Village Gamer

Intelliware Development Inc. is pleased to announce its participation in the initial funding of start-up Vouchfor!™, a social referral marketing platform. Intelliware, along with GC Global Capital Corp and founder John Stewart, are co-investors.

Vouchfor! leverages the power of word-of-mouth referrals to drive more business to companies by rewarding both current and new customers. Vouchfor! allows a Merchant to create and execute local referral reward campaigns turning happy, loyal customers into an extended sales force.

The service is easy to use and takes advantage of the most popular social networks such as Facebook® and Twitter® to refer friends to Merchants they like, and be rewarded for that referral.

“Vouchfor! is the next evolution of monetizing social commerce,” states Glen Johnson, SVP Product Ventures at Intelliware. “This early stage business fits our investment criteria and expertise very well. Vouchfor! has huge potential because it uniquely combines the power of social media to drive revenue for a wide range of businesses.”

Intelliware is providing business strategy and incubation services, in addition to leading all aspects of product design and development.

“We are thrilled to have Intelliware as an invested partner in Vouchfor!,” says John Stewart, Founder and CEO of Vouchfor!. “The team brings a unique mix of entrepreneurial skill, capital and practical experience in building products – a combination that is exceptionally hard to find.”

I’m passing along this information from the Trade Commissioner’s office for those Canadian companies who will be attending E3. If you are interested in either of these breakfast sessions, please register online or contact your local Trade Commissioner for more information.

The Canadian Consulate in Los Angeles is organizing these two activities that you may wish to take part in:

Los Angeles Pipeline Program – Monday, June 6, 2011

Ken Rutkowski will lead 10-20 ICT companies through a rigorous one-day program involving:

(1) Face-to-face dialogue with other successful entrepreneurs
(2) Direct feedback on business strategy
(3) Coaching (prior to arrival and during event)
(4) Pitch opportunity to Finance professionals and potential partners

Each company will receive specialized attention for his/her company that are inline with their market objectives.

Los Angeles E3 Networking Breakfast – Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Ken Rutkowski will lead two panel discussions on entrepreneurship and financing:

(1) Cross-fertilization to meet other Canadians and key business drivers in entertainment
(2) Access to Los Angeles decision makers in the high-tech community
(3) Relaxed and dynamic environment for professional networking.
(4) Expecting 175 – 200 professional attendees.

Intertainment Media Inc. has announced that its desktop app KNCTR®, a key program of Intertainment’s wholly owned division itiBiti Systems Inc. is now counting over 664,000 unique installations in the North American market.

KNCTR® saw 79,622 unique installations throughout North America over the previous week period and the program increasingly continues to be part of consumer’s daily digital consumption pattern with an average of over 13.3 minutes of daily active user engagement. The active user engagement continues to make the premium advertising supported KNCTR® model a key tool that features video content, integration of social media and the ability to make free long distance phone calls to cell phones and land lines to anywhere in North America.

KNCTR® is the next generation of social communication and entertainment applications that allows users to aggregate their social media(s) and voice services into one location on their desktop. Unlike Skype, the telephone feature on KNCTR® is completely free to the consumer allowing free local and long distance calls to mobile phones and land lines. KNCTR® is a premium advertising model that allows for branded sponsorship, pre-roll and display advertising opportunities for brands and service providers alike.

With the projected impact that tablets will have on the personal computing space, with over 50 million units to be sold within the next two years in North America alone, KNCTR® is positioned to enhance the functionality and usability of these devices by allowing them to become a fully functioning phone unit.

“Week over week we are continuing to see significant growth in our new installation base for KNCTR®,” said Brad Parry, CMO Intertainment Media Inc., “The level of engagement and sharing is notable as we continue to see KNCTR® becoming a core element in the consumer’s daily digital habit.”

Notably, the itiBiti desktop app has been hailed by Microsoft Corp. as “the next generation of integrated social media applications – easy, scalable and fun.”

One of Canada’s leading Web conferences, mesh, has come west by way of a one-day event in Calgary on June 8 at the MacEwan Conference & Event Centre at the University of Calgary. Tickets are $ 279.00 each and can be purchased online.

Like mesh, meshwest will focus on providing insight and stimulating conversations around four streams – media, society, marketing and business. Led by opinion leaders and entrepreneurs, meshwest will provide the opportunity to have thought-provoking and engaging conversations in which the attendees are involved as much as the speakers.

