Ottawa International Animation Festival.

Vedamani, 20, is a Vancouver native and is a student at Vancouver Film School. Gaudreau, 26, grew up in Brossard, Quebec and currently works as a 2D artist at a video game company in Montreal. Read the rest of this entry »

Social Tactics is now offering corporate training courses in addition to their public workshops in social media and personal branding. The new corporate training courses, led by Susan Varty and Marc Roginsky, Co-founders of Social Tactics, are designed to address the corporate demand for understanding and embracing enterprise social recruiting, social media policies and best practices, and lead generation through social media.

“With social media access becoming the norm at work, more and more corporations want to be prepared to embrace the new shift in social communication using technology tools – inside or outside of the corporate firewall,” says Susan Varty. Read the rest of this entry »

Calgary Social Media Breakfast (SMBYYC) is pleased to announce Lori Stewart as the September presenter. Lori came to Calgary in 2004 after spending a rather adventurous 5 years in California during the tech boom where she built and launched eBay Canada and then led the rapid expansion and globalization of eBay – including the acquisition of Paypal.

Recently, Lori was part of the core Nenshi strategy team and helped build the brand that is Naheed Nenshi. Following the election she went with Naheed to City Hall as acting Chief of Staff and built out the Mayor’s new team. Lori is also the founder of Awesome Foundation, Calgary providing micro-financing for micro-brilliance – “1 great idea + 90 second pitch = $1000”. Read the rest of this entry »

The call for entries for the 2012 History Makers Awards has been officially opened.  Presented during History Makers International on January 25th-27th at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York, the History Makers Awards recognize the very best in History, Current Affairs and Non-Fiction programming, across TV and digital platforms.

In order to be eligible for nomination, an entry had to have been released for the first time anywhere in the world, between October 1, 2010 and September 30, 2011. Entries in the competition must be in the English language or have English subtitles or have dialogue dubbed in English. There is a $115.00 USD fee per entry, and nominations close on November 4th 2011. The Categories are listed below, but please see the competition website for the complete list of rules and regulations. Read the rest of this entry »

IndieCade is an annual independent games festival that is open to industry as well as the public. At this year’s event, which takes place in Culver City on October 6th through 9th, there will be five Canadian-made titles available for attendees to play.

According to the IndieCade web site, this year’s events will include a professional conference, an exclusive business pre-event called the IndieXchange, a Red Carpet Awards Ceremony, this year presented by LG Electronics, festival workshops, keynotes, and family-focused activities, meet-and-greets with game creators, free gameplay with a GameWalk and big games as well as numerous social events.

The five Canadian nominees are:

FEZ by Polytron Corp.
Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure by Untold Entertainment
superHYPERCUBE by Game Dev Collective Kokoromi
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP – Superbrothers, Capybara Games, Jim Guthrie
The Depths to Which I Sink – Bigpants

Good luck to all of you at IndieCade!

Futurist and author Owen Greaves, along with special guest Rick Rake, will be presenting a Future of Business workshop at the Sandman Hotel & Suites in Abbotsford on September 26th. Cost to attend is $99.00 per person for those who register before September 23rd, and $149.00 per person thereafter. Please visit the web site for registration information.

Workshop Description:

The Future of Business Workshop is more than social media, the Internet or the world online; it’s about looking at business differently and fighting for your Businesses Survival. Together with Owen, you will see the Future Of Business and will apply that knowledge to create new ways of embracing the future in your business. A workbook will be provided to each participant in the 2 – 4 hour workshop to encourage home study and application of the concepts presented. Read the rest of this entry »

The second annual ShesConnected Conference, taking place September 29 to 30, 2011 at Toronto’s Sheraton Centre, is expected to include digitally-savvy and influential Canadian women, as well as representatives from top national and international brands and agencies.

“The goal of the ShesConnected Conference is to bring digital women together with brands for networking, educational seminars and interactive forums,” says Donna Marie Antoniadis, co-founder of ShesConnected Multimedia. “The hope is that it’s a start for a long-term working relationship that benefits both the brand and the digital woman.” Read the rest of this entry »

We all know incredible kids who do amazing things that go above and beyond our normal day-to-day status quo. We know those kids who think in wonderfully different ways than the rest of us. And we know those kids who see our world with their own unique perspective.

This weekend, on Saturday September 17th those brilliant kids, both young and old, will be speaking at TEDxKids@BC, a new event being held at the Roundhouse Community Centre in Vancouver. This impressive roster of speakers will share their ingenuity and “out of the box” thinking through their inspiring stories. Audience members will hear motivating presentations and will have many opportunities to meet fellow attendees. Read the rest of this entry »

Merging Media Productions Inc. and the Canadian Media Production Association-BC are delighted to announce the top Vancouver companies that have been selected to exhibit their innovative products and technology at the first VEDC Innovation Gallery presented during the Merging Media Conference + Masterclass on October 27th and 28th.

Exhibiting Companies:

1. Atimi Software 
2. Invoke Media 
3. Magnify Digital
4. Pug Pharm
5. OverInteractive
6. Scan2 Mobile 
7. Xomo Digital Inc.

“Merging Media is a great event that merges thought leadership with innovators, and connects them to Vancouver’s business ecosystem” observed Lee Malleau, CEO of the Vancouver Economic Development Commission, key sponsor of the Gallery. “It’s a catalyst event during an exciting time for the creative economy in Vancouver.”

The VEDC Innovation Gallery presented at the W2 Media Café on October 28th will showcase a selection of cutting edge platforms, software and technology produced by some of our city’s top innovators to introduce media producers to the latest tools in gamification, social media and multi-platform development.

In addition to the Innovation Gallery, there are 45 world class speakers presenting at Merging Media and a terrific program that is full of inspiration and ideas for attendees.

If you don’t yet have a pass for Merging Media, or know someone who would like to attend, enter the Merging Media Sweepstakes.  Until September 23rd, we will be providing two chances to win a pass to Merging Media 2011. Entering is easy, all you have to do is “Like”  Merging Media on Facebook and fill out the sweepstakes entry form. If you prefer Twitter, you can enter over there as well.

You have just two weeks left to take advantage of the Early Bird Rate and to submit your Pitch 360 cross media project. Be one of eight participants to present at M+M2011’s Masterclass and Pitch 360 sessions and have a chance to win the $10,000 BC FILM development award.

If you are interested in meeting YouTube and Google representatives along with other VIP guest delegates when you attend Merging Media 2011,  the M+M2011 International B2B Sessions will match US business delegates with local companies attending the conference on October 28th from 9 am to 5 pm at W2 Media Café, as part of the Business activities during the event.

If you are a Canadian company ready to do business in the United States, don’t miss this fall’s Western Canada Technology Growth Initiative (TGI) hosted by the Trade Commissioner Service (TCS).

There are two ways to participate to TGI:

• Put your skills to the test and apply to become a competitor. If selected, you’ll receive professional coaching and the chance to pitch your technology to a panel of industry experts.
• Not ready for the spotlight? Register as an attendee to take advantage of insightful presentations and on-demand webinars on topics like marketing, protecting intellectual property and influencing financial decision makers. Read the rest of this entry »