Village Gamer

Sault STE. Marie – The annual Future Play Conference on the future of game development has become an event that gets circled on the calendars of the gaming world’s top scholars, students and industry leaders. With 2009 keynote speakers that include games pioneer and guru Don Daglow and Ben Sawyer of Digitalmill, this year promises to be no exception.

With the 2009 Future Play Conference now partnered with the Game Developers Conference® (GDC Canada), there will now be even more opportunities for participants to benefit from influential speakers, thought-provoking panel discussions and valuable networking opportunities.

“I have a high regard for the role of Future Play in the game research and development vista in Canada,” says University of Calgary Professor Jim Parker, a long-time Future Play participant. “I was an early participant in Future Play, since 2004 in fact, when it was still named the Game Technology Conference, and I have been enthusiastic ever since. It has been the home of many innovations, such as the game contest in 2007 and in acting as host for the Canadian Game Studies Association in its early stages.”
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Application Deadline Extended To March 16 2009

Banff – The Global Writers Apprentice Programme offers emerging Canadian writers with the unprecedented opportunity to gain significant experience by completing a four-week internship in the story department of a prime-time series. The winners will be selected by a three person jury. Successful applicants will be invited to attend the Banff World Television Festival on a full access pass. The program is open to individual writers as well as to established writing teams who have a track record together.

Before attending BANFF, they will work on their series pitches and pitching techniques in one-on-one sessions with the Program Director.

Qualifications

Successful applicants must be able to demonstrate an expertise in dramatic screenwriting. Preference will be given to those individuals who have at least a half hour of produced drama.

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Microsoft invites IT professionals and software developers to prove their mettle

Ottawa – In an interactive game promoting the benefits of Microsoft certification, the software company asks IT and development professionals to prove their know-how in a series of tech knowledge challenges.

Created by Canadian interactive marketing and branded entertainment developer Fuel Industries, Are You Certifiable? is a Silverlight-based quiz game which will dig deep into the mental resources of technicians and developers alike in the process of determining who can meet and who can fly beyond the rigorous standards of Microsoft Certification. The game is a unique approach which will not only spread awareness of the benefits of MS Certification and the Second Shot promotion, but also provide a valuable primer for professionals interested in taking an exam.

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Toronto – Despite the global economic downturn, new technology and consumer media consumption trends have created a host of employment opportunities in Canada’s publishing industry.

As the Canadian magazine sector rushes to adapt to an online audience, the shift is fueling a need for technology-savvy professionals who can help take the publishing sector into a brave new world, says professor Denise Schon of The Centre for Creative Communications, Centennial College.

“Traditional magazines are quickly evolving into a multi-platform medium including not only print, but online with the advent of web 2.0 technologies and live video streaming,” Schon says. “As such, we are seeing our grads working in a much wider variety of jobs across the magazine industry. Our program prepares students for that new world.”

The Centre for Creative Communications, Centennial College, has been offering its unique Book and Magazine Publishing program, known as a cornerstone of the industry, for more than 30 years. More recently, it responded to publishers’ needs with intensive, new courses in web 2.0 digital media publishing skills.

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Introduces “Master” Membership Level for Advanced MSPs

Ottawa – MSP Partners, an alliance founded by Cisco, Ingram Micro, Intel, Level Platforms and Microsoft, with the active participation of over 20 leading IT vendors and thousands of solution providers and MSPs, today announced the launch of its comprehensive all new 2009 education program.

Based on demand from the large number of solution providers now moving to more advanced Managed Services, MSP Partners is today introducing a “Master” membership. Master members will benefit from a series of professional courses and live events addressing the challenges and opportunities they face in moving their business to the next level.

“Our new Master membership level demonstrates the vendor community’s ongoing commitment to help solution providers grow and prosper in their business transformation to managed services. Our 2009 content provides the research and education solution providers need as they launch and evolve their Managed Services businesses,” said Jim Hamilton, Executive Director of MSP Partners.