“We think Calgary is a great place to launch meshwest,” said Mark Evans, co-founder of the mesh conference. “There’s a growing start-up and high-tech community, and there are many large companies exploring the use of social media as a new way to communicate, market and sell.”

From Canada’s leading digital marketers to local social media strategists, meshwest will provide an emphasis on exploring what’s over the horizon in the digital world.

Speakers to include:

Tobias Lütke – CEO of Shopify
Stuart MacDonald – One of Canada’ leading digital marketers
Doug Lacombe – Canada’s Internet publishing pioneer
Greg Hounslow – Emerging Media Advisor for WestJet
Mark Evans – mesh Co-founder and former technology reporter with the National Post and Globe & Mail
Leigh Himel – Owner of Toronto-based, Gravity Ltd., a ‘Social Enterprise Design’ firm
Sarah Dickinson – SVP, Strategy at Blast Radius
Tony Rino – Web & Social Media Advisor, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP)

meshwest sponsors include CIRA, Yahoo! Canada, CNW and Hill & Knowlton Calgary.

Canadian consumers want more education and options for health self-management. A Deloitte consumer study found 54 per cent of those surveyed in the Deloitte 2009 Canadian health care consumer survey report “Treating Patients As Consumers” are trying to learn how to prevent health problems and improve their well-being, and they want electronic tools to help them do so. Now consumers can access DrugHub, Great-West Life’s new, free health application for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, which they can personalize with their prescription information to help manage their prescription medications.

“Managing prescription drug usage can be complex, particularly for people with chronic health conditions or who require multiple medications over extended periods of time,” says Brad Fedorchuk, Vice-President of Group Marketing for Great-West Life, a leading Canadian life and health insurer, which processed $2.1 billion in prescription drug claim submissions in 2010. Taking prescription medications correctly as prescribed is one simple but effective way people can enhance their health self-management, and DrugHub can help them do so.”

The DrugHub app is intuitive and easy to use, and offers a convenient way to keep track of medications – in effect, putting “a virtual library of prescription drug information at your fingertips,” according to Fedorchuk. The application can also help track medications for aging parents, children, or others. “DrugHub displays multiple prescriptions, issues reminders for multiple individuals about when to take medications, tracks dosages and flags when it is time to order refills,” Fedorchuk says. “By helping to manage some of this complexity, we believe DrugHub can help people follow their medication dosages and schedules more closely, thereby improving health outcomes.”

Security and confidentiality features are built in to protect personal information. DrugHub also provides access to an extensive library of drug information, including simple-to-use drug interaction and side effect reference tools for each drug and access to thousands of physician-reviewed drug articles.

DrugHub is the first mobile health application to be issued by a Canadian group benefits insurer. The innovative health application builds on Great-West Life’s industry-first suite of eClaims services — including being the first and only insurer in Canada at this time to offer text message notification advising group plan members of the status of a claim.

Business management software developer Pronto Software today introduced the new PRONTO-Xi Dimensions, an innovative product that brings together ERP transactions and BI Analytics in a unified, out-of-the-box solution.

Launched at Pronto Software’s customer conference in Toronto, PRONTO-Xi Dimensions is the ‘next generation’ smart ERP solution that will transform the way businesses work and receive information. Quick to implement and easy to use, the new release responds to key market needs including instant insight into business performance for faster, smarter decision making for all employees.

Embedding the powerful IBM Cognos BI suite, PRONTO-Xi Dimensions enables mid-market businesses to manage large volumes of data and access real time analytics to understand key business drivers and influence business outcomes.

“We’re pleased to be working with Pronto Software to unveil the PRONTO-Xi Dimensions release to the North American market,” said Kevin Schell, General Manager, PSA Inc. “The business insight that PRONTO-Xi Dimensions provides will allow our customers to accelerate in their industries through unmatched Cognos 10 reporting and embedded Business Intelligence.”

“There is no ERP package more comprehensive in the market that can handle the industry demands of manufacturing, distribution, field service and retail, and with the addition of Cognos 10, PRONTO-Xi Dimensions is certain to hit the market running,” Schell added.

