Village Gamer

Capital One Canada and CanadaHelps are pleased to announce that Lianna Walden is the $20,000 grand prize winner of the 2011 Charity Fraud Awareness Quiz.  Courtesy of Capital One, Lianna is donating her winnings to the Vancouver Fringe Festival. The Charity Fraud Awareness Quiz was part of an awareness initiative to educate the public about charity fraud during Fraud Prevention Month.

When asked why Walden chose the Fringe, she responded, “The Fringe Festival has played a major role in nurturing Canadian theatre, culture, freedom of expression and the expansion of creativity. The Fringe Festival continues to offer a place for artists (of any means or age) to exhibit unjuried work and a place for the public to view it. Running from the east to west coast of Canada, The Fringe Festival is one of the most unique exhibitions of artistry in any country.”

The Vancouver International Fringe Festival, produced annually by the First Vancouver Theatrespace Society, is BC’s largest theatre festival and connects emerging and established theatre artists with audiences. This year’s Fringe Festival will feature over 700 performances by more than 90 groups over 11 days, and is expected to attract over 30,000 attendees. The Vancouver Fringe Festival was voted Vancouver’s Best Arts Festival for five years in a row by Georgia Straight readers.

“Although most of the people we encouraged to participate in the Charity Fraud Awareness Quiz were motivated by trying to help us win, I think everybody learned something new. I know I did,” explained David Jordan, the Fringe’s Executive Director. “Because we are so dedicated to helping emerging artists, we are usually focused on the nuts and bolts of festival preparation. As a small organization with a small staff that puts on a very big festival, it is very helpful to be a part of a larger not for profit community that can draw our awareness to essential aspects of our business like fraud prevention. Fraud in the charitable sector hurts the communities we are meant to serve.”

For the month of March, Capital One and CanadaHelps launched an on-line Charity Fraud Awareness Quiz to inform Canadians about the risk of charity fraud and how to prevent it. Every participant that completed the quiz was eligible to enter a draw to win a $20,000 grand prize donation, or one of $1,000 weekly donations from Capital One. The prize money is then given to the winner’s charity of choice. The Charity Fraud Awareness Quiz closed on March 31, 2011.

To protect yourself from becoming a victim of charity fraud, Capital One and CanadaHelps offer the following tips:

• Make sure the charity is registered with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and provides you with their charitable registration number. CanadaHelps.org only lists charities registered with the CRA.
• Ask to see a charity’s financial statements. These should be readily available to anyone who asks and give you a sense of how the charity spends their money.
• Understand the impact the charity has and what difference they make in the community. Charities should be able to give you clear outcomes of the programs or services they provide.
• Research the causes you want to support and how much of your budget you want to donate to charity. You will feel less pressured to give when solicited if you have already planned your giving.
• Avoid any charity that pressures you into making a donation or isn’t open to sharing more information about their organization.

US-based Black Duck Software has partnered with Toronto-based Softworx Technology Group in order to expand the delivery of its software and services in Canada.

Softworx is a provider of ALM development tools and platforms designed to increase developer productivity, provides products and services that speed collaborative development in multi-source development environments. Under terms of the agreement, Softworx will offer products and services for open source governance and management with the Black Duck® Suite.

“The strategic use of open source software is fast becoming a measure of development competency,” said Phil Odence, vice president of business development, Black Duck. “We are pleased to add Softworx, a leader in delivering ALM products and services, as a partner as we expand our offerings to Softworx customers in Canada.”

Black Duck recently announced the availability of the Black Duck Suite 6, the company’s enterprise-class management and governance platform, which enables enterprises to realize the compelling benefits of free and open source software (FOSS) use in development. The Black Duck Suite 6 mitigates the challenges and complexity associated with enterprise-scale multi-source development via “learned” code matching and automated identification of FOSS, among many other features.

Hootsuite has released the first in a 5-part series of White Papers exploring the ROI of social media. Aimed at Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs), the white papers are co-authored by HootSuite and Nichole Kelly of FullFrontalROI.com and will be valuable for anyone seeking to align social media with traditional metrics like conversions, acquisition cost, and revenue.

“Marketers want to measure social media in a way that is meaningful to the organization, but unfortunately most of us aren’t metrics junkies and there isn’t a silver bullet answer. This White Paper series is about showing marketers how they can finally tie their results to financial metrics like sales, revenue, and cost,” states Ms. Kelly. “I partnered with HootSuite on this project, because my analysis of their Custom Social Analytic Reports shows that it isn’t about giving you a pretty set of social media metrics. It’s about data that will drive better decision making in your organization.”

