Village Gamer

First Annual Game Developers Conference® Canada Announced: May 12-13, 2009, Vancouver, BC

Vancouver – Registration is now open for the Game Developers Conference® Canada (GDC Canada). Building off of the success of the Vancouver International Games Summit (VIGS), GDC Canada will be a forum for Canadian developers to share best practices for fostering ingenuity and quality games. Presented by Think Services Games Group and Reboot Communications, GDC Canada will take place May 12-13, 2009 at the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre (VCEC) in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Conference is offering a special registration period for those who have attended past VIGS events. Paid conference delegates to either the 2007 or 2008 VIGS are entitled to special alumni savings of up to 25% on conference passes. Those who qualify for Alumni Rates will receive an email directly from GDC Canada which will give further registration details.

GDC Canada Conference Tracks

The Game Developers Conference® Canada emphasizes studying the challenges and opportunities of creating games with long production cycles, large development teams, and multi-platform releases. Unique to GDC Canada’s content lineup, is its focus on the production cycle of game development with tracks focused on:

• Concept/Preproduction
• Production
• Finalling
• Post Launch/Analysis

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Vancouver – Canadian technology companies will bid for share of venture capital dollars at the 12th Annual Canadian Financing Forum on January 29, 2009 in Vancouver. The Forum is a highly recognized event, attracting top tier Canadian and international venture capitalists to meet with the best and most promising growth companies in Canada.

“Given the current economic environment, the Forum is vital to turn innovative ideas of early-stage companies into economic successes,” said Greg Aasen, Chair of the BC Innovation Council, a full sponsor of the Forum. “These companies can reshape industries across many sectors and provide benefit to communities beyond BC’s borders.”

Running from 8 am to 6 pm at the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver, this one-day event is attended by a wide range of Canadian and US venture capital firms who look forward to connecting with entrepreneurs offering leading-edge ideas in some of the most progressive areas.

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Vancouver – Over the past two days, we attended some of the many educational sessions offered at this year’s Spark FX festival where we made a few new friends and learned many interesting things about the visual effects industry. It is no longer much of a surprise to me to discover the many outstanding creations which are coming out of Vancouver studios, and Spark FX is most definitely a powerful showcase for the talent and technology in this city. Kudos to all of the ACM SIGGRAPH Vancouver volunteers who put in many hours of hard work to ensure that the rest of us had a great event to attend.

The first session we were able to attend was with matte painter Dylan Cole, who revealed many of the techniques and processes he uses to achieve his outstanding work. For me personally, this session was very inspirational, as Dylan encouraged attendees to think creatively to solve creative challenges. I definitely want to try some of the techniques he used in building ice scenes, vistas and fantasy cityscapes. Most surprising was the use of photographs in the mattes, and how those photographs are meshed into a painting along with hand-drawn work to create a back-scene which is realistic to the movie watcher.

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Toronto – A message from the staff at CIX: Please note that CIX is now scheduled for Fall 2009. Unfortunately, the venue that we booked has gone out of business; at this late stage we have been unable to find an alternative venue for the same week in March, and wish to avoid clashing with other industry events throughout spring.

CIX remains firmly committed to organizing a world class gathering in Toronto focused on Canadian technology innovation. We look forward to announcing our new dates shortly.

Innovation Never Stops
In the interim, we are continuing to accept submissions.

Village Gamer will announce the new CIX dates as soon as they become available.

Experience the business behind the magic as The Disney Institute and Mount Royal Continuing Education offer a one-day seminar highlighting the importance of innovation and creativity in the workplace

Calgary – Mount Royal College Continuing Education invites you to discover for yourself how organizational creativity can give you the competitive edge in today’s changing business world. As The Disney Institute brings its world-renowned brand of professional development to the Faculty of Continuing Education & Extension. Learn how to create a climate of creativity and everyday innovation through Team Creativity – Disney Style. This one-day, 6-hour programme takes place on Feb. 18, 2009 with a registration fee of $399.00 +GST. Visit the Mount Royal site to register for this programme.

Through Disney Institute you will discover how to:

* Foster a collaborative environment that draws on the creative resources of your entire organization

* Establish systems that help your leaders make decisions about new ideas

* Focus your employees’ creativity on the goals of your organization

* Improve productivity by implementing new ideas generated in the creative process

Ideas on Tap is a light business networking event for hi-tech professionals plus internet advertisers, social media marketers, bloggers, video game developers and other fans of the tech community

Vancouver – High tech professionals are preparing to get back to business after the holiday season at the upcoming Ideas on Tap event on Thursday January 22, 2009. Business over beer, that is. 6S Marketing and its partners will again host the immensely popular and unique networking event in the high tech Vancouver neighborhood of Yaletown. Ideas on Tap brings together the business and technology communities and industries in an entertaining and casual exchange of ideas.