New 2009 content includes:

* A comprehensive suite of on-demand courses covering both foundational Managed Services concepts as well as advanced concepts dealing with marketing, sales, operations and best in class Managed Services practices, all based on extensive and exclusive new 2009 research.
* Eight 2009 live web events describing new Managed Services opportunities in networking, security, business continuity and much more.
* An MSP Benchmark tool that evaluates a solution provider’s Managed Services business and provides a detailed best in class analysis.
* An “Ask an Expert” feature, where industry thought leaders answer members’ Managed Services questions.
* Monthly analysis of current trends in the Managed Services market.

via Facebook:
Vancouver – Relic Entertainment will be holding an open house from 2pm – 4:30pm on Wednesday, February 4 for programmers who have 4+ years’ experience in the following areas:

·Senior Database Engineer
·Senior Security Programmer
·Senior Tools Programmer
·Senior AI Programmer
·Network/ Architect Programmer
·Generalist Game Programmer
·UI Programmer

The Open House will give employment-seekers a chance to tour the Relic studio and chat with other designers working at Relic Entertainment, which is located on the 15th floor at 550 Burrard Street, Vancouver. Interested parties are asked to please RSVP to “jobs [at] relic [dot] com”.

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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Astral Media Inc. is proud to announce its support for the Institute of Communication Agencies and Virgin Unite during Canada’s 2009 Advertising Week. In the “A day in the life of an agency” contest targeting young aspiring marketing and advertising students Astral Media will contribute $100 000 in media space on the Company’s out-of-home and radio advertising platforms to the winning student campaign.

The 2009 Advertising Week takes place from January 26 to the 29, a week-long celebration of the business of ideas and communication. As part of “Youth Day,” one of AdWeek’s key events, Astral Media is actively sponsoring the A day in the life of an agency contest, which will involve 150 students working in teams with 15 agencies on a communications brief to promote a benefit concert for Virgin Mobile and Virgin Unite’s RE(*)Generation program. Students will be mentored by various ad agency teams in building a campaign during the course of an intense morning of brainstorming. The winners will have the benefit of seeing their advertising concept developed and publicized on Astral Media’s out-of-home and radio properties in Toronto and Vancouver during the course of the summer.

“This is an exciting opportunity for Astral Media to demonstrate its ongoing investment in developing tomorrow’s creative talent,” said Jacques Parisien, Group President, Astral Media Radio and Astral Media Outdoor. “We are always pleased to be able to showcase the country’s next generation of talent, and we look forward to seeing the creativity they apply to such an exciting project as Virgin Unite’s at-risk and homeless youth program, RE(*)Generation.”

Vancouver – For the second year in a row, tickets to Industry Speaker Day (February 7, 2009) at Game Design Expo 2009 have sold out!

Missed out on tickets? For aspiring game designers and anyone interested in game design and development, Game Design Expo also features a free Open House on Sunday, February 8, 2009 at Vancouver Film School’s acclaimed Game Design programme.

Attendees will hear about the world-renowned one-year Game Design program, meet faculty, students, and alumni, play student games, and experience sample classes covering subjects like Level Design and Storytelling.

The day also features a special schedule of industry presentations – featuring speakers from LucasArts, Big Fish Games, and Vicarious Visions (Activision) – and an exclusive Women in Games panel, where you can be the first to hear the details of a $30,000 Women in Games Scholarship.

Voice over personality extraordinaire, Marc Graue of Marc Graue Voice Over Recording Studios in Burbank, never disappoints when he lectures on the industry renowned Voice Over Experts Podcast presented by Voices.com. As the owner of the oldest voice over studios in Burbank, CA, Graue knows more than a thing or two about the business of voice acting and how to prepare for success, giving his clients the “best of both worlds”.

In Marc Graue’s most recent podcast episode, “How To Get a Callback From an Audition“, listeners learn how to nail an audition by thinking fast on their feet. Graue encourages voice over talent to visualize their characters and to come as close as possible to the description of what’s being asked of them in an audition situation, even if the description provided doesn’t make much sense.

Braintracks Audio owner, voice over coach and business advisor, Nancy Wolfson, dispenses some choice tips promoting self-esteem for voice actors and creative professionals in need of affirmation and hearing the simple reality spoken aloud that they are indeed, enough. An excerpt from one of Nancy Wolfson and Anna Vocino’s teleseminars in their Break Into VoiceOver series, Wolfson’s “You Are Enough” focuses on how training and self-discovery will help people to realize that through proper training, their gifts, style and unique voice will see them through. Wolfson empowers and helps to verbally banish the “fear voice” that often holds people back, encouraging her listeners to get some game on, be true to their sound and remain authentic to achieve success.

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