“When planning for this release more than 18 months ago, we envisioned a product that’s not just a logical extension of the success we’ve built so far, but a game-changing solution that will make our ERP engine smarter and create greater access to knowledge, to enable customers to innovate and differentiate,” said Pronto Software Managing Director David Jackman. Read the rest of this entry »

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has released statistical and financial information on Canadian television showing increased profits for all services for the broadcast year ending August 31, 2010.  The data includes information from conventional television stations and specialty, pay and pay-per-view television services, as well as video-on-demand services (pay and specialty services).

Conventional Television – Statistical and Financial Summaries 2006-2010
Pay Television, Pay-Per-View, Video-On-Demand and Specialty Services – Statistical and Financial Summaries 2006-2010

Revenues for private conventional television grew by 9% from $1.97 billion in 2009 to approximately $2.15 billion in 2010. Expenses during the same period increased by 1.7% from $2.01 billion in 2009 to $2.05 billion in 2010.  As a result, profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) improved significantly from a deficit of $116.6 million in 2009 to a profit of $11.5 million in 2010 for a PBIT margin of 0.5%.

Revenues for pay and specialty services grew by 11.1 % from $3.11 billion in 2009 to approximately $3.46 billion in 2010.  Expenses during the same period were 8.1% higher, going from $2.31 billion to $2.49 billion.  Therefore, PBIT for pay and specialty services improved from $728.6 million in 2009 to $877.3 million in 2010 for a PBIT margin of 25.4%.

The total revenues of $2.15 billion for private conventional television were generated from the following sources:

• $350 million in local advertising,
• $1.6 billion from national advertising,
• $65.9 million from the Local Programming Improvement Fund, and
• $117.9 million from other sources.

The total revenues of $3.5 billion for pay and specialty services were generated from the following sources:

• $1.58 billion from cable television subscribers
• $668 million from direct-to-home satellite subscribers
• $1.09 billion from national advertising
• $19.6 million from local advertising, and
• $99.9 million from other sources.

After stagnating in 2009, investment in Canadian programming increased by 12.6% for private conventional television and 8.8% for pay and specialty services.

Private conventional television spending on Canadian programming totalled $696.3 million, including $304.6 million on news programs, $50.9 million on documentaries and other information programs, $141 million on sports programming, $85.5 million on drama and $21.7 million on musical and variety shows.

Pay and specialty services spending on Canadian programming totalled $1.12 billion, including $179.6 million on news programs, $258.4 million on documentaries and other information programs, $353.2 million on sports programming, $143.6 million on drama, and $42.4 million on musical and variety shows.

In 2010, these sectors of the broadcasting industry employed 11,761 people and paid a total of $925.3 million in salaries. Private conventional television experienced a workforce decrease of 6.3% in 2010, while the pay and specialty services workforce remained relatively stable. Read the rest of this entry »

Nintendo Canada has announced that the first major system update for the hand-held Nintendo 3DS™ system will be available in North America the evening of June 6, Pacific time. By installing the free update via a wireless broadband Internet connection, Nintendo 3DS users will have access to an Internet browser and the Nintendo eShop, which contains a variety of new content, including Pokédex™ 3D, an application that lets fans see Pokémon™ characters in 3D.

To celebrate the grand opening of the Nintendo eShop, Nintendo is offering the NES™ game Excitebike™ re-mastered in 3D as a free download until July 7 for anyone who installs the system update. Upcoming Virtual Console™ content available in the Nintendo eShop includes Game Boy™ games Super Mario Land™, Alleyway™ and Radar Mission™. New content will be added to the Nintendo eShop on Thursdays.

The Nintendo eShop is a digital store for Nintendo 3DS owners that provides access to a wide variety of downloadable content, such as original 3D software, classic games that have been re-mastered in 3D called 3D Classics, Game Boy and Game Boy Color “Virtual Console” games in their original 2D glory, and more than 350 Nintendo DSiWare™ games. Visitors can also view video game trailers, screen shots and product information for games, including those available at retail locations.

Within the Nintendo eShop, Nintendo 3DS users will also be able to download the free Pokédex 3D application and start collecting data for more than 150 Pokémon from the Pokémon™ Black Version and Pokémon White Version games. This new application lets users view each Pokémon in 3D with animated motion and sound. The Pokémon image can be rotated 360 degrees, allowing users to zoom in and view it from any angle. The detailed Pokédex also allows users to search, sort and filter all of the data they receive in a variety of ways, making it the essential guide for Pokémon fans. Players can complete their Pokédex by sharing data with friends and using the SpotPass™ feature, or by scanning special Pokémon AR Markers (augmented-reality markers). Once users have received data for a Pokémon, the AR Viewer allows them to view that Pokémon image in a real-world setting in real time, and create photos to share with friends.

