Check out the list of INplay 2010 participants including speakers, advisory board members, working group and steering committee.
For the full list of speakers, click here.
For the full list of advisory board members, click here.
For the full list of working group members, click here.
For the full list of steering committee members, click here.
More to come!
Speaker
Foteini has received her MASc from the University of Toronto, and the BSc in Electrical Engineering, from the Technical university of Crete, in Greece. Her research interests include signal and image processing, multimedia applications, machine learning and pattern recognition.
Speaker
Sharon has been in the not-for-profit sector for 14 years, raising money for children’s charities in the social, healthcare and international development fields. Through nine years at SickKids Foundation, Sharon had the opportunity to impact nearly every fundraising channel in the organization and, always an unconventional fundraiser, was privileged to finish her career there as Senior Director, Innovation. 18 months ago Sharon joined UNICEF Canada as Chief Development Officer, and is relishing her biggest challenge yet.
Steering Committee / Working Group
As Director, Interactive for Astral Television Networks, Barbara Bailie is responsible for the strategic direction and production of interactive properties for eight television networks - Family, Disney Playhouse Canada, The Movie Network, HBO Canada, Mpix, Viewers Choice, Super Écran, and Cinépop. These networks serve a variety of audiences ranging from children to adults in both the English and French markets in Canada.
Ms. Bailie was responsible for launching Astral Media’s first website, family.ca, in May 1997. Under her guidance, family.ca has now grown to become one of the top Canadian kids’ web sites. According to Comscore, family.ca frequently ranks as one of the most popular kids’ entertainment sites against its key competitors. Targeted to kids 8 to 14, the site features games and activities, short and full-length broadband video contests, program mini-sites, moderated message boards, and user-generated content submitted by kids.
All of the websites under her direction have won numerous awards which include a 2007 Gemini Award for the Life with Derek mini-site on family.ca and 19 Gold, Silver and Bronze BDA/Promax Awards in a variety of categories such as best consumer site, best game, best micro-site, and best viral marketing campaign. Most recently family.ca’s new video player won a 2009 BDA Award and FamClub, family.ca’s community portal for kids won a 2009 Promax Award.
Speaker
Namrata joined MITACS in July 2008, and is responsible for promoting ACCELERATE Ontario to universities, institutions and companies in Ontario. Prior to joining MITACS, she held the position of Senior Scientist in the R&D division of DFB Pharmaceuticals in Fort Worth, Texas. Her primary responsibilities were drug development and commercialization in the area of chronic wound healing and tissue management. Namrata has a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio and her areas of research were skin structure and function, wound healing and cellular activities in various diseased conditions.
Speaker
Sheila Barry has worked at Kids Can Press for eight years, seven of them as editor-in-chief. In this role, she participates in planning the publishing program, acquiring new titles for the list, and editing select titles. Most recently, she has been involved in establishing Citizen Kid, a collection of books that introduce global issues to children. Under the Citizen Kid banner, Kids Can has published books on microloans, food security and human geography. Sheila is a frequent speaker at writers’ conferences and has taught publishing courses at both Ryerson and York universities.
Speaker
Michael Bellavia is the President of Animax Entertainment, a multiplatform production company based in Los Angeles that produces television and interactive entertainment. A winner of one of the first broadband Emmy Awards, Michael has produced story-driven virtual worlds for kids, games, apps, and other social media for clients like Disney, Fox, MTV, Nickelodeon, Bravo, ESPN, Ty Inc and Spin Master.
Recently Animax launched Fun Nugget, a family-friendly gaming portal and developed and produced Popzilla an animated sketch comedy series airing on MTV and co-founder Dave Thomas’ Bob & Doug for Global TV. Michael has led Animax growth since its inception, garnering a listing on the 2009 Inc. 500 list. He has an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS in Engineering from The University of Michigan and is on the Board of Delegates of the New Media Council of the Producers Guild of America.
Speaker
Since its creation in 2001, Emerging Playgrounds has produced more than 160 games and interactive applications for an ever growing list of clients, including Family Channel, Teletoon, Vrak, Radio-Canada, TVO, Cartoon Network, and Toronto International Film Festival.
Jeremie has a Masters in Communication and New Media from the Stendhal University of Grenoble (France) and pursued a Masters in Communication at the Universite du Quebec à Montreal (UQAM).
Prior to his work with Emerging Playgrounds, Jeremie held various positions in the emerging new media industry, both in France and in Canada, most notably in 1998 as Director of the Web Division for Cinegroupe Interactive.
During his three years at Cinegroupe, Jeremie worked on several interactive adaptations of the company's IPs , including Mega Babies, Kids from Room 402, Princess Sissi and Sagwa, The Siamese Chinese Cat.
In 2001, Jeremie also took a position as a teacher in the multimedia department of the CEGEP de Saint-Jerome and as titular of the new media program of Montreal based Institut National de l'Image et du Son (INIS).
Jeremie's teaching has enabled him to stay current with changing trends all while educating the next generation of games designers and programmers.
Keynote Speaker
Jon Berrett grew up in the Greater Los Angeles area of Southern California and majored in Psychology with a minor in Business at Brigham Young University. He has started several successful companies and has worked as an entrepreneur in real estate development and investment and more recently has been a consultant to other successful start-up companies. Berrett first became involved with Yo Gabba Gabba! in 2005, when he was pitched by the series co-creator Scott Schultz and raised the financing for the show's two pilot episodes.
Berrett currently resides in Yorba Linda, California, with his wife and their three young children. The father of a child on the autistic spectrum, he actively supports CAN (Cure Autism Now) and TACA (Talk About Curing Autism), organizations that are committed to autism research, education and outreach.
Speaker
Rose Bianchini has worked as a writer, director and artist in television, radio, film and new media. A few of her producer credits include VOX on TVO and The Hour on CBC Television. She has been a regular contributor and personality on CBC radio. Rose has created online video content for a range of clients such as Massey Hall, Spacing Magazine, Bunchland, and Nokia. The music video that she directed for Gentleman Reg was broadcast across North America on stations such as MTV. She is a co-founder of The Soft City, a miniature plush city, community arts project and interactive installation. Currently, the Soft City project is being developed as an educational video game to encourage civic engagement amongst children. She is a recent graduate of the New Media Lab at the Canadian Film Center, where along with her team she developed an interactive hoodie that functions as a game platform for teens. Her current writing project, which she is also illustrating, is a graphic novel for teens, which is represented by the Rights Factory.
Speaker
Amanda Billark is an enthusiastic, imaginative and playful young designer.
Her background in fine arts and creative thinking has inspired and helped form her own design process and life’s path. A recent graduate of OCAD’s Industrial Design Program she has an exciting career ahead of her.
Working for just over a year as a design consultant, Amanda has worked with the Children’s Own Museum, The CN Tower, The City of Toronto & Open City Projects, City Art, and most recently Pillitteri Estates Winery. Her focus on experience-based design has led her to design successful products, systems, exhibits and brand strategies for these clients.
Amanda is driven by her own curiosity about the world around her and her hunger to always keep learning. It is her personal belief to always do what you love and is off to a good start so far.
Amanda is always open to new ways of exercising her creativity. Follow her on twitter @amandabillark or join her professional network on linkedin: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/amandabillark.
Speaker
Keith Bilous is the founder and President of ICUC Moderation Services, the global leader in content and community moderation. His team of multi-lingual experts manage, monitor and moderate millions of conversations, comments, photographs and videos for some of the largest companies in the world. Keith's reputation and continued commitment to building partnerships, leading innovation, achievement and growth is unequaled and has positioned both Keith and ICUC as the leaders in the social media industry.
Speaker
As partner and co-founder of marblemedia Mark is responsible for building strong relationships with broadcasters, content developers, technology partners and investors. Mark plays a key role in developing both television and interactive projects that tell unique stories across multiple platforms.
Recently at the 2008 CNMA’s Mark was named Producer of the Year and marblemedia was named Company of the Year, an honour shared with business partner Matt Hornburg. Mark is the Executive Producer of This is Emily Yeung and This is Daniel Cook (Treehouse, TVO), now both airing in over 85 countries including Playhouse Disney in the U.S, Germany and Japan, and ABC in Australia. This is Daniel Cook and This is Emily Yeung also have a DVD collection, a series of six books and a Juno nominated CD available at retail locations across North America.
Mark is a creator of new marble projects such as: The Adrenaline Project (season 1 and 2), a high-energy, reality series for teens/tweens airing on YTV; Taste Buds a kids cooking and food adventure series on TVO and The Dating Guy, an interactive animation series coming to TELETOON’s The Detour 2009. Projects in development also include Waiting in the Wings, The Invasion and Camerahead (CBC).
Speaker
Jacob Blackstock has been producing comics, animation and interactive entertainment since forever. He is the founder of Core Matrix, a multimedia studio/creative thinktank where amazing projects are born – such as Bitstrips, a hugely popular online tool for creating original comics and cartoon characters. Bitstrips has applications for both entertainment and education – the teacher-tailored subscription service ‘Bitstrips for Schools’ has been licensed for over 2,000,000 students in its first year. Jacob serves as Bitstrips Inc’s CEO, Creative Director and Lead Designer.
Speaker
Jennifer Blitz has served as the Director of Tax Credits at the Ontario Media Development Corporation since October 2006. She began her tenure with the OMDC as a Team Leader in the Tax Credits Department in 2004 managing a team of analysts. Before joining the OMDC, Jennifer was a policy advisor for the former Minister of Culture, David Tsubouchi, conducting consultations with stakeholders and briefing the Minister on policy proposals. Jennifer is a lawyer by training, having worked at the law firm of McCarthy T�trault. She received her LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School.
Speaker
As Supervising Producer for marblemedia, Sasha Boersma oversees marblemedia’s interactive production slate from concept to proposal writing, to production and deployment. She also supervises the integration of the interactive production unit with other areas of the company (television production, post production, marketing and development). Prior to this post, Sasha was marblemedia’s Business Affairs Administrator, managing contracts, funding proposals, and distribution analysis and reporting. Previously the Program Manager at the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund / Independent Production Fund, Sasha has studied both Radio and Television Arts and Marketing Management at Ryerson University. A part-time instructor on Marketing and Digital Media for Centennial College’s Children’s Entertainment Program, Sasha is also a regular guest speaker on the topic of business affairs of convergent media production at various post-secondary institutions.
Advisory Board, Speaker
Dr. James M. Bower Ph.D. is the founder, Chairman, and CVO of Numedeon Inc. which in 1999 launched Whyville.net as a tween learning environment and one of the first virtual worlds. Whyville.net currently has more than 6 million registered users who spend on average more than 35 minutes on the site per login. Dr. Bower is a computational neurobiologist at the Research Imaging Center of the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio (bower-lab.org) and has served on education and technology advisory committees for the National Academy of Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Bower is married with 4 children, and lives on a ranch outside San Antonio where he breeds and raises Cleveland Bay horses, and plays polo.
Speaker
Cora started her career in the Marketing department of the NBA’s Toronto Raptors. She then moved on to manage Community Relations for the NHL‘s Toronto Maple Leafs. In 2001 Cora brought her promotional marketing and sponsorship experience to the agency side overseeing Client Services & strategy for clients in the U.S. and Canada including: Coca-Cola Limited, Weston Bakeries, Thomas Cook Travel, ADP North America, Molson USA, Popeye's, and Baxter's Food Group.
In early 2009 Cora took a winning business venture plan to Mom Central USA, to launch the companies Canadian office. Mom Central Canada was quickly launched, with the mission to connect brands and companies with the ever-powerful and influential Mom target consumer. In just over one year, Mom Central Canada boasts top tier clients that include: P&G, Kimberly-Clark, General Mills, Health Canada & PepsiCo Inc.
Cora loves to take on new marketing challenges and help clients to think smarter and achieve real and measurable results through campaign ideas that can be carried across all marketing disciplines.
Cora has a B.Sc. from Dalhousie University and a postgraduate diploma from Boston College Carroll School of Management. She is mother to Kate – a 2 year old who shares her mother’s sense of determination and passion for life and Jack – a 7 month old chilled out little dude.
Advisory Board
More information coming soon.