The first White Paper, “Introduction to Social Media Measurement“ is available now, opening the door into the strange world of marketing and social media. The full series will give companies a better understanding of the many facets of measuring campaigns for lead generation, customer retention, brand awareness and other business aims. The white papers will be available sequentially at two week intervals for free download. HootSuite will also be hosting two public webinars with Ms. Kelly following publication of the 2nd and 4th installations.

Distribution360 will be at the LA Screenings from May 17-24 to meet with potential buyers from domestic and international markets. The company’s slate includes over 200 hours of content across all genres. The company also welcomes Vivian Miranda to the Distribution360 team. She brings over 10 years of distribution and sales experience to the team. Vivian will be representing D360 full-time in Los Angeles, and she will be attending LA Screenings in an effort to expand the company’s international sales reach to Latin American markets.

Prior to her current post, Vivian spent three years at Televix Entertainment where she placed well-known kids’ programming in Latin America. She also worked for E! Entertainment, where she developed a weekly block called La Hora E!, featuring programs from the E! Entertainment library, which aired in numerous Latin American territories. Earlier in her career, Vivian spent four years at Alliance Atlantis Communications handling sales of its diverse program library to broadcasters throughout Latin America.

“We’re thrilled to have Vivian join our team and represent D360 at this year’s LA Screenings,? says Stephanie Röckmann-Portier, Head of Sales, Distribution360. ?Having such strong LA-based representation puts us in a great position to reach valuable Spanish-speaking markets,” adds Stephanie. ?This is an important step in bringing our content to new audiences.”

D360’s slate for the LA Screenings includes:

Kids & Youth

Olive the Ostrich (52 x 5’ animated series, web games, online videos)

Written in a highly descriptive, storybook style, Olive the Ostrich is a CGI animated series for preschoolers, which chronicles the adventures of a young ostrich named Olive on her imaginary travels to all sorts of amazing places. In each episode, animators bring to life real pictures drawn by children and submitted through an integrated online component. These animations create all the guest characters, places and objects that Olive encounters. Inquisitive and enthusiastic, Olive loves to solve problems and help people whenever she can. She’ll try anything once, which can get her into trouble, but she always finds fun and inventive ways of getting herself out of it. The series will premiere in the UK on Nick Jr. in September 2011. Produced by Blue-Zoo.

Splatalot (26 x 30’ action reality series, format rights, web games, online videos)

A hilarious medieval-themed action reality show geared to the tween audience, featuring an extreme obstacle course with more wipe outs and spills than ever imaginable. Each episode features a different group of 12 thrill-seeking teen contestants, dubbed Attackers, competing in three cringe-inducing rounds. The Defenders of Splatalot, an international squad of nine medieval-themed gladiators, will do their best to protect the castle from the Attackers – only leaving one to be crowned King or Queen. Splatalot was commissioned by YTV, the BBC, and ABC (Australia). Produced by marblemedia.

This is Daniel Cook (130 x 6’ or 26 x 30’ live-action episodes, format rights, web games)

Inquisitive, intelligent and adventurous—This is Daniel Cook is more than just a live-action preschool TV series. It’s an educational adventure where children can join six-year-old host Daniel Cook as he discovers the world. Follow Daniel as he explores and learns with everyone from Olympic gold medalists to zookeepers and award-winning musicians. Preschoolers will love this new friend who shares their curiosity and interests. Produced by marblemedia and Sinking Ship Entertainment.

This is Emily Yeung (65 x 6’ live-action episodes & 2 x 30’ specials, format rights, web games)

See her laugh, learn and share. This is Emily Yeung is an engaging and educational preschool live-action series. This sunny six-year-old is host to a whole universe of discovery and adventures that will enthral and capture the imaginations of preschoolers with every spirited instalment. Viewers will tag along with Emily as she takes on the world and learns with everyone from painters, to politicians and rocket scientists. Produced by marblemedia and Sinking Ship Entertainment.

Lifestyle

Ghostly Encounters (83 x 30’ episodes)

Start a conversation about things that go bump in the night, and pretty soon everybody in the room has a story to tell. Paranormal experiences aren’t just the domain of psychics and tarot card readers – in fact, many ordinary people believe they have had supernatural encounters. Ghostly Encounters looks into those incidents and the regular folks-next-door who had them, and takes the viewer on a chilling ride through a fascinating, highly personal ghost story. Produced by Logan Hill Productions.

Comedy

TAC.tv (181 x 3’ animated shorts & 23 x 30’ animated episodes and online videos) 

The series features a cast of hilarious characters such as The Googoos, The Secretary, and The Pilot, to name a few. These off-the-wall characters are sculpted from modeling clay by the creator himself, Michel Beaudet. In post production, he superimposes his own moving eyes, mouth and nose, creating unique characters with over-the-top personalities. Produced by Salambo Productions.