“The Nintendo 3DS system is constantly evolving and growing,” said Ron Bertram, Nintendo of Canada’s vice-president and general manager. “The Nintendo eShop is a one-stop resource for a broad range of Nintendo information and downloadable games and applications. It expands the Nintendo 3DS experience with new and entertaining content.”

Other capabilities that go live with the system update include a free Internet browser that has the capability to show 3D images on sites specifically designed to show 3D images. The browser can also be used during game play. Users can stop their Nintendo 3DS game and go to the browser by pressing the Home button and then resume their game when they are finished browsing.

The system update also gives Nintendo DSi™ and Nintendo DSi XL™ system owners the ability to easily transfer most of their previously downloaded Nintendo DSiWare™ games to their new Nintendo 3DS systems.

In the near future, users will be able to download a free application for a short-form video service that will enable them to view specially selected video content, including 3D movie trailers, comedy clips and music videos automatically received when the SpotPass feature is activated.

To install the recommended system update, Nintendo 3DS users can simply start the “System Settings” from the Home Menu, select “Other Settings” and scroll the page right to select “System Update.” Remember that the Nintendo 3DS system features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access.

Toronto’s XMG Studios is looking for young people who would like to get involved in its just-launched Gaming Advisory Board. The Board is a panel of kids from around the world who assist the Toronto-based mobile video game studio in testing their games, reporting on trends, squashing in-game bugs, and even having the opportunity to learn how to make their very own video games.

Those accepted into the Gaming Advisory Board program will gain a rewarding experience in the emerging app economy. Equally important, GAB members will see their feedback touch millions of XMG game users around the World. Parental controls for supervision as well as a monitored exclusive GAB community will provide a safe forum for members to discuss their gaming experiences. In true gaming fashion the member with the highest amount of points at the end of the month, awarded for participating, will win a prize.

“GAB is an amazing opportunity for kids to give real-time feedback into the game development process,” says Ray Sharma, Founder and CEO of XMG Studio. “Through the GAB we also hope to continue supporting community and provide members with an amazing experience. GAB members will get a chance to be part of something unique in an exciting industry and for many of the participants, the two most important perks will be bragging rights and a great start to their resume.” Ultimately, GAB inspires to create future business leaders and tech savvy individuals that will take charge in growing healthy economies around the globe.

The Gaming Advisory Board currently has members across North America, including Toronto, New York, LA, Chicago, Dallas, and San Diego however expansion overseas is the next target. Those interested can apply online.

The BC Technology Industry Association has announced that Bill Tam has been appointed as the new President and CEO, effective July 1, 2011. Bill will take over from outgoing President and CEO, Pascal Spothelfer, who will be returning to industry.

Bill’s career has taken him across Canada and into the United States, serving as CEO of EQO Communications in Vancouver, a Venture Partner at SpringBank TechVentures in Calgary, VP Business Development at AT&T Canada, VP of Product Strategy and Marketing at MetroNet, in addition to executive roles at Rogers Telecom in Toronto and Bell Canada in Toronto and Denver, Colorado. Over the past several years, Mr. Tam has been actively involved in growth initiatives with a successful history of building and launching new businesses in the software, e-commerce, Internet, and telecommunications sectors.

Bill joined the BCTIA Centre4Growth as one of the first CEOs-in-Residence and for the past ten months has been a committed member of the team. Bill currently coaches over 40 tech entrepreneurs, and is a key contributor to the success of the Centre4Growth program.

“The BCTIA Board of Directors is very pleased to appoint Bill Tam to lead our organization. Bill is a seasoned technology executive who possesses the management experience, strategic thinking, and drive to leverage the good work that has been accomplished at the BCTIA over the past years.” said Paul Gorton, Chair of the BCTIA Board of Directors.

“As both a corporate executive and a tech company founder, Bill understands the challenges that technology companies of all sizes face every day. This will allow him to be a very strong advocate for our industry, and an effective builder of a stronger, more cohesive technology community in British Columbia. His current contributions through Centre4Growth reflect his recognition that building industry capacity is critical to our success,” added Gorton. Read the rest of this entry »