Co-Chair Steering Committee / Working Group
Anne-Sophie is an award-winning producer with more than 15 years experience in Canadian and US network television. Prior to joining zinc Roe she worked at YTV, TVO/TFO, PBS, HGTV Canada, the Slice Network, and the Food Network where she proved her expertise at juggling editorial content and logistics.
In pursuit of her goal to push the viewing experience past the television set and into the online space, she joined zinc Roe where she now manages interactive projects, company strategy and business affairs. She brings a wealth of experience in user testing, information architecture and developing compelling user experiences specifically for children and continuously finds creative ways to apply her extensive knowledge to unique web and television co-productions. She has worked with many notable children’s broadcasters and producers in this capacity, including Teletoon, TVOntario, Family Channel and National Geographic Kids.
She has also presented at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival and KidScreen Summit.
Speaker
Laura Brown is a psychologist and educator who has held leadership positions in educational media for over ten years. Most recently, Dr. Brown served as Director of Research and Curriculum on “3rd and Bird!”
(CBeebies) and on the Emmy award winning “The Wonder Pets!” (Nick Jr.). She is also Curriculum Consultant on “Ni Hao, Kai-Lan” (Nick Jr.) and “Olivia” (Nick Jr.). Other recent projects include “Tobi!” (Treehouse TV/Canada and Nickelodeon Australia), “Gaspard and Lisa” (in production at Chorion), and “WordWorld Jr.” (US Department of Education funded literacy project in development).
Dr. Brown has been Director of Research and Curriculum at Little Airplane Productions since 2001, where she developed Little Airplane’s signature “Show and Tell Research” method. This method consists of showing children images from the episode and having them tell researchers, through both their behavior as well as explicit responses, how they feel about and how well they understand a particular episode. A licensed Psychologist, Dr. Brown had a practice specializing in learning disorders before her full-time involvement in educational media. Dr. Brown is herself a mother of three children who keep her completely engrossed and provide the perfect test group when she is not at work.
Co-Chair Steering Committee / Working Group
Ted Brunt has been working in interactive media since 1992, after a career writing, producing and editing television for TVOntario, TSN, NBC, CBC and Global. Following the launch of TVOntario's Online Group and helping create tvokids.com, he moved to the Independent Learning Division as Chief Technical Officer. In 2003, he joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to work with CBC.ca and Children's and Youth Programming as Chief Producer for Kids digital content. He performed a number of roles at the CBC, including Director of Arts & Entertainment Interactive and Sr. Director of Digital Entertainment Programming. Ted has always been interested in the fusion of technology, audiences and content, and spends far too much time fiddling around online.
Steering Committee
Jennifer Burkitt began her career in Interactive at the Canadian Film Centre as Manager New Media Programmes at Media Linx Habitat. There she was able to guide resident new media projects, help build a professional development series of workshops and programme the Interactive Arena (a lecture series with the AGO). Jennifer went on to produce many online initiatives, including Heritage Minute activities for kids, the Canadian Television Fund site and Gentle Subversion – The Canadian Psyche on Film. As Lead Producer for Medium One Productions for over 3 years, she developed several online projects for PBS and Cinar, including the Mobius award-winning website Caillou and Zaboomafoo, as well as CD-ROMS for PBS and The Learning Company such as Jay Jay Jet Plane, Ken Burn's Jazz for Kids, Napoleon and Islam – A People's History. During this time, she also taught Project Management for New Media at Centennial College and helped to develop the curriculum for their certificate program. Her focus became children and youth exclusively for 5 years while she worked at TVOntario, as Manager of TVOKids.com. Her work has been recognized with a Japan Prize, as well as several Gemini, Canadian New Media Award and FlashintheCan nominations. Currently Jennifer is the Executive in Charge of Interactive Programming for Children’s and Youth at CBC where she provides strategic development and oversees interactive production for the preschool, school age and parent’s sites. She works closely with the broadcast team to deliver work that fluidly blends interactive and on-air initiatives as well as those that are stand alone interactive projects. Jennifer genuinely enjoys working for and with kids; believes in their ability to teach and learn and attempts to build work that enlightens, entertains and gratifies whether she is building them, playing or both.
Jennifer has a Media Arts degree from Ryerson Polytechnic University and a Psychology degree from the University of Guelph. She is working toward her Master of Education with an emphasis in children’s interactive and converged media at Brock University but is on a bit of a hiatus as her two kids (Daulton and Fynn) take up a lot of her free time.
Speaker
Marie Campbell is an agent with Transatlantic Literary Agency, specializing in fiction for ages 8+. Her clients and authors have been the recipients of numerous prizes, including the Governor General’s Award, the CLA Book of the Year Award and the Ruth Schwartz Award. After 20 years in the children’s book business, she's sat on many sides of the desk: as agent, acquisitions editor and rights manager at HarperCollins Publishers, as publicist at Penguin Books Canada. Marie joined TLA in London, U.K., and has been agenting based in Toronto since 2005. She represents writers from Canada, the U.S., Australia, and the U.K.
Speaker
Mark Chignell is Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto, where he has been on the faculty since 1990. He was an Assistant Professor in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California from 1984 to 1990. Mark taught in the Psychology Department at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia from 1980 to 1982. He has a Ph.D in Psychology (University of Canterbury, New Zealand, 1981), and an M.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering (Ohio State, 1984). He has been a visiting scientist at the IBM Centre for Advanced Studies in Toronto since 2002 and a visiting scientist at Keio University since 2005. He has co-authored books on expert systems and intelligent databases (published by John Wiley and Sons) and has written many papers on topics such as innovative user interfaces, hypertext and information retrieval. His research has been funded by the Bell University Laboratories, the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), IBM, and the Ontario Centres of Excellence. He has founded two start up companies, and currently runs Vocalage Inc., a high tech consulting firm. He is the General Chair of ACM Hypertext 2010 to be held in Toronto in June 2010.
Steering Committee
Glenn Cockburn’s career started in 1996 at New Line Cinema, where he headed Templeton Productions for two years. Glenn then joined The Characters Talent Agency in Toronto, where he ran the Packaging Department and operated the agency’s satellite office in Los Angeles.
Along with the rest of the Meridian Artists team, Glenn currently represents a select roster of Canada's top literary talent. He also represents the film and television interests of Random House of Canada.
Glenn holds an Honours BFA in Film and Television from York University and an MBA from Richard Ivey School of Business.
Speaker
After working as a web producer for two of the largest Canadian portals, Sympatico and Canoe, Philippe's career gravitated toward a job that brings together two of his greatest passions: internet and television.
In 1999, he landed at TQS, a Quebec based French-language television network which has since rebranded itself as V, and then at Les Chaînes Télé Astral in 2002 where he now heads the content and strategy division of the team that produces and develops interactive properties for 6 specialty TV channels : Canal D, Canal Vie, Historia, Séries+, VRAK.TV et Ztélé.
Today, Philippe is thrilled to be at the center of a multiplatform revolution that is just beginning to take place in the interactive media universe with the merge of TV, web and mobile technologies. However, perhaps because of his literary roots, he still believes that older technologies such as words, books and radio are still as relevant as every other new, interactive or digital media.
Speaker
Adrian Crook, senior producer of Triple-A videogames and entertainment, lives in Vancouver, Canada with his wife Lara, sons Oliver and Shepherd, and daughters Indiana and Harlow. During his 15 year career, Adrian has produced and designed nearly two dozen products across numerous platforms, ranging from Sega Genesis and SNES to PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PC, Web, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and Facebook. In 2006, Adrian was named Producer of the Year by the Canadian New Media Awards. Also in 2006, Adrian’s Xbox 360 game, The Outfit, was awarded Game of the Year by the Canadian Awards for the Electronic and Animated Arts.
Most recently, Adrian headed up Relic Labs, an internal group at THQ developer Relic Entertainment, where he developed innovative new game concepts utilizing emergent themes such as casual gaming, Web 2.0 and free-to-play business models. He also taught Team Management in the Game Design program at Vancouver Film School.
In January 2008, Adrian founded Compulsion Loop, an independent design consultancy focused on web and console games for a variety of clients. Compulsion Loop’s clients range from traditional game development studios to casual MMO developers, TV and film production companies, grant agencies and more.
Speaker
Stella Dahlin grew up in Denmark. She was educated at Universities in Denmark, Britain and Canada. Her first degree is in Environmental Studies.
Before becoming a librarian, Stella had a number of other positions: She worked as a research assistant in Zoology and in Environmental Studies at the University of Toronto, she was an environmental planner at the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, and she worked for a number of years for the Toronto District School Board teaching staff about educational software and its use in the classroom.
Stella is Library Services Manager for the Brentwood District of Toronto Public Library. Her prior positions as librarian focused on Community Development and on Children and Youth. As Senior Services Specialist for Children and Youth she led the team that developed Word Out! - a summer reading program for teens and pre-teens. She will speak about that program and other online activities at Toronto Public Library.
Speaker
DR. CHARLES H. DAVIS is a professor in the School of Radio and Television Arts (Faculty of Communication & Design) and in the Entrepreneurship and Strategy Department of the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University in Toronto, where he holds the Edwards S. Rogers Sr. Chair in Media Management and Entrepreneurship and teaches courses in media management and political economy of media. His current research interests have to do with product development, new firm formation and growth, and consumer behaviour in the media and experience industries. Dr. Davis holds an M.A. from the University of Notre Dame (Indiana), and a Ph.D. from the Université de Montréal. He is the author or co-author of approximately one hundred scholarly papers or book chapters. Before joining Ryerson, Dr Davis held the NSERC-SSHRC-NB Power-Xerox Research Chair in the Management of Technological Change at the University of New Brunswick.
Speaker
Jason is the founder of Perimeter Partners, a consultancy that provides strategic level guidance and expertise to companies and organizations on the boundary, or perimeter, of the game industry. For nearly nine years, he served as the executive director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), a professional society committed to advancing the game industry and the careers of developers. Jason was honored for his industry building efforts with the inaugural Ambassador Award at the 8th annual Game Developers Choice Awards. He continues to be an advocate for the expressive power of games and their capacity to change the world.
As a sought after expert on the game industry, Jason has spoken at conferences worldwide (e.g., GDC, Tokyo Game Show, Nordic Game, ChinaJoy, etc), lectured at top universities (e.g., National University of Singapore, McGill, University of Tokyo, Penn State, etc), and has either written for or been interviewed by countless news outlets (e.g., Wired, Edge, Nightline, LA Times, NPR, Wall Street Journal, The Escapist, etc).
Jason has been a member of the game industry for more than a decade, and has previously worked at IGDA, CMP, Quazal, Matrox Graphics, Silicon Graphics and Price Waterhouse. He blogs at www.realitypanic.com and can be reached via Jason [at] PerimeterPartners.com.
Speaker
Steven DeNure, President and Chief Operating Officer of DHX Media, is responsible for overseeing overall operations of DHX Media and its subsidiaries. Mr. DeNure also serves as Executive Producer on many of the company’s television and interactive media projects. Mr. DeNure co-founded Decode Entertainment in 1997 and, in 2003, merged the operations of Decode with Halifax Film to create DHX Media, which has become a leading international producer and distributor of television programming through its production companies, Decode Entertainment, Halifax Film and Studio B Productions, and an award-winning, industry leader in game development and interactive content through DHX Interactive.
Prior to founding Decode, Mr. DeNure was at Alliance Communications Corporation for more than 10 years and served in a number of senior positions including President of Alliance Productions and President of Alliance Multimedia. During his tenure at Alliance Communications Corporation, he was involved in the development, financing and production of all television and feature film projects, and was responsible for the animation division, music-publishing division and for merchandising and licensing.
Mr. DeNure serves on the board of the Canadian Film Centre as Vice Chair and is past Vice Chair of ACT, the Alliance for Children’s Television. Mr. DeNure graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BA in Economics & Business Administration.
Speaker
As Senior Director of Inventor Relations for Spin Master, Benjamin Dermer is in charge of finding, evaluating and implementing new toy ideas. In a given year, Ben sees over 3000 new concepts, and with his team leads the process of trying to figure out what’s new, cool and innovative in the world of toys. Working closely with inventors and designers around the world, he has helped bring to market hundreds of items, including Bakugan, Air Hogs ‘Zero Gravity’, Moon Sand, GloDoodle, Slurpee Maker, Shrinky Dinks and many more.