Factual

6 Rides to Sunday (52’ documentary)

This is the story of Professional Brazilian bull rider, Renato Nunes. Renato wasn’t born a rodeo star. He chose to leave his family home and embark on a career as a professional bull rider and is now poised to enter one of the largest and most prestigious events in rodeo on earth – The Calgary Stampede. Six rides on some of the rankest bulls in the world is what it takes to be crowned Champion at The Calgary Stampede and take home the $100,000 purse. Viewers find out if Renato can tame 6 bulls to be victorious at the Stampede. Produced by White Iron Pictures.

A report on emerging technology companies released today by PwC shows that for the second straight year, angel investors have taken over as the primary funding source for these companies, with venture capitalist fundraising at a 16-year low. Angels typically invest their own funds, unlike venture capitalists, who manage the pooled money of others in a professionally-managed fund.

Overall, 53% of respondents to its survey who raised money last year received their funding from angels, compared to 8% who received funding from venture capitalists. This presents a challenge that limits Canadian technology businesses from competing in the global market, the report says.

“Fundraising trends are an important predictor of innovation and growth in this sector,” says Peter Matutat, Partner and National Emerging Company Practice Leader at PwC. “Our report shows that companies who successfully raised capital in 2010 were 3.5 times more likely to adopt an aggressive approach to business reinvestment compared to businesses that were unsuccessful. One of the problems in our market is that Canadian companies receive only 39% of the dollars that go to their US competitors ($3.2 million vs. $8.2 million on average in 2010).”

The 50-page report polled over 160 CEOs of emerging Canadian software companies on a variety of topics including growth, marketing, raising capital, research, talent recruitment and mergers. Overall, revenues in this sector are increasing and forecasts are back at pre-recession levels. Overall revenue growth was approximately 32% in 2010, just slightly behind the survey’s historic average of 35%.

Other findings from the report include:

• Over 60% of CEOs expect revenues to increase at least 25% in 2011
• 73% expect their companies will be acquired in the next 5 years
• 84%  are using cloud computing in some form
• More than 80% are taking a more aggressive approach to business planning Read the rest of this entry »

MEGA Brands Inc. has entered into a multi-year global licensing agreement, excluding Asia, with Saban Brands to develop construction toys based on the all-new kids’ action series Power Rangers Samurai, the newest generation in the long-running, highly popular entertainment franchise.

The Mega Bloks Power Rangers Samurai construction toy sets will match the fun, action-packed style of the new series airing on Nickelodeon. Launching in Spring 2012, the Mega Bloks Power Rangers Samurai construction toy line will engage children of all ages with its popular characters, vehicles and playsets that offer endless possibilities of building adventures.

“We’re excited to be partnering with Saban Brands and build on the immense success of the Power Rangers franchise,” said Vic Bertrand, Chief Innovation Officer of MEGA Brands. “We look forward to bringing the adventures of Power Rangers Samurai to life through Mega Bloks by offering fans an engaging and immersive building experience.”

“The Power Rangers continue to be one of the world’s leading children’s entertainment properties and we are delighted to add Mega Bloks to our stable of license offerings,” said Elie Dekel, President of Saban Brands. “Saban Brands has established for the Power Rangers brand a unique image that strongly resonates with families and we look forward to extending its global success through our new partnership with MEGA Brands.”

Combining comedy with action-filled storylines, the all-new half-hour series Power Rangers Samurai features a new cast of Rangers and never-before-seen villains, as well as high-octane action, martial arts and advanced special effects. From SCG Power Rangers LLC, an affiliate of Saban Brands, the long-running hit kids’ TV phenomenon, now heading into its 19th season, is helmed by Haim Saban, who created and produced the original “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” series in 1993. New episodes premiere Saturdays at noon (ET/PT) on Nickelodeon.

A small Canadian start up eBook publisher sits among a list of global publishing power houses as one of the top 50 Humor eBooks on Apple’s iPod Touch. Vancouver based Open Mic Press sales surged in May 2011 when bookstorechart.com named “The Best of Drunk Texter” by Ivana Murleau (we get it: I wanna Merlot) at 16th place in the category of Top 50 humor eBooks available for download on ipod, using the iBooks App available from the App Store on iTunes.

“The Best of Drunk Texter is a hilarious book,” says Open Mic Press Co-Owner and Publicist Robert Christofle. “We saw a huge surge on all ebook sale sites when the news came out surpassing our other eBooks virtually overnight.”