“We were hoping that the first Ideas on Tap was going to be well received. Never did we imagine though, that a first time event would attract 250 people,” comments Chris Breikss, 6S Marketing Co-Founder and Director. “The day after the first event, our in-boxes and voicemails were flooded with people getting in touch to let us know what a great time they had. We just knew, from that point on that Ideas on Tap had to be a regular event.”
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Businesses Learn to Stop Cyber Criminals

Vancouver – Online threats to business operations are likely to grow in 2009, but some companies are getting the information they need to prepare for the coming storm.

This month, Vancouver Board of Trade Managers’ Toolbox presents “Online Protection: How to secure your business and build consumer trust“, where Pacific Coast Information Systems Ltd. President Vaclav Vincalek will provide essential tips and practical steps businesses can take to protect their operations and customers.

“Hackers and cyber criminals are increasingly employing multi-faceted tactics that businesses must prevent if they want to survive, much less compete,” Vincalek says. “A successful attack on a company’s network or online presence, which can take a
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Vancouver – The organizing committee for Spark FX 2009 have released the speaker schedule for the upcoming SFX festival, but co-chair Mike Davison notes that there are one or two sessions still to be finalized. Spark FX runs from January 21 – 26 at the Vancouver International Film Centre, 1181 Seymour Street. Tickets for film showings and speaker events can be purchased through the ACM SIGGRAPH Vancouver Chapter’s website, along with full speaker bios and film information.

DAY 1 Wednesday January 21 – Doors Open 6:30pm

7:00 pm FILM “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad” with Ken A. Priebe
9:30 pm FILM “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”

DAY 2 Thursday January 22 – 8:30 am – Registration

11:15 am SPEAKER SESSION – “Fictional Interfaces” with Mark Coleran
3:15 pm SPEAKER SESSION – “Make-up with Gordon Smith” with Gordon J. Smith
5:00 pm PANEL – “Pipedreams: In Search of the Perfect Production Solution” with Dave Fracchia, Anthony Brown, Leo Chan & Troy Brooks
7:00 pm FILM – “Forbidden Planet” with Keith Blackmore
9:30 pm FILM – “Alien”

DAY 3 Friday – January 23 – 8:30 am – Registration
9:30 am SPEAKER SESSION – “Spanning the Valley” with Paul Debevec
11:15 am SPEAKER SESSION – “Digital Cloning at ILM, from Lemony Snicket’s Baby to Pirates’ Davy Jones” with Christophe Hery
1:30 pm SPEAKER SESSION – “A VFX Journey Through Pan’s Labyrinth with CafeFX” with Jeff Barnes

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10 Films, 20 Speakers, 6 Days, 1 Fantastic Festival

Vancouver – The ACM SIGGRAPH Vancouver Chapter has released preliminary details on the featured films which will be shown at the upcoming SparkFX Festival taking place January 21 – 26 2009 at the Vancouver International Film Centre (VanCity Theatre) in Vancouver, BC. In addition to these top VFX films, Spark FX will be showcasing 15 seminars and panels “with some of the most talented FX artists and researchers from Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles and beyond.” Among the speakers will be Dennis Muren, Senior Visual Effects Supervisor at ILM, where he has worked since 1976. The winner of six Best Visual Effects Academy Awards, Dennis Muren has worked with George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and James Cameron.

There will be a Festival Networking Mixer with music and a cash bar at 6pm on Friday, January 23 as well as the Festival Gala, which will take place at 8:30pm on Saturday, January 24.

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Vancouver – Despite below freezing temperatures this weekend, a sellout crowd gave a rousing Vancouver welcome to powerhouse heavy metal band Dragonforce with guests Power Glove and Turisas on this last performance of their 2008 North American tour.

The all-ages show was opened by Power Glove, a heavy metal group from Boston who have put a whole new spin on video game music. They opened the show with their version of the Tetris theme, levelling up into a high powered set of heavy metal Mario Minor, So Sexy Robotnick and more. Power Glove ended their set with a fantastic rendition of the Power Rangers theme – far better than the original show’s version. This is a band who obviously takes their foray into video games very seriously – right down to the koopa shell shoulder pads – and they put on a seriously rocking show.

Finnish Viking metal group Turisas was second to take the stage. Dressed in full battle regalia from furs to warpaint, Turisas took the audience through a journey of Viking legend in a way I’m sure the Vikings of times long gone never foresaw – and I’m sure Boney M never envisioned Rasputin becoming a heavy metal anthem, either. This band never stopped moving and neither did the

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