Benjamin holds a BFA in Screenwriting from York University, and has already surpassed his parents’ expectations.
Speaker / Working Group
Adam is a founding member and the president of Monster Factory Inc., a Toronto-based licensing and entertainment brand. Under the direction of Adam and his two co-creators, the Monster Factory has spent the past five years developing a small art project into Canada's premiere designer toy brand. To date, Adam has helped create over 100 original characters with the Monster Factory design and writing teams.
Currently, Adam is serving as Monster Factory’s creative director in the development of its brand as an entertainment and licensed property.
Steering Committee
Aron has turned several years of development and a lifetime of playing videogames into a dream job.
While it may look like he’s playing games on company time, Aron is actually responsible for the acquisition of new intellectual properties and their management through the development process. He works closely with Portfolio’s executive and creative teams to craft shows with universal appeal, while incorporating a high level of interactivity to enhance the audience’s engagement. He will also be responsible for extending Portfolio’s brands into multiple platforms.
While a comprehensive knowledge of programming trends and a formidable rolodex of broadcaster contacts is vital, Aron feels that recognizing and championing talent is what gets great shows on television. Needless to say, Aron’s screen never reads: “Game Over”.
Speaker
Christyn is a recent addition to the Children's & Youth Interactive team at CBC. There she is involved in creating fun and educational content for the preschool, school age and parents’ sites.
Prior to joining CBC, she had the pleasure of working at Astral Media as Interactive Content Coordinator for Family.ca contributing ideas and kid-friendly content for network and sales promotions. Her most notable accomplishments were helping shape Family Kicks, an ongoing team gaming competition, and Famclub, the kids’ community portal.
In her spare time, Christyn enjoys making up stories, playing in her garden and making people laugh.
Speaker
Joey Egger, Senior Producer of Kids content for Digital Media at Sesame Workshop oversees production of digital media content intended for a preschool audience. Websites include SesameStreet.org, pbskids.org/sesame and pinkydinkydoo.com.
In the past 12 months SesameStreet.org won an Emmy (New Approaches – Daytime Childrens), a Peabody and most recently the Webby Award for Family/Parenting.
Before coming to Sesame Workshop in 2007, Joey was a producer at ABC Kids Interactive for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), overseeing Australia’s two most popular online gateways for kids, The Playground and RollerCoaster.
In 2005 she took a year out from the ABC to work as a project manager with online and mobile development company QuickPlay (formerly Snap Media) in Toronto, Canada. During this time Joey worked on kids and teen websites including Degrassi.tv and Instant Star.
Her extensive experience in development and production of kids’ cross-media content always focuses on building safe and engaging online communities for kids of all ages.
Speaker
Erica Ehm is the Founder and Editor-in-chief of YummyMummyClub.ca – the online destination for modern moms looking for adult stimulation.
It was her difficult transition from career woman to new mother that inspired Erica to create an online destination for women with children. Thousands of women have become devoted members of the Yummy Mummy Club, and Erica has become the passionate voice of a whole new generation – Yummy Mummies.
A busy woman herself, juggling multiple activities at once, Erica has become a resource for Canadian women, who often look to her for insight and advice on how to manage their busy lifestyles and still make time for themselves.
Social media and marketing to today's modern woman has become one of Erica's strengths. Advertisers and marketers often use Erica as a resource to connect with mothers.
Erica is one of Canada’s most recognized personalities, having started her career in the mid-80’s as the voice of her generation on MuchMusic. Her multimedia resume includes acting, award winning songwriter, playwright, author, journalist and most importantly, The Yummy Mummy Club.
Currently, Erica is host of the Bravo music series, Live at the Concert Hall.
She recently released the childrens book The Mischievous Mom at the Art Gallery.
Erica sits on the advisory board for SickKids Foundation and is involved with Worldvision.
Her son Joshua, little sister Jessie and husband Terry are the reason Erica is a Yummy Mummy.
Speaker / Steering Committee
Patricia Ellingson has been the Creative Head of Children’s Programming for TVO since October 1998. Children’s programming is the cornerstone of TVO’s commitment to educational broadcasting. It encompasses over 70 hours of TVO’s weekly scheduling, about 90 hours per year of in-house TV production and the number one educational website for kids in Canada, tvokids.com. TVO is a publicly funded media organization based in Toronto, Canada.
Patricia has a particular passion for presenting programming that makes a difference in the lives of kids and parents. She has been instrumental in building the trusted tvokids educational brand, overseeing multi-platform productions developed for every kind of young learner and covering virtually all areas of the Ontario JK-5 curriculum: Gisèle’s Big Backyard, Reading Rangers, Super Citizens and Tumbletown Tales to name just a few. Patricia was responsible for the convergence of TVO children’s television and new media teams and rebuilding the tvokids.com website, which has become one of the most popular kids’ online destinations and one that continues to push the envelope on multiple platforms.
Pat has worked with some of Canada’s most notable producers who share her commitment to innovative kids content that has substance and “makes you think”. Her international co-productions have included Miss BG, George Shrinks, Timothy Goes to School, Swap TV, Think Big, Heads Up, Taste Buds, This is Daniel Cook and Peep and the Big Wide World.
Pat also acts as Executive Producer for TVO’s family programs including the innovative multiplatform program for parents, YOUR VOICE.
Speaker
Carla Engelbrecht Fisher is a freelance children’s technology developer and consultant, game designer, researcher, and author. Carla’s work focuses on technology and its relationship with human cognition and development, particularly as it applies to children and games. Through the course of her career, she has worked for Highlights for Children, PBS KIDS Interactive, Sesame Workshop, and a host of other children's media groups to produce and consult on interactive content that includes a wide variety of games. Currently, she's the lead designer for two undisclosed video games and is also a doctoral candidate in Instructional Technology and Media from the Communications, Computing, and Technology in Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She speaks internationally on the idea of incorporating developmental psychology and research into game design paradigms.
Speaker
Jing Feng is a PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto. Her undergraduate was in applied psychology at Zhejiang University in China, and her master work was done at the University of Toronto. Her research focus around the cognitive performance at visual periphery, the essence of human information processing bottleneck, and training techniques to improve spatial skills. Current projects include cognitive training using video games and top-down modulation of visual attention.
Speaker / Advisory Board
Robert Ferrari serves as VP Global Publishing and Business Development at Sanrio Digital, as well as VP Business Development at the company’s joint venture partner - Typhoon Games. Sanrio Digital focuses on the publishing of interactive entertainment based on the world renowned Hello Kitty® and Sanrio brands. The company holds a leadership position creating the convergence of virtual worlds, MMOs and social networking for a truly integrated social gaming solution. Typhoon Games is a premier game development studio for leading MMO brands such as Hello Kitty Online from Sanrio Digital, and Ben 10 Omniverse and Tom & Jerry Online from TurnOut Ventures.
Based in Boston MA, Ferrari oversees the company’s global publishing and business development initiatives across PC, console and handheld platforms. Ferrari brings a wealth of global business experience to Sanrio Digital and Typhoon Games as a well-known and highly respected industry veteran and executive within the online games sector.
Ferrari was previously VP Business Development at Turbine Inc. a leading publisher and developer of massively multiplayer online games. Having joined Turbine back in 2004, Ferrari was instrumental in the company’s hyper growth, global expansion, strategic partnerships, self-publishing transition, licensing, digital distribution, and traditional retail channel initiatives. His efforts contributed to the success of Turbine’s award-winning online games, including The Lord of the Rings Online™, Dungeons & Dragons Online™: Stormreach™ and Asheron's Call®. Previous to his tenure at Turbine, Ferrari held senior executive roles at interactive media and consumer product companies such as Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG), Websurfer Inc, and Merinta Inc.
Ferrari is an active and high profile industry speaker. He serves on the exec committee of the MIT/NE Games and Interactive Entertainment SIG, as well as the Massachusetts Tech Leadership Council/Entertainment Sector.
Advisory Board
Dan Fill, is a partner in the Canada/Australia production company The Chocolate Liberation Front. He is currently the Executive Producer of a feature film in development The World of Infinite Curiosity ; a video game of the same name; a television series Figaro Pho and video game of the same name. Dan is a Producer of the Kids In The Hall Death Comes To Town Online game and the SBS Multicultural History of Australia project. Prior to starting the Chocolate Liberation Front with his partners, Dan was the Head of Mulitplatform for ABC Australia and Vice President of Interactive for Decode Entertainment. Dan lives in Melbourne Australia and is the recipient of three dozen international awards for Innovation including British Academy Award nomination and is currently awarded Australia's top digital innovator by The Australian Newspaper.
Speaker
With a Doctorate in molecular genetics & biotechnology from the University of Guelph, Jeremy has been extensively involved in both public and private scientific education outreach programs, teaching about all aspects of science biology and the scientific culture. He has been teaching since 1998 and has taught at a number of Ontario Universities including the University of Western Ontario, the University Guelph, Wilfrid Laurier University, University of Waterloo, and the University of Toronto. He has consulted, designed, and developed digital assets for textbooks & major interactive educational exhibits. In 2003, he founded his first company vive Technologies Inc., which focused on educational computer games and scientific communication. Currently he is a partner and founder of Spongelab Interactive, a Toronto based company devoted to immersive learning through educational games and interactive media. Spongelab has worked on number educational games including Immune Attack, produced by the Federation of American Scientists, the award-winning series of educational games called Genomics Digital Lab and currently is in production of their first virtual world.
Speaker
Lib Gibson is an accomplished business person, with a history of executive management in the high tech industry. From 1997 to 2004, she was CEO of Bell Globemedia Interactive, Canada’s largest Internet media company. She also launched several significant Internet properties in Canada, including the Sympatico ISP, Workopolis, GlobeInvestor.com, and Globeandmail.com.
Before her involvement with the Internet, Lib had spent her career at the leading edge of technology. As CEO of Raft Mobile Systems, she was pursuing mobile data applications in the late 80’s. As head of the I.P. Sharp Associates’ Software Business in the 70’s and 80’s, she spearheaded international communications-based computing solutions for Global Fortune 500 companies especially in banking and energy. As well as operational expertise, Lib has held roles in strategy – as VP Strategy at Bell Canada, and Strategic Advisor to the CEO at BCE.
Lib’s career has been recognized with the 2001 New Media Pioneer Award, the 2002 Trailblazer of the Year (Canadian Women in Communications) and as a Woman of Influence in 2000.
Lib is a Director of ING Direct Bank of Canada and of West Park Healthcare Centre. She is a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors, and has sat on many other boards in the past.
Lib teaches Innovation Management in the Rotman and the Queen’s MBA programs and has also taught in the Master of Design in Strategic Foresight and Innovation at the Ontario College of Art and Design. She is co-author of Mapping Your Innovation Strategy, Harvard Business Review; author of The Voices of Innovation in Strategy and Innovation, and Innovators’ Insight: Designing the Right Job in Strategy and Innovation, February 2009 and Forbes.com.
Lib holds a Masters of Mathematics from Carleton University, and she is a doting grandmother, fervent TED attendee, semi-active blogger, avid cryptic crossword’er, enthusiastic skier, and dedicated cottager.
Speaker
David manages online content for ABC Children’s TV brands ABC for Kids (pre-school) and ABC3 (school-aged). The new ABC3 channel was launched in December 2009 and is already the top-rated destination for Australian kids aged 6 to 12 years. ABC Children’s interactive content and services are produced internally and through external commission, co-production and acquisition.
David was previously Head of Multimedia at Antenna Audio (Discovery Communications) – a mobile content producer and distributor in the arts and cultural heritage sector – after several years in the UK producing children’s online content, learning and games.
Speaker
Jill Golick has written and produced for many media including television, print, greeting cards and the web. She is the creator/producer of Crushing It, the first live comedy soap opera on Twitter and the tween web series Hailey Hacks. She blogs about transmedia, television and writing at Running With My Eyes Closed. She is the vice president of the Writers Guild of Canada and the host of the Writers Talking TV podcast. Jill is available to create or consult on your next transmedia venture.
Jill on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, ClaimID and FriendFeed.