The eBook is listed in over 43 countries with over 72 ebook sellers.

Open Mic Press was founded by Robert Greene and Robert Christofle in January 2011 to bring humour with a Canadian twist to the world ebook market. The venture was also an initiative to push environmental friendly publishing since ebooks creates little to no paper waste.

“It’s nice to see that a small ePublishing House from Canada with only two employees can compete against multi-conglomerates for readers of eBooks,” says Christofle.

According to data released by the Association of American Publishers, the growth of ebooks continues to accelerate to the obvious detriment of print books. In 2011, ebook sales surpassed hard cover book sales for the first time.

A $3.5-million grant announced today by Premier Christy Clark will generate jobs and promote innovation by creating new research opportunities in the province.

The grant – awarded to MITACS, a Vancouver-based research network which creates and manages unique research and training programs – will enable B.C. graduate students and new PhDs to connect with businesses and apply their research to real-world challenges and attract top international undergraduate students to local universities.

“Research and innovation are key to economic growth in our province, and to providing jobs for B.C. families into the future,” Premier Clark said. “With this announcement, we are working with our partners to take great ideas from our university labs and turn them into excellent jobs, driving progress in every sector of our economy.”

The funding will create up to 300 new graduate internships through the MITACS-Accelerate program and 19 fellowships for recent PhD graduates through MITACS-Elevate, as well as foster better linkages between BC’s universities and some of the brightest international talent through the Globalink program.

Established in 1999, MITACS is a not-for-profit research organization which partners with government, universities and industry to recruit, train and retain graduate students in B.C.

“MITACS has far exceeded our expectations by connecting almost 1,000 graduate students with B.C. businesses and organizations to create innovative products and practices,” said Pat Bell, Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation. “Today’s investment will help build the highly-educated workforce we need to be a leader in innovation and commercialization.” Read the rest of this entry »

Sun Life Financial has announced that it plans to offer a free mobile application for group benefits and group retirement and savings plan members. Submitting benefit claims and saving for the future will be easier with a single mobile app that will redefine the plan member experience across Canada. Group plan members with an iPhone^® mobile digital device or BlackBerry^® smartphone will be able to download the free app directly from each manufacturer’s application marketplace. Users of other smartphones will have access to mobile web functionality shortly after the launch of the app.

For Sun Life group benefits plan members, the app allows them to submit medical and dental claims from their smartphones for instant processing. Plan members will be able to submit claims anywhere, anytime – even at point of sale – and could have their money deposited into their bank accounts within 24 to 48 hours.

Plan members will also be able to view the details of their submitted claims, even those submitted in paper through the mail, and have easy access to important benefit tools including their drug and travel protection cards. The app is scheduled to be available later this summer.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ePoHhtUEkw]

Along with the group benefits capabilities, group retirement and savings plan members can check their plan balances and recent contributions right from their phones. Sun Life Financial will offer mobile access and three interactive financial planning tools that take everyday spending situations and show how easy it is to turn small expenses into substantial savings. These tools include:

• Save today for more tomorrow
• Small amounts equal big savings
• Saving my bonus, saving my raise.

“Plan members have told us they’re looking for a faster, easier experience,” says Tom Reid, Senior Vice-President, Group Retirement Services, Sun Life Financial Canada. “We’ve provided that access in education sessions through the use of wireless enrolment and now we’re continuing the evolution of our technology for plan members by making mobile access available for account information and financial planning tools. We’re taking convenience to a whole new level for group retirement and savings plans.”

D-BOX Technologies Inc. has signed its first agreement with Rave Digital Media LLC to equip two screens in its Westroads 14 Theatre in Omaha, Neb. with a total of 46 D-BOX MFX Seats.

The Westroads 14 is scheduled to introduce the incredibly immersive D-BOX motion technology May 20th with the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. This is the first theatre in the state to offer D-BOX MFX Seats that pitch, roll and heave in perfect sync with the action taking place onscreen providing moviegoers a completely realistic movie-viewing experience.

“Rave is among the largest circuits in the U.S. so this first agreement is a substantial step forward toward our continued growth throughout the country,” stated President and CEO of D-BOX Technologies, Claude Mc Master. “We are excited to complement Rave’s tradition of innovation and hope that our new collaboration will provide possible future opportunities for additional sites with Rave.”

“Our commitment to enhancing the movie experience through advanced technologies and exceptional comfort at our theaters is unwavering,” said VP of Marketing for Rave Motion Pictures, Jeremy Devine. “We view D-BOX as an incredibly unique, dynamic, and fun experience for our patrons.”