Speaker
Gerry Gouy is the New York-based Global Senior Business Development Director for MTV Networks International, the world's largest television network. He is responsible for global distribution deals and partnerships across every country outside the United States, and across every digital platform including online, mobile & IPTV, and across all MTV Networks brands and properties including MTV, Nickelodeon & Comedy Central. Gerry joined MTV Networks in 2006 after six years of driving content partnerships in TV, Music, Sports & Gaming at 3Mobile in Asia & Europe. Prior to that he worked as General Manager of ZDNet Australia, and held a number of senior roles at AltaVista & LookSmart, going back to the dawn of the Web in the mid 1990s. He has over 14 years' worldwide digital media commercial, marketing and operational experience (including ten years' mobile) and detailed understanding of partnership and business models across all major digital platforms. During his career he has been responsible for digital media content deals across the world which have grossed hundreds of millions of dollars in direct revenues, partnering with a wide range of media companies including Universal Music, Apple iTunes, Vodafone, Paramount Pictures, Yahoo, Fox Sports and Sky, through to the BBC.
Speaker
With over 200 hours of television creation to their credit, Shelley Hoffman and Robert Pincombe are a highly sought-after writing and development team for kids and animation properties. In addition to being involved with cross-platform successes like Beyblade, Bakugan Battle Brawlers and animated hits like Kid vs Kat, Grossology, Stoked and Jimmy Two-Shoes, they have also helped maintain and revitalize ongoing licensing juggernauts like Max and Ruby, Caillou and Franny's Feet.
Most recently, Hoffman and Pincombe are developing multiple projects with various production partners.
Speaker
Very early, Melissa Houghton knew she had a talent for play. A Psychologist and Designer, Melissa constantly challenges the boarders of human centered and user experience design by making experiences seem effortless and intutive.
Passionate and driven to create design that is intutive, Melissa currently works in Marketing for AOL as well as consults in branding identity, web usability and T.A's at the University of Toronto with MBA students.
Believing that play is a very important aspect in life, Melissa is very active and has travelled the world to expand her knowledge of play. By Truly believing that experiencing every part of this world is important Melissa knows that her development as a designer will aid in her personal growth.
Keynote Speaker
Growing up a young actor in Los Angeles, Christian Jacobs appeared in numerous commercials, television shows and films, including cult classics Pretty in Pink and Gleaming the Cube. Jacobs later moonlighted in various rock bands and, in 1994, co-founded the cartoon rock band The Aquabats. Inspired by 1970s Saturday morning cartoons, B-movies and Japanese super-monster movies, The Aquabats have a large cult following and continue to play to sellout crowds in the US and abroad.
As a teen, Jacobs partnered up with friend Scott Schultz to produce and direct a number of skateboarding and music videos. They have been creatively teamed together since, and, in 1999, started developing concepts for children’s programming under the production company name THE MAGIC STORE.
In wanting to create a show that they could enjoy along with their own children, Jacobs and Schultz developed the pilot for “YO GABBA GABBA!” After creating an online viral frenzy with the pilot trailer, the show ultimately found a home on Nickelodeon. Time Magazine recently named “YO GABBA GABBA!” one of the Top 10 New TV Series for 2007.
Christian Jacobs is an avid surfer, skateboarder, music geek and artist. He currently lives in Huntington Beach, California, with his wife and four children.
Dr. Jennifer Jenson is Associate Professor and a Technology Enhanced Learning Chair of Pedagogy and Technology in the Faculty of Education at York University. She is currently co-editor of Loading:The Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association and president of the Canadian Game Studies Association. Working with Suzanne de Castell (Simon Fraser University) and a team of students, she has co-designed an educational game, 'Contagion' and is currently working on two new games, 'Epidemic: Self-Care for Crisis' and a Baroque music game. She has just completed a 3-year study of gender and digital gameplay, and has begun another on novice players and new game controllers. She has published widely on education, technology, gender, design and development of digital games, and technology policy and is the Primary Investigator of a CFI funded project: Play:CES - Play in Computer Environments Studio
Speaker
Vincent John Vincent is the President and Co-Founder of GestureTek and has been the creative force behind the company and its innovations in gesture recognition technology for the past 25 years. His unique insight and creativity has been instrumental in defining and developing the video gesture control industry. In addition to promoting the company and overseeing day-to-day sales and marketing activities, Vince plays a key role in ongoing market identification, product development, business development and competitive analysis. Vincent has personally overseen the creation and installation of well over 500 GestureTek interactive display systems and virtual experience applications for advertising and promotion campaigns, events and trade shows, TV productions, games and attractions, as well as educational and health care uses.
Vincent is recognized as a leader in the world of multimedia, having represented the industry and delivered keynote addresses at countless industry conferences worldwide. Vincent is a co-creator and past Executive Producer of The International Digital Media Awards. He is on the advisory board for the Toronto Design Exchange VR Visualization Center, and the Art Institute of Toronto. In 2003, Vincent was honored by the Canadian Digital Media Association with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Vincent has a degree in Psychology from the University of Waterloo.
Speaker
James Kane is a digital media producer with Two Bulls, a development and production studio based in New York with a focus on transmedia storytelling and mobile platforms. He creates immersive mobile experiences that combine real and fantasy worlds through augmented reality, GPS location services and good ol' fashioned animation. The Hidden Park, created by James in 2009, immerses kids in a magical world in their local park. The children are challenged by the Magical Wildlife Protection Agency to find dragons, rock monsters, fairies and trolls. To track them down they must solve riddles, beat characters in games and follow a magical map. The creatures appear in the photos, sometimes right next to the children, creating an amazing photo album of their experience. The adventure has been wildly successful with young families and was named the 'gold standard in immersive mobile experiences' by Advertising Age. It has expanded from ten parks to over 170 locations around the world in less than eighteen months.
Speaker
Edward Kay has an eclectic background in both live-action and animated television comedy, as well as print journalism and, most recently, fiction. He spent four years as a writer and producer on the political satire, This Hour Has 22 Minutes and was a contributor to Rick Mercer’s Talking to Americans.
Edward became interested in writing for children after appearing as a guest speaker at a “special ed” school in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, where he was asked to explain his role as a television comedy writer. He was warned to have low expectations, but after an hour of very agreeable and stimulating discussion, he came away with a strong desire to write for such a thoughtful and receptive audience. In response, Edward created his first children’s project, Olliver’s Adventures, a Gemini-winning animated comedy about a lovable but ADD-afflicted boy. More recently, Edward co-created the darkly humorous series Jimmy Two Shoes, airing on Teletoon in Canada, and internationally with Disney XD, Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon. He has written for numerous other children’s series including Atomic Betty, Being Ian, and League of Super Evil.
Edward’s television writing has garnered him three Gemini Awards, three Canadian Comedy Awards, a Canadian Screenwriting Award, and an International Emmy nomination. He has also worked as a print journalist specializing in science, business, the environment and nature for publications such as Equinox, Canadian Geographic, and The Globe and Mail and received two Canadian National Magazine Award Honourable Mentions.
STAR Academy, published by Random House / Doubleday, is his first novel. It was recently optioned for development as a motion picture. Edward is currently writing the sequel and developing an animated comedy series that has been optioned by Nerd Corps Entertainment, and a kids’ science program with Apartment 11 Productions.
Speaker
Kevin is the Canada Research Chair of Humanities Computing, and an Associate Professor in the Department of History and the Centre for Digital Humanities, at Brock University. Before arriving to Brock in 2005, he was a Director and Project Director at the National Film Board of Canada (1999-2002), and an Assistant Professor at McGill University (2002-2005).
He organizes the biennial “Interacting with Immersive Worlds Conference”, and helped create nGen – an interactive media generator located in Niagara.
His research is focused on best practices for the design, development and use of computer simulations and serious games for history. This research has been funded by the Canada Research Chairs Program, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Heritage Canada, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, and Brock University. He leads the “Simulating History” research project, and directs the Simulating History Research Lab at Brock University.
Kevin has written a book and articles on history computing and Canadian cultural history , and developed history Web sites, simulations and games. He also leads a company that develops interactive media for learning and entertainment.
Ian is the President & CEO and was a founding Director of Interactive Ontario (IO), the member- based industry trade association representing interactive digital media companies in Ontario, Canada. At IO Ian is responsible for the long-term strategy and has grown the organization over 500% in the past two years. Ian also created and was the Executive Producer of ICE: the Interactive Content Exchange and IN09: The Interactive Exchange, Canada’s largest annual cross-platform event dedicated to the business of interactive media.
In 2007 Ian was elected President of the Canadian Interactive Alliance / L’alliance interactive canadienne (CIAIC), the united voice of Canada’s Interactive Media associations from coast to coast. He is also a founding Director of this organization. As a strong advocate for the Interactive Media industry both provincially and nationally,
Ian is a member of Ontario Game Strategy Steering Committee, CONCERT (Consortium on New Media, Creative and Entertainment R&D in the Toronto Region) Steering Committee, Trade Team Canada - Cultural Goods & Services, the Cultural Human Resources Council New Media Steering Committee and the Co-Chair of the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Digital Media Advisory Committee. Throughout the past 14 years Ian has worked as an executive and creative producer with a number of Interactive and television production companies including Primitive Entertainment, MediaLinx Interactive LLP / Sympatico, and TotalNet Inc.
He began his career in interactive in 1994 as Director of Media Services at Magic Online, one of Canada's first commercial online services. Ian has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) from York University where he completed an individualized study programme concentrating in film, screenwriting, photography and creative writing. He is also the Founding President of the Creative Arts Students’ Association (CASA), the official student government for the Faculty of Fine Arts at York.
Speaker / Advisory Board
David Kleeman is President of the American Center for Children and Media, an executive roundtable and professional development hub that promotes exchange of ideas, expertise, and information as a means for building quality. The Center leads the children's media industry in developing child-friendly, sustainable solutions to long-standing and emerging issues.
The Center looks worldwide for models of excellence; its global connections make Kleeman a valued international consultant, especially on the role of culture in media. He has been a featured speaker on all world continents. Kleeman chairs the International Advisory Board for the worldwide children's TV festival (PRIX JEUNESSE); he created the rules and manages its Interactive Prize.
In 2002-3, he led and authored a major study for PBS and the Markle Foundation on public service media's unique roles for children in the digital era. He has written two book chapters ("The Children's Television Community" and "Handbook of Children and the Media") as well as numerous articles for trade, academic and general press.
David graduated from Harvard College. Married, and with two daughters, he discovered that running offers time with no phones, computers, TV or sibling squabbles. Apparently, he enjoys the quiet; he's run eighteen marathons, from Boston to Beijing!
Speaker
Jason is the founder and director of zinc Roe design. Under Jason’s direction, zinc Roe has developed a reputation as one of the top boutique web design firms in Canada with a client list that includes Teletoon, Family Channel, Canada Council for the Arts, CBC, and Bell Canada. This reputation is built on a tight integration between design and code as well as a strong focus on user-contributed content.
Jason has a B.Sc. in Environmental Science from the University of Guelph and made the transition into new media when he began developing online media for the Vancouver Aquarium and Science World. Jason established himself as an expert Flash developer, trainer and author and has presented at international conferences including the Annecy Animation Festival, FlashForward and FlashintheCan.
Jason likes to tell people he selfishly started zinc Roe as an excuse to work with clever and talented people. Jason has lead the production of many of the studio’s showcase projects including the Zimmer Twins and terminus1525.ca.
Speaker / Steering Committee
Lucie Lalumière is Vice President Digital Content & Giving at Earth Rangers where she leads the organization’s content, marketing and individual fundraising initiatives, including the new Bring Back the Wild program. Prior to joining Earth Rangers, Lucie was Vice President and General Manager Interactive at Corus Entertainment, Television, where she spearheaded a number of initiatives including the positioning of YTV.com as a leader in youth content as well as the creation of an innovative network of virtual worlds for kids. With over fifteen years of experience in the digital media industry, Lucie has held a number of strategic positions. She was Executive Director of New Media at Radio-Canada, where she and her team increased the reach of Radio-Canada.ca to record levels and won multiple industry awards. A pioneer in the industry, Lucie served as General Manager of Online French Services at Bell Sympatico in the early days of the service in Canada. Lucie is Vice-Chair of the board of directors of Interactive Ontario. She also sits on the OMDC Interactive Digital Media Industry Advisory committee. Lucie holds an undergraduate degree in Management of Information Systems from Université de Sherbrooke and an MBA from McGill University, completed at New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program.
Speaker
Jeanette Lee advises clients on marketing, branding, copyright and entertainment law issues, with a special focus on the entertainment, media, and interactive industries. Her practice includes advertising and marketing matters in all media, promotional contests, related privacy issues, packaging and labelling, branded entertainment, brand licensing, trade-mark and copyright protection, licensing and enforcement, sponsorships, endorsements, publishing, video games, virtual worlds and social media, film and television licensing and production, new media and e-commerce, consumer protection, and domain name disputes.
Jeanette has acted for companies in the media, entertainment, sports and technology sectors, animation studios, video game developers, authors and creators, toy and merchandise manufacturers, and companies from other sectors including financial, hospitality, education, food and beverage, government, retail and energy sectors.
Before joining Stohn Hay Cafazzo Dembroski Richmond LLP, Jeanette practised at McCarthy Tétrault LLP. Before that, she practised in-house at a national media company, and with a large IP boutique firm.
Jeanette authors the Legal Eve blog, legaleve.wordpress.com, on IP, marketing and entertainment law. She is Program Coordinator for the Ontario Bar Association Entertainment, Communications & Media Section, and a Member of the American Bar Association Committee on Computer Games & Virtual Worlds.
Advisory Board
Dr. Levine oversees the Center's efforts to catalyze and support research, innovation and investment in educational media technologies for young children. Prior to joining the Center, Dr. Levine served as Vice President of New Media and Executive Director of Education for Asia Society, managing the global nonprofit organization's interactive media and educational initiatives to promote knowledge and understanding of Asia and other world regions, languages and cultures. Previously, Dr. Levine oversaw Carnegie Corporation of New York's groundbreaking work in early childhood development, educational media and primary grades reform, and was a senior advisor to the New York City Schools Chancellor, where he directed dropout prevention, afterschool and early childhood initiatives. Dr. Levine has been a frequent adviser to the U.S. Department of Education and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, writes for public affairs journals, and appears frequently in the media. He was named by Working Mother magazine as one of America's most influential leaders in shaping family and children's policy and serves on numerous nonprofit boards, including We Are Family Foundation, Ready To Learn, Talaris Institute and Teach For America. Levine is also currently a senior associate at the Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy at Yale University. He received his Ph.D. in Social Policy from Brandeis University's Florence Heller School and his B.S. from Cornell University.
Speaker
Gail Livermore has spent the last three years talking to more than 85,000 kids and moms. As part of her role Gail overseas all research undertaken at Spin Master and is dedicated to representing the voice of the consumer, working closely with internal groups throughout the product development and launch cycle including the Marketing, Advertising and On-line divisions.
Gail holds a BA from Central Queensland University (Australia) and an MBA from Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada where she majored in Marketing and Strategy.
Prior to her work at Spin Master, Gail worked at Canadian Tire as part of the Retail Analysis team evaluating the success of printed media and later the Discovery & Innovation team to identify macro and micro trends and insights that helped satisfy unmet consumer needs and fuel product innovation.
Speaker
Bob Logan has a variety of experiences as an academic involved in research in complexity theory, information theory, biology, environmental science, linguistics, industrial design and media studies. He has been a physics professor at the University of Toronto since 1968 and now Professor Emeritus. He is currently the Chief Scientist of Strategic Innovation Lab at the Ontario College of Art and Design. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Origins Institute, McMaster University and also at the Institute of Biocomplexity and Informatics, University of Calgary. He collaborated and published with Marshall McLuhan. He collaborated with and consulted with Alvin Toffler. He is also an author or editor of 12 books and many articles in refereed journals.
He was also active in the business world. He founded and operated a number of companies from 1982 to 2000 including a computer training centre (Logan Design Systems Ltd.), a desktop publishing operation (Desktop Training Centre), a Web development company specializing in knowledge management (Gutenberg Internet Services Inc.) and a Web-based portal company PM Rentals and PM Online Ltd.
He has been active in politics since 1974. Among his many activities he served as an advisor to PM Pierre Eliot Trudeau, policy chair of the Ontario wing of the federal Liberal Party and an advisor to various federal cabinet ministers.
In his role as Chief Scientist at the Strategic Innovation Lab he is engaged in the following projects:
For more details about Bob Logan visit www.physics.utoronto.ca/Members/logan
Steering Committee
After joining Decode Entertainment in 2001, Anne is now Senior Vice President, DHX Media Ltd. and responsible for interactive development of the company’s cross platform and gaming properties, in addition to business development, finance and overall operations of the Company. Prior to joining DECODE, Anne was Vice President of Financial Strategy at Extend Media and prior to that, Director of Finance at Interactive Media Group.
Speaker
As Producer of Online Communities for Corus Entertainment, Jennifer is involved with social media planning and development on Corus TV websites and is responsible for overseeing a team that moderates and facilitates user generated content.
In 2006, Jennifer planned the membership system for one of Canada’s first MMOs for children and continues to work on the community-based virtual game: Sitekick® (YTV.com). She has worked on many UGC campaigns including: The W Experts Search, The Cosmo TV Bachelor Search, Karaoke Star Junior (Cyber Karaoke) and The Next Star (Virtual Next Star).
Recently she has been focusing on user experience as it applies to social media development; translating user personas and user scenarios into development flows. Jennifer has working knowledge of COPPA and PIPEDA and other key legislation and has a passion for online privacy and safety for kids.
She’s a musician, addicted to Wii, a self-proclaimed nerd and is an avid participant of social media sites, probably under an assumed name.
Steering Committee
Lisa’s career spans more than 20 years in the cultural and entertainment industries. Currently she is President of Corus Entertainment’s Kids Can Press, Canada’s largest domestically owned children’s publishing company. Under Lisa’s leadership, Kids Can Press recently launched CitizenKid, a book collection intended to inspire children aged 8-12 to be better global citizens. Conceived as a cross-platform play, the brand and content will live beyond books. Inspired herself by CitizenKid, Lisa recently completed the Harvard Corporate Social Responsibility Program.
Prior to her current assignment, Lisa spent four years as Vice President/General Manager of Content Distribution for Corus Television as well as their Max Trax digital music service. Before joining Corus, Lisa held senior positions with Zilo Networks, an integrated college media company based in New York, as well as Alliance Atlantis and HarperCollins Canada.
During her time in New York, Lisa was named one of Cable World Magazine’s Top 50 People Reshaping the Industry to Watch and was an active member of the executive committee of the Board of Women in Cable & Telecommunications. Lisa currently sits on the Board of the Ontario Science Centre and Committees for the Toronto Public Library Foundation, the Canadian Women’s Foundation and Interactive Ontario. She is both a Corus and a Canadian Women in Communications Mentor.
Speaker
Jen Maier is mom to Joshua, 10, and Meghan, 7, and the founder of online community UrbanMoms.ca. Throughout her career as a marketer, Jen was pushing the envelope with creative marketing solutions utilizing new and innovative technology to generate word-of-mouth. After creating UrbanMoms.ca as a personal project Jen put all of her marketing and business experience into the site believing that moms needed to utilize technology and community to create a stronger voice.
Jen found that media and advertising often defined moms solely by their "mom-ness" but from personal experience Jen saw that moms are individuals and the women they were before having children have not been left behind. Their worlds have expanded and the need for connection, information and knowledge has increased and so have their requirements as consumers.
Jen believes that through the power of community this hugely influential and vocal consumer has the opportunity to take control of the message. UrbanMoms.ca provides moms with an easily accessible respite and community with an intelligent and diverse, chatting with a friend over coffee feel. While, at the same time, allowing companies, their brands, services and products an opportunity to speak directly to their target audience, get their input and create a relationship within their own community while generating relevant word-of-mouth marketing from and to this valuable consumer.
Keynote Speaker
Alexander Manu is a strategic innovation practitioner, international lecturer and author. He works with executive teams in Fortune 500 companies in industries as diverse as consumer packaged goods, media, advertising, mobile communications and manufacturing. Alexander lectures around the world on innovation, imagination, change agents and strategic foresight. He is a Senior Partner and Chief Imaginator at InnoSpa International Partners, teaches “Innovation, Foresight and Business Design” at the Rotman School of Management, is a Professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design and in Toronto and a visiting lecturer at the Wallace McCain Institute.
In his client and research work, Alexander is involved in transforming organizations by exploring and defining new competitive spaces, the development of new strategic business competencies and creation of imaginative innovation methods. He believes that the exploration of possibility requires imagination as a prerequisite for strategic change and innovation.
For over 20 years Alexander has enabled global companies as diverse as Motorola, LEGO, Whirlpool, Nokia, Navteq and Unilever, to develop policies and strategies that address emerging issues through strategic foresight and pre-competitive business models.
Author of “Everything 2.0: Redesign your Business Through Foresight and Brand Innovation”, 2008, “The Imagination Challenge : Strategic Foresight and Innovation for the Global Economy” , 2006, “ToolToys: Tools with an Element of Play”, 1995, and “The Big Idea of Design”, 1999 , as well as of numerous articles published in national and international periodicals. His most recent book, “Disruptive Business: Desire, Innovation and the Re-Design of Business” is scheduled for release in June of 2010 by Gower Publishing. His writings have been translated and published in 11 languages.
Alexander has an exceptional and sustained activity as an international lecturer, being invited to give over 350 keynote lectures in 23 countries. A past president of the Association of Chartered Industrial Designers of Ontario, he was elected twice on the board of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID). A past member of various advisory boards active at government levels in Canada and the Far East, he has consulted on foresight strategies for the Department of Canadian Heritage, the China External Trade Development Council, Taiwan Design Centre, Korea Institute of Design Promotion and is a founding member of Design for the World (Barcelona), an international NGO that provides and promotes humanitarian design solutions.
Alexander has been a guest lecturer at over 45 distinguished post secondary institutions around the world. A graduate of the Institute of Fine Arts of Bucharest, Romania. (MDA – Industrial Design 1978), he was elected in 1994 an Academician of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) in recognition to his contribution to the development of design and the visual arts in Canada.
Speaker
Stacey Matthias is founder of Insight Kids, a research and consulting firm committed to helping clients create products and experiences that inspire kids and families. Leaders and innovators in kids’ media research, the team is immersed daily in exploring the role of media in the lives of kids and parents. This includes what they watch, read, click on, and play with, the benefits sought from these experiences, and how they perceive current and potentially new offerings in the landscape.
A developmental psychologist by training, Stacey is an expert in uncovering insights from kids, from preschool up to college age. In the past decade she and her team of media and kids’ experts have conducted hundreds of studies to inform the development of media brand strategies as well as TV shows, movies, websites, games, books, museum exhibits, consumer products, outreach materials, learning curricula, and nonprofit initiatives. Their work has helped clients develop strategies and offerings that are not only good for business, but also good for kids and families.
Satisfied clients over the years include Nickelodeon, Noggin, PBS Kids Sprout, MTV, Scholastic, Crayola, AOL, Classic Media, Chorion Silver Lining, CBeebies, American Museum of Natural History, National Geographic Kids, Britannica.com, Penguin, Disney, American Eagle Outfitters, Common Sense Media, The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, Seventh Generation, and The N.
Insight has contributed to the successful development of treasured kids’ media brands like Dora the Explorer, Go, Diego, Go!, Clifford, SpongeBob SquarePants, Blue’s Clues, Wonder Pets!, The Backyardigans, Olivia, Mr. Men, and The Rugrats.
Stacey earned a B.A. in Philosophy & Government from Wesleyan University. She is currently writing a doctoral dissertation on the acquisition of technology skills for the department of Developmental Psychology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Speaker
Neal McDougall, Policy Analyst at the Canada Media Fund, has researched and shaped the policies and programs of the funding agency, as well as its predecessor, the Canadian Television Fund, since 2006. A lawyer by training, Mr. McDougall received his LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School in 2003. Previously, he worked in the film and television industry as a writer and in a variety of production roles. He holds a BFA in Film & Video Production from York University.
Speaker
I am an Assistant Professor at the iSchool, University of Toronto. I am passionate about my research and teaching which centres around information practices involving new media infrastructures, with an emphasis on youth media literacy, mobile communication, and the use of social media. This semester I teach an information workshop on Virtual worlds, Avatar identity and Community.
Speaker
In her role as Content Manager, Nicole Mickelow leads content development and strategic roll out across the interactive properties of six television networks – Family Channel, Playhouse Disney Canada, The Movie Network, HBO Canada, Mpix and Viewers Choice.
As part of the interactive team, Nicole has spearheaded numerous key initiatives that have enhanced the reputation of the multi award-winning Family.ca and maintained the site’s position as one of the most popular online destinations for Canadian children. Targeted to kids 8 to 14, Family.ca features games, contests, full-episode streams, short form video and program mini-sites as well as FamClub, Family.ca’s acclaimed community portal with over 400,000 registered members. Nicole has also been instrumental in growing traffic to Playhousedisney.ca., working closely with Disney and other content providers to ensure a rich online experience for younger kids and their parents with games, activities, stories, videos and more.
Previous to her time on the Interactive team, Nicole held the position of Manager, Creative Services for both Family Channel and Playhouse Disney. She has produced many award-winning projects and played a key role in the 2007 launch of Playhouse Disney as well as the latest brand refresh for Family Channel.
Speaker
Self-described as a Writer, Director, Producer, Code Monkey, Puppeteer and Curmudgeon - Robert Mills is an award-winning creator of children's media. Active in the theatre, film, television and online industries for over 30 years, a veteran of Jim Henson's Muppets, and founder of Radical Sheep Productions, Mills (known as "Robbo" online) is also a compulsive blogger, media cultural critic and Twitter rant maniac. He is currently working on multiple projects for online release and looks forward to finally getting paid for some of it.
Speaker
"Newspaper columnist, freelance writer/researcher and blogger Brad Moon lives in London, Ontario with his wife Jody, daughter Natasha, identical twins Jon and Aidan and an assortment of dogs and cats.
Since 2007, Brad has been a Core Contributor to wired.com's popular GeekDad blog. Founded by Wired magazine editor-in-chief Chris Anderson in 2007, GeekDad has been recognized with numerous awards, including: PostRank's Parenting Blog of the Year for 2009, being named one of ComputerWorld's Top 10 Best-written Blogs and it consistently appears in the Technorati Top 100 Science Blog ranks.
In addition to blogging and freelance writing/research, Brad writes a weekly technology and gadget column for the Winnipeg Free Press, as well as contributing yearly "Geek Toy" lists and top video game roundups. He also makes appearances on local radio and TV, primarily discussing technology developments.
Brad founded his company, Forest City Word Factory in 2005, transitioning the business to a full-time venture in early 2009. Prior to that, he spent thirteen years as a Product Manager and Business Analyst with a Canadian financial software solutions company where he developed an expensive taste for Apple products."
Speaker
When Marie Morency-Lee joined TVOKids.com two years ago, she brought 10 years of experience creating engaging content directed to the kids’ audience. As manager of tvokids.com Marie oversees the development of quality educational online content for ages 2 to 11. All tvokids content is developed with educators, are classroom tested and reviewed by parents, teachers and early-years educational consultants.
Marie has a knack for innovative projects that converge on multiple screens. She is passionate about kids’ culture and thrives to bring the audience content that will engage and inspire them. Marie is most interested in helping to grow tvo’s multiplatform strategy and connecting with kids and families in as many ways as today’s technology allows. To that end, Marie and her team just launched the new redesign of the tvokids.com. This redesign was developed by the tvokids team in partnership with the end users, kids and parents. The new site design features an expanded video player, expanded games offering, web exclusive content and cross platform live interactive events. Since Marie joined the tvokids team she has been responsible for launching 25 interactive games, 20 web activities as well as Bell Media Funded projects such as Taste Buds, Pillars of Freedom and The Mysteries of Alfred Hedgehog.
Speaker
Chris is an entrepreneur that combines his background as a technologist and interaction designer into new ways of storytelling and communication. Before creating the Do Crew, Chris was a Cofounder and the President of Products at Mobile Commons—a pioneer in mobile marketing and mobile solutions for nonprofits. Prior to that, he was a Sr. Software Engineer at CUseeMe Networks, making things like Chat Roulette before they became popular. His first ringside seat in children's entertainment was as an intern at Little Airplane—creators of the Wonder Pets.
Chris can often be found riding his bicycle around Brooklyn, NY or adventuring outdoors. He has a BA in Classics and History of Mathematics from St. John's College, Annapolis.
Speaker / Advisory Board
Liz Nealon is an award-winning executive producer who has played an integral role in shaping indelible youth brands like Sesame Street and MTV. She has served as Executive Producer of numerous successful television series and co-productions, including Knock First, Out There, The Famous Jett Jackson, and Ghostwriter. She has also led the development of successful children’s websites including the Emmy-Award winning SesameStreet.org, the preschool virtual world Panwapa.com, and the popular KidzBop.com video-sharing site, which is an industry leader in safe social networking for older kids and tweens.
Prior to her work in children’s media, Liz Nealon spent a decade as a writer/producer at the start-up of MTV. She traveled the world as Senior Vice President of International Programming, launching the MTV brand in Europe, Brazil, Japan and Australia. Nealon’s colleagues dubbed her the “keeper of the trademark” due to her ability to adapt and articulate the MTV vision and attitude as it was expressed in diverse cultures and musical environments.
Speaker
Mark is the Co-CEO and President of Earth Rangers. Prior to joining Earth Rangers Mark worked with Nelvana Enterprises, a Corus Entertainment company, as Vice President of World-Wide Licensing, with a team that this year won the LIMA Brand of the Year. From 2000 to 2003, Mark managed all marketing, TV advertising and public relations, as vice president of New Business and Technology at Thinkway Toys Ltd. Prior to 2000, he worked at Skunkworks International Corp, The Walt Disney Company and Tyco Toys. Mark has a degree in economics from The University of Western Ontario and is a director of the Environmental Legacy Protection Fund.
Working Group
Caitlin O'Donovan is the Director of Kids Interactive at Corus Entertainment, Canada's largest kids broadcaster. She leads the strategic direction and operation for online and mobile initiatives for YTV, Treehouse and Nickelodeon Canada, as well as Nelvana properties such as Babar, Franklin, and Beyblade.
Caitlin began her career producing cutting-edge interactive experiences and games at science centres and museums around the world with Immersion Studios. She later joined the Canadian Film Centre where she supervised dozens of major new media productions, oversaw the incubation of new media companies as Producer of the Interactive Project Lab, and lead the design of the TELUS Innovation Fund which invests in emerging forms of entertainment. She joined Corus in 2007 to oversee the development and production of massively multiplayer games, including the award winning GalaXseeds.
Caitlin has participated in juries for the Geminis, the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund, the United Nations World Summit Awards, and the Canadian New Media Awards. She frequently speaks about multiplatform and gaming, most recently at the Montreal Independent Gaming Summit, nextMedia, and the Banff Television Festival. She is currently completing graduate studies on political economy and multiplatform entertainment.
Speaker
Judy Perry is a Research Manager in the MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program (STEP) lab. She currently oversees design, development and research for several projects involving learning games and simulations for mobile devices, including location-based Augmented Reality projects (http://education.mit.edu/ar), such as STEP’s MITAR software platform, which allows non-programmers to design and play their own AR games. Perry is also a Research Manager for the Ubiquitous Games (UbiqGames) project, a networked, multi-player simulation platform for mobile browsers, designed primarily for use outside of formal class time. Recent UbiqGames include Weatherlings (a meteorology/climate game inspired by Pokemon) and Beetle Breeders (one of several UbiqBio games, focusing on genetics). Prior to working at MIT, Perry’s work included television and web production, and content development for educational toys. Perry’s research interests include designing and evaluating the use of games and simulations within formal and informal educational settings to improve players' content knowledge and social, collaborative and cognitive skill development. She holds a B.A. in American Studies from Yale University, and an Ed. M. in Technology, Innovation, and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Speaker
With over 200 hours of television creation to their credit, Shelley Hoffman and Robert Pincombe are a highly sought-after writing and development team for kids and animation properties. In addition to being involved with cross-platform successes like Beyblade, Bakugan Battle Brawlers and animated hits like Kid vs Kat, Grossology, Stoked and Jimmy Two-Shoes, they have also helped maintain and revitalize ongoing licensing juggernauts like Max and Ruby, Caillou and Franny's Feet.
Most recently, Hoffman and Pincombe are developing multiple projects with various production partners.
Speaker
Jeff Quipp is founder and CEO of Search Engine People Inc., Canada’s largest search and social agency. Jeff has been engaged in the search industry for more than a decade. From humble beginnings in 2001, Search Engine People (SEP) has grown to become Canada’s largest and most experienced search and social media marketing firm, and was recently honored by Profit Magazine as one of the 100 Fastest Growing Companies in Canada. SEP was also the first in Canada to become a Google Adwords Qualified Company.
Jeff, and SEP, work with firms such as Discovery Channel, Much Music, Family Channel, and numerous other firms of all sizes. A speaker at numerous search and social media conferences, his passion lies in understanding content, and how various types and structures of content can be used to affect content sharing via social media sites, which ultimately impact organic search rankings.
Prior to launching Search Engine People in 2001, Jeff received undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Economics, and an MBA from Wilfrid Laurier University. Jeff also spent time within the Bell group of companies managing and launching North America’s first speech recognition enabled portal.
Very active in most social media circles, Jeff blogs frequently at SearchEnginePeople.com/blog, SearchEngineWatch.com, writes frequently for the Search Marketing Standard, is a moderator for the search industry’s social media site Sphinn.com, and sits on the Search committee of IAB Canada. Follow Jeff on Twitter at @jquipp.
Speaker
Robin Raskin has spent the past 30 years exploring what it means to be living in digital times. An author, editor, magazine publisher, blogger, TV and radio personality, events and conference creator and consultant, Raskin is fond of saying that “she's never met a media she doesn't like” and is happiest when she's writing about technology's second citizens: kids, seniors or women.
Raskin is the former editor of PC Magazine and Editor in Chief of FamilyPC. She helped launch Yahoo! Tech and served as its Boomer columnist. She's been a columnist for USA Today Online and has authored 6 books about parenting in the digital age. Her latest book is The Parents' Guide to College Life. (Random House 2006). She’s appeared on every major television network as a spokesperson and has worked on numerous Internet Safety initiatives for kids.
In 2007, Raskin partnered with CES (Consumer Electronics Show) to produce technology events and conferences based on lifestyle. From the first Kids@Play conference, her company, Living in Digital Times, has grown to encompass 7 different lifestyle-meets- technology events. They include Kids@Play, MommyTech, The Silvers Summit, Digital Health, Higher Ed Tech and Sports and Fitness Tech. In addition, she also created and produced The Last Gadget Standing and The Mobile Apps Showdown, both wildly popular events at CES.
Raskin lives in NYC and the Hudson Valley, with her husband, her three drop-in- now- and- then children, and closets full of obsolete technology.
Speaker
Matt received his PhD from the University of California, San Diego in 2003, writing his dissertation on the social organization of the Linux development community. Past appointments include a postdoctoral position with the Netherlands Institute for Scientific Information (NIWI), researcher and founding member of the Virtual Knowledge Studio for the Humanities and Social Sciences in Amsterdam (VKS-KNAW), visiting scholar at the University of Amsterdam, and a research position in the Humlab, University of Umea, Sweden.
His current research focuses on how hands-on productive work making can supplement and extend critical reflection on the relations between digital technologies and society. In particular, Ratto's work addresses the movement of digital media and information from screens and into the material environment. This trend, known as 'ambient' or 'ubiquitous' computing, or more colloquially as the Internet of Things?, is the primary focus of his work and builds upon the new possibilities offered by open source software and hardware, and the developing technologies of 3D printing and rapid prototyping. Since 2007, Ratto has carried out workshops in 'critical making' in Amsterdam, London, Canada, the US, and Scotland.
Keynote Speaker
Paul Reynolds can't quite remember the moment the egg split, altering his life forever, but he's thoroughly glad it did. His twin brother Peter has been a source of constant inspiration and cosmic companionship during his entire life journey. After a short incubator stay in a hospital outside Toronto, Peter and Paul eventually moved to the United States and started a small publishing business at the age of seven with the help of a Savin office photocopier that his parents had rescued from a local corporate dumpster.
Since those modest beginnings around the photocopier, Paul’s appetite for creating and sharing media with others has continued without any signs of slowing. While brother Peter spent nearly thirteen years crafting engaging learning applications for children at Tom Snyder Productions (before launching FableVision,) Paul was taking care of the "grown up children" at the innovative eLearning media firm he helped found and run for nearly fifteen years called Cosmic Blender until it was sold to an international media/PR group.
Paul reunited with Peter and serves as CEO, where he presides over a growing team of passionate, dedicated media, design, technology and research specialists. Paul has helped build the multimillion-dollar firm into an internationally recognized multimedia developer and publisher, with partnerships, strategic alliances and clients across many industries - broadcast, museum, institutional, K12, educational publishing, technology and research (PBS, Sesame Street, National Academy of Sciences, Pearson, Scott Foresman, Jim Henson Productions, KCET, Cisco Systems, MIT, Maryland Public TV, etc.) Paul oversees creative strategy on all major initiatives to blueprint projects, as well as overseeing the many teams who execute on that vision.
When he's not entrenched in all things FableVision, Paul also continues to teach digital media production at Boston College, where he has been inspiring students for nearly two decades to use media, storytelling and technology to tell "stories that matter, stories that move." A life-long learner as well as educator, Paul also completed his graduate degree studies at Pepperdine University in educational technology, with a focus on virtual communities of practice and storytelling for transformational and systemic change.
Paul speaks around the country on the importance of a "North Star journey" - where our focus as educators and caregivers is on a learner-centric approach that requires we identify the unique spark of every individual, nurture that spark, protect that spark and reignite it if it goes out. "I think our most important mission is to make sure learners don't give up on their own potential - and that demands some fundamental changes our current educational system - otherwise, it shouldn't surprise us that we DO leave so many children behind."
His avid interest in research contributed to his co-founding of the Research Centre for Media Psychology, which looks at ways that media, storytelling and technology foster human potential and well-being across the age span. RCMP is a collaboration between FableVision and Fielding Graduate University, as well as faculty from Harvard, Oxford and UCLA.
And when he's not immersed in media and research, Paul enjoys raising three amazing boys, Joshua, Benjamin and Nathaniel with his saint of a spouse Janet, who runs their family-owned book and toy shop called The Blue Bunny located in their hometown of Dedham, Massachusetts. The Blue Bunny, featuring the published and original work of brother Peter, is a "little shop with a big mission" - to inspire creativity and self-expression in children and grown up children. Paul gives thanks for his creative journey to his late father Keith Reynolds and his mother, Hazel, who lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts - both of whom have supported him in his artistic, educational and media endeavors.
Keynote Speaker
Peter H. Reynolds is a NY Times best-selling author and illustrator, a renowned public speaker, and the founder of FableVision, Inc., an award-winning educational multimedia company.
Best known as the author and illustrator of dozens of children's books published in over 20 languages, Peter inspires kids and "grown up kids" with his messages about authentic learning, creativity, and self-expression. His books The Dot, Ish, and The North Star are popular in classrooms around the world. Peter's newest book, Rose's Garden, is a celebration of community, nature, and faith. Peter also lends his charming illustrations to Alison McGhee's Someday and Megan McDonald's Judy Moody series.
In 1996, Peter founded FableVision Inc., a company dedicated to helping all learneers reach their true potential. Now encompassing two divisions, FableVision Creative Studios and FableVision Learning, Peter's company provides educational websites, games, software, and services.
Peter's film and television work have garnered him an Emmy, the Carnegie Medal, and the Christopher Medal. Peter also travels the world as an inspirational public speaker, sharing his Five Challenges: Be Brave, Be Original, Be Inspired, Be Inspirational, and Be ACTIVE.
Peter lives in Dedham, MA, where he founded The Dedham Square Circle, a downtown revitalization group. He is co-owner of the Heart of the Square Gallery and The Blue Bunny, his family-run children's book and toy store.
Speaker
Susan Rich is an Editor-at-Large for Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and HarperCollins Children’s Books in New York. She is the editor of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, which has sold more than 60 million copies in more than 40 different languages. She also edited the National Book-award winning Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan, the Flat Stanley publishing program, and the recently published anthology Half-Minute Horrors, with contributions by Neil Gaiman, R.L. Stine, Lemony Snicket, Margaret Atwood, James Patterson, Ken Oppel, and dozens of others. A Winnipeg native based in Toronto since 2001, Susan earned a Masters Degree in Children’s Literature from Simmons College in Boston.
Speaker
Joy Rosen is a founding partner and President of Portfolio Entertainment, a Toronto based television production and distribution company. She has a global reputation for developing and maintaining strong international partnerships and alliances, and for creating new business opportunities that continue to bring the company’s roster of kids, family and primetime entertainment to the doorsteps of some of the world’s biggest broadcast and specialty networks.
Along with co-founder Lisa Olfman, Ms. Rosen supervises the company’s strategic business direction, managing corporate expansion, identifying new business opportunities and overseeing all its domestic and international sales, acquisition, and marketing operations. Ms. Rosen is responsible for a library of over 1,500 episodes of kids, family, primetime, lifestyle, factual and travel titles. Her production credits as an Executive Producer include several hit series and feature films including; Carl², RoboRoach, Stolen Miracle, Something From Nothing, Groundling Marsh and Portfolio's latest success The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That!
Speaker
Ken is the co-founder and President of Hemisphere Interactive – a global product development firm specializing in development of video player systems, gaming systems, and eBook platforms.
Hemisphere Interactive is the preferred services partner for Comcast’s thePlatform, and currently works with most major media companies – Turner, Fox, Comcast, and Liberty Media, as well as, kids independent media giant HIT Entertainment.
Previous positions include VP of Global Digital Media – HIT Entertainment, Senior Director of Mobile – MTV Kids & Family, General Manager Games – Virgin Mobile USA, and original Marketing Director of casual gaming start up success - Oberon Media.
In 2008, Ken was awarded the Great Web Sites for Kids honor by the American Library Association, and in 2009 honored by the Webby Awards in Youth Media.
Speaker
Nicole Rustad oversees corporate social responsibility initiatives at Disney Online Studios Canada, which operates Club Penguin, out of the company’s headquarters in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.
One of the largest and fastest-growing virtual worlds for children, Club Penguin donates a portion of net profits from each subscription membership to projects that are improving the lives of children and families around the world. In addition to managing those donations, Nicole oversees Disney Online Studios’ global employee volunteer efforts, and also empowers the members of Club Penguin’s online player community to make a difference.
Prior to her work with Club Penguin and The Walt Disney Company, Nicole worked as a Certified Financial Planner.
Nicole has always nurtured a passion for community involvement and volunteerism, and is well known for her commitment to making the world a better place.
Speaker
Jed Schneiderman is a proven leader in the traditional and new media space with expertise in digital marketing, brand marketing, and loyalty and permission based marketing.
As On-Line Marketing Lead, Jed Schneiderman is responsible for driving the business and marketing strategies for the Windows Live, Search and Mobile Services businesses.
Prior to joining Microsoft Canada, Jed worked at CTV Television Inc. where he was instrumental in launching CTV’s digital media group and launching MTV across TV, Mobile and on-line. Jed has also worked at several direct marketing agencies specializing in loyalty and permission marketing, as well as Procter & Gamble and AOL Canada.
Jed lives in Toronto with his wife and two children.
Speaker
Gary Schwartz founded Impact Mobile in 2002 having worked in the IT and telecommunications industry for over 20 years. Over the past eight years, Gary has played a leadership role in the mobile industry, running the first cross-carrier short code campaign in North America. Gary founded the mobile committee for the Interactive Advertising Bureau in 2006 and has worked to publish literature together with the industry such as the Mobile Buyer's Guide help extend the digital buy into mobile. In 2008, Gary was elected as the Americas co-vice-chair of the Mobile Entertainment Forum with a remit to develop a global Mobile Commerce Guidebook to demystify the space for brands and retailers. This initiative is currently underway.
Speaker
Jay Scott is the Executive Director of Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer - but he was a dad first. When his daughter Alexandra “Alex” Scott decided to hold a lemonade stand to help doctors find new treatments and ultimately a cure for all childhood cancers, including her own, Jay and his wife Liz supported Alex’s mission every step of the way. Along with helping Alex host her yearly lemonade stands, they also made appearances, helped plan fundraising events, and perhaps most importantly, now continue Alex’s legacy of hope after cancer ultimately took her life in 2004. What started as the vision of one little girl has been embraced by a nation of volunteers.
Along with their three sons, Patrick, Eddie and Joey, Liz and Jay continue their promise to Alex and all children with cancer, the promise of hope for a cure.
Speaker
John Mark Seck is the founder and President of BlackCherry Digital Media Inc. BlackCherry creates virtual worlds, online games and interactive media for entertainment and education. From its early days as a creative design studio, BlackCherry has evolved into an interactive innovator, pushing the limits in online entertainment and game-based learning.
John is an interactive producer with more than 15 years experience in television and new media. John and his team recently completed Pathoftheelders.com, a rich media website and RPG (role playing game) that aims to reconnect aboriginal youth with their culture and history. BlackCherry is also actively developing ‘Trouble Inc’, a virtual world/MMO for Tween boys that is best described as a next-generation, entertainment destination for kids. John holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Science from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor’s Degree in Music from the University of Ottawa. He is member of the OMDC’s Digital Media Industry Advisory Committee.
Advisory Board
Josh Selig is the founder and President of Little Airplane Productions, creators of “The Wonder Pets!” for Nick Jr., “Go, Baby!” for Playhouse Disney, “Oobi!” for NOGGIN and “3rd & Bird!” for the BBC’s CBeebies. He has received ten Emmy Awards for his writing on “Sesame Street,” a Humanitas Prize for Headwriting on "Little Bill," and a Japan Prize for "The Wonder Pets!" Josh writes a weekly blog for Kidscreen Magazine called “Planet Preschool” which can be read at www.kidscreen.com.
Speaker
Andra Sheffer is the Executive Director of three private Funds supporting the Canadian new media, television and film industries: the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund which invests in Canadian television programs and their associated interactive digital projects; the Independent Production Fund which invests in dramatic series created for any platform; and, the COGECO Program Development Fund for the development of dramatic series, MOW’s and feature film companies as well as the production of MOW’s and series.
From 1979-89 she was the founding Executive Director of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television and produced the annual Genie and Gemini/Prix Gémeaux Awards. She lectures on the business and financing of television and new media and is the editor of New Media, New Business: The Producer's Guide(2001) and Create a Winning Proposal - The Handbook for New Media Producers (1999) as well as the co-editor of MAKING IT: the Business of Film and Television Production in Canada (1986 &1995).
Previously she served as the Managing Director of the Toronto International Film Festival, and with the federal government as a Certification Officer setting up the original CAVCO office (and Canadian content “point” system), and at the Film Festivals Bureau promoting Canadian films internationally.
Speaker
Ian Spence is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto. His research interests are in perception, psychophysics, engineering psychology, and statistics. Current research includes the role of colour in visual memory, spatial selective attention, spatial cognition, and information visualization.
Speaker
Chris co-founded Atomic Antelope. Chris was a writer for The Daily Telegraph newspaper, and later The Times. He also presented and directed Space Bubble for CNET. Alongside his writing, Chris is an illustrator and film editor. He’s worked for the BBC, Warner Bros, EMAP, and Wired magazine. Chris won a Guardian Media Award for his work in journalism, and famously discovered reflectoporn.
Chris Stevens, Head of Illustration and co-founder of Atomic Antelope.
Chris is an expert in game graphics and user interface design; he has worked for six years designing entertainment media.
Speaker
Arni Stinnissen is a retired Detective Staff Sergeant after a 29-year career with the Ontario Provincial Police, as Manager of the OPP's Electronic Crime Section. With a broad background in the investigation of Electronic Crime going back to the middle 1980's, Arni has established himself as an expert in many areas of Information Technology related crime. In addition to his role as co-founder and inaugural member of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police Electronic Crime Committee, Arni was a member of the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Working Group on Cybercrime, a national committee that studied legislative solutions and made recommendations to the federal government on issues around technology-based crime. Arni also served as a member of the Ontario Attorney-General’s task force on Child Exploitation.
Arni remains busy on the teaching circuit and now delivers ongoing training for Toddington International Inc at the Canadian Police College, the Ontario Police College, the West Yorkshire Police Training and Development Centre and other institutions around the world.
Arni is an adept educator, speaker and media commentator on online issues and is passionate about the Internet and its powerful hold on youth. Instrumental in rolling out an educational, computer-based Internet Safety program to all elementary schools in Ontario, he is a leading voice in the call for the education of all users in the security and safety of all things technology and the need to recognize and respond to situations that threaten personal safety.
Speaker / Working Group
Steve Szigeti is a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, as well as a graduate fellow in the Knowledge Media Design collaborative program (U of T). He is currently conducting research in the area of web interface design and the use of evidence based design guidelines.
From 1997 until 2008, Steve was the Director of TELETOON Interactive for TELETOON Canada, Inc. In this role, he was responsible for strategic planning and development of the network's interactive consumer and corporate initiatives.
Under Steve’s leadership, teletoon.com became one of the most successful Canadian websites for kids (averaging over 1.8 million user sessions per month) and has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the EPpy Award for Best Use of Rich Media in an Internet Service (2005), the Boomerang Award (2004), and a Standard of Excellence Web Award in the "Outstanding Achievement in Website Development" category (2005).
Steve holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters Degree in Information Studies from the University of Toronto, as well as a Masters in English from Concordia University. He is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery.
Speaker
Nick Taylor is a Post-doctoral fellow in the Faculty of Education at York. His research interests include educational game design, research methodologies and online gaming, and new media-based pedagogies. In his thesis, Nick explored the emergent domain of North American ‘professional’ gaming, following a group of young competitive Halo 3 players as they went from local, to national, and international tournaments, in which digital play is aggressively marketed as spectator sport. Nick is currently involved as project manager on a multi-site study of MMO players and their relationships with their games, their avatars, and fellow players.
Cynthia Taylor is a broadcast and production executive with over two decades of experience in children’s television.
Cynthia’s love of production started in Calgary, as an on air host for a weekly variety series. Quickly realizing that her skills lay on the other side of the camera, Cynthia began her extensive career of developing and producing programming content. Working as a producer and and development executive with such diverse companies as Omnibus, The Partners Film Company, Silkroad Productions and Nelvana/Corus Entertainment, Cynthia is known as an innovative and business minded producer, bringing together the best people to create great content. Cynthia has produced and supervised hundreds of hours of programming, specializing in startups of original series such as Franklin, Maggie and the Ferocious Beast, Bob and Margaret and Braceface, to name a few. In 2006, Cynthia founded her own consulting and development company, Loon Films. Recent clients include Fresh TV, Xenophile Media, CBC, Cookie Jar Entertainment, Portfolio Entertainment, Platypus Productions and The Secret Location. Cynthia is a Gemini and ACT award winner and a member of Canadian Women in Communications (CWC), The Alliance for Children’s Television (ACT) and Women in Film and Television (WIFT).
Steering Committee
Ian Thornton graduated with a first-class honours degree in Business Studies and German from Sheffield University. Ian was a co-founder of renowned international television oracle, C21 Media and Channel 21 International, after years of either working in or running the advertising departments of Broadcast, TV World, Variety and Moving Pictures. Ian moved to Toronto in 2000 and has been working with Bitcasters since 2007. He was appointed President in the fall of 2008. Ian is the author of a novel currently being developed as a feature film project at Bitcasters. Amongst other things, Ian is a judge of the largest and most prestigious film festival in all of Latin America, Expresion En Corto.
Speaker
Scott Traylor defines the vision behind the Boston-based digital consulting firm known as 360KID. This youth-focused company specializes in product ideation, market testing, and product development as a service to companies interested in engaging kids through interactive media in the consumer marketplace as well as in the classroom.
In the early days of 360KID, Scott was a computer science instructor for 12 years at Harvard University's Extension School, teaching graduate students how best to develop interactive learning products for children. He started the 360KID business over 19 years ago with his spouse, Diana Traylor, who is also a teacher. Together they decided to create the future of interactive learning at a time when technology was first being considered as a means to deliver educational content.
Scott is actively involved in research, writing, and speaking about child engagement through new technologies, social media, and various consumer-based delivery systems. He is an active speaker at numerous education and consumer industry events related to kids and technology including the Consumer Electronics Show, KidScreen Summit, AEP Summit, EdNet, Meaningful Play, Education Arcade, American Center for Children and Media, School Library Journal Summit, Interaction Design and Children, and many more.
Scott is on the Board of Directors for The Association of Educational Publishers as well as a Board of Trustees member of a summer school enrichment program called Exploration School (explo.org) for 3rd through 12th graders on the campuses of Yale University, Wellesley College, and St. Marks School in Southborough, MA. Scott also advises a small number of venture backed online startups in the K12 space.
Speaker
Frima Studio's Vice-President of Business Development, Jean-François Tremblay, is a pillar of the world-renowned, Quebec-based game studio. Thanks to his extensive knowledge of the video game industry, Jeff played a critical role in Frima’s expansion as it went from 42 employees to over 250 between 2003 and 2008, a 4,870% growth
Over ten years of experience in the video game industry have honed Jeff's capacity to identify upcoming market trends, innovate, and maximize the exposure of the brands behind their games, allowing Frima and its partners to stay one step ahead and keep their competitive edge.
Over the course of his career, in addition to contributing to the development of over 500 online Flash games and 10 kid-oriented virtual worlds, amongst which the highly successful Build-a-Bearville, Jeff has built and cultivated strong relationships with some of the largest entertainment companies in the world, such as Disney, Warner Brothers, AOL, Nickelodeon, Ubisoft and Electronic Arts.
Speaker
Carolyn is one of the co-founders of Lyn And Line -- the developers of the mobile apps Madera & Figaro in The Rescue of Ginger and the soon to be released Madera & Figaro Save The Day. Lyn and Line creates original content storybook apps for the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and devices running Android. Their first app has received critical praise and high marks and recognition from USTODAY, Children’s Technology Review and parents and kids worldwide.
Prior to Lyn and Line, Carolyn worked for more than 9 years in the visual effects industry at several of the top visual effects and computer animation studios in Los Angeles, including Dreamworks Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks, and Rhythm & Hues Studios. Her work encompassed both creative shot work and software development and can be seen in such films as Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Open Season, Shark Tale, Scooby Doo, Monster House, Sinbad, Watchmen and I Am Legend. Carolyn holds an M.S. in computer science from Brown University and a B.S. in Marketing from Georgetown University.
Speaker / Steering Committee
Nathan Vella is one of the co-founders of Toronto-based independent game developer Capybara Games (or Capy for short) and began as the studios’ Art Director. Later he transitioned into the role of President and runs the studio with the help of the other co-founders Matt Repetski, Anthony Chan, Sean Lohrisch and Kris Piotrowski.
After spending their early years as an award-winning mobile developer, Capy has transitioned to iPhone, DS and ‘console downloadable’ development. Recently Capy developed & published the arcade-puzzler Critter Crunch for PlayStation Network, and developed the Ubisoft-published puzzle/RPG Might & Magic Clash of Heroes for Nintendo DS.
Nathan was addicted to TRIBES 1, thinks BANGAI-O is the best Dreamcast game and plays Cammy in STREET FIGHTER 4.
Speaker
Irene Weibel is Vice President, International Co-Productions and Development at Corus Entertainment/Nelvana Studio. In her current role, Weibel manages the international relationships with co-producers, financing and structure of treaty co-production and the identification and development of properties. During her tenure at Corus/Nelvana Weibel has been responsible for developing Grossology, Jane and the Dragon, The Future is Wild and Willa’s Wildlife She is currently producing Hot Wheels: Battle Force 5 for Cartoon Network and Teletoon and Babar: The Adventures of Badou for YTV and TF1. Before joining Nelvana in 1999, Weibel’s career was focused on public broadcasting. Weibel’s 17 plus year tenure in public television included stints at KCET, Los Angeles, WGBY, Springfield and as Vice President of National Sponsorship at WGBH, Boston. Weibel holds a Masters Degree in Journalism from Southern Illinois University and a J.D. from Western New England College of Law. Weibel works in Los Angeles and at Nelvana’s studio in Toronto. Corus Entertainment creates engaging branded entertainment experiences for its audiences across multiple platform and includes ownership of the Nelvana Studio and broadcasters YTV, Treehouse and Teletoon in Canada.
Speaker
William Weil is the co-founder and CEO of Tales2Go, an innovative new subscription story service that gives moms and dads instant access to over a thousand great kids’ audio stories from leading audio publishers and award-winning storytellers to stream to their smartphones. Tales2Go launched on the iPhone in February 2010.
Prior to co-founding Tales2Go, Weil was chief operating officer of National Geographic Entertainment (NGE), a taxable division of the National Geographic Society. In this role Weil, was the principal architect of the Society’s entertainment business and lead the overall strategy and operations, including financing, co-productions, distribution and marketing for feature and giant screen films and kids entertainment. In addition, Weil oversaw the larger NGV home entertainment business in North America (including factual programming), as well as sponsorship and integrated marketing. NGE enjoyed several notable successes during his tenure, including the Oscar award-winning film, March of the Penguins, and four highly acclaimed kids’ television series, Toot & Puddle, Mama Mirabelle’s Home Movies, Are We There Yet?: A World Adventure and Iggy Arbuckle, which are all currently broadcast on leading kids’ terrestrial and cable outlets around the world.
Prior to National Geographic, Weil was senior vice president of AG Interactive, a leading mobile content and electronic greetings company that purchased eAgents.com, a start-up company he joined as chief operating officer. Previously, Weil ran the strategy and business development group at Nickelodeon Networks. Among many projects, he was instrumental in the development and launch of the cable networks TV Land and Noggin, the restructuring and rebirth of Nickelodeon’s licensing business and its entry into the feature film business. Weil started his career in brand management at Walt Disney Home Entertainment and as a financial analyst in the media group at Lazard Frères & Co.
Weil is an advisory board member of Stitcher Radio, the leading news/talk audio application on smartphones, and Spears Abacus Advisors, an investment management company. Weil is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Tracey, and their three children.
Steering Committee
Matt joined Spin Master more than 10 years ago and was later involved with the creation of Spin Master’s licensing department. Throughout his tenure, he has been an integral member of Spin Master's management team and has helped significantly grow the company's licensing-based revenues. In 2003 Matt worked in Japan helping to build Spin Master's presence in the region, fostering new relationships with partners on some of the company’s strongest brands - including the global entertainment phenomenon BAKUGAN. Following the success of Bakugan, upon which he continues to serve as Executive Producer, Matt has been charged with developing and producing new entertainment opportunities for Spin Master Entertainment, the toy co’s new film and television production division. He is based in Toronto.
Speaker
Ms. Wilson has dedicated her life to children’s programming beginning with a degree in Radio and Television Arts from Ryerson University in Toronto, coupled with her long standing passion and commitment to public broadcasting, including many roles at TVOntario and for the last eight years, at the CBC. As Creative Head, she has successfully brought her leadership skills, her passion and enthusiasm to Canada’s public broadcaster together with her extensive experience in children’s television and her personal love of children. Ms. Wilson intends to extend CBC’s legacy in children’s programming through continued strength in programming with an integrated outreach and interactive strategies.
Speaker
Photo and bio coming soon.
Afsoun Yazdian is currently the Founder and CEO of award winning GoGo Lingo, a research based edutainment platform that teaches foreign languages to children below the age of 7 using story driven online games, music, and humor. Inspired by her own experiences growing up in Nashville, TN speaking Farsi and English and studying Latin, Hebrew, Spanish and Portuguese, Afsoun created GoGo Lingo with the dream of educating, entertaining and creating connections between children around the world.
Afsoun began developing GoGo Lingo while earning her MBA and MA of Education at Stanford University.
Prior to Stanford, she received a B.S. in Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis. Afsoun spent seven years working in film development at various companies including Creative Artists Agency, Paramount Pictures, RKO Pictures and Sony-based production company Bedlam Media. Afsoun also worked in the International Strategy Division at Sesame Workshop where she worked to develop a strategy for Sesame English, and recently participated as an Advisor in Sesame Workshop’s Global Series Content Advisory. Afsoun also serves on the Advisory Board of Learning Streams, Inc.
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