Speakers

Keynotes

Jeff Barr
Amazon.com
Seattle, WA

Bio

There are clouds in your future

Amazon technology strategist Jeff Barr will review one of 2009′s most interesting and relevant topics – cloud computing.

Jeff will review the current state and future direction of this important technology from a technical and business point of view. You will learn why you will soon be procuring your compute time, storage, and bandwith on a pay-as-you-go basis, reducing your need for up-front investment and increasing your ability to respond to changing requirements.

John Bristowe
Microsoft Canada
Calgary

Bio

Interactive media at Microsoft

Buckle up for a fun, exciting, and demo-heavy ride through some of the innovative experiences and tools from Microsoft that target the world of interactive media. Along the way, we’ll examine the roles that these technologies play, share their impact on culture and society, and provide a glimpse into the near future.

Paul Hoffert
Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund
Toronto

Bio

New Media: new Canadian funding environment

Changes in revenue models as well as public and private funding assistance are changing the business of Canadian New Media. Some examples that will be discussed: Telefilm has recently announced a replacement Fund for the Canadian Television and New Media Funds; The CRTC is considering a 5% tax on ISP fees to help produce Canadian new media content; The entertainment business is trying new blanket
licensing models to monetize unauthorized P2P file sharing; The Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund is a private fund that distributes about $10 million a year.

Gordon Kurtenbach
Autodesk
Toronto

Bio

My mountain bike is a print out

Imagine designing your own bicycle, printing it out and taking it for ride, or a giant concrete printer printing a building. The boundaries between digital content creation and manufacturing are fading and this makes a fascinating future where the virtual and physical worlds interplay both in terms of output and input. In this talk I will discuss these technology trends and how they will change the role and activities of digital content creators in the future.

Sessions

Joe Biglin
Training Port Strategies

Bio

Partnership: the key to starting a serious game

Ambitious project, with a big budget, staff of 40 and 3 years to complete, is a great goal to covet. But hard to get without a reputation. One of the ways to get that reputation is to think smaller and partner with others. We will look at a case study of a partnership between a number of parties in an attempt to create a Virtual Learning Environment based on the curriculum of the School System. This process has been named the “Hairston Model”. The “Hairston Model” incorporates the traditional development of the engine and tools, but utilizes a “student” population.

R. Blank
CTO
Rich Media Institute
California

Bio

Jumpstarting your ActionScript 3

Enough excuses. AS3′s been out for over two years. You know, deep down inside, you hold a pathological hatred of AS2, or even, god forbid, AS1 (don’t even talk to me if you’re still using TellTarget). It’s time to move on. ActionScript 3 has completely changed the Flash development landscape. The power and performance is outstanding but there’s a lot to learn.

Thankfully Flash CS4 didn’t include a new version of ActionScript, so there’s still time to get up to speed. ActionScript 3 is provides a series of truly amazing benefits in power, performance and workflow, but it can be just a bit confusing if you’re used to the old way of doing things.

In this talk, R Blank attempts to decipher some of the basic differences of getting things done in AS3. In a series of practically focused lessons, R will provide the explanations and code samples that will get you up and running with AS3 — and help you understand a bit more of what you’ve been doing if you’re already playing around. R will also show of the cool new powers that you can exploit with AS3 in Flash Player 10. And you’ll leave with a great set of source files.

Who this talk is for: AS1/2 hybrid and moderate coders who are tri-curious.

Sheelagh Carpendale
University of Calgary
Calgary

Bio

Information visualization and collaboration

Consider Donald Norman’s quote, “The power of the unaided mind is highly overrated. Without external aids, memory, thought, and reasoning are all constrained. But human intelligence is highly flexible and adaptive, superb at inventing procedures and objects that overcome its own limits. The real powers come from devising external aids that enhance cognitive abilities.” (Norman, 1993) Common methods for externalization include making sketches on whatever happens to be handy paper napkins, program margins, etc. and/or finding a colleague or two to discuss the problem with. It would seem then, that visualization and collaboration are natural possibilities for creating positive cognitive aids. I will discuss our approach to developing interactive information visualizations both to support individuals and small groups of collaborators and briefly describe some of our recent results.

Duane Dunfield
Red Hot Learning Inc
Fredericton

Bio

Learning games: keys to success

Digital Games for educational purposes have become a rapidly growing trend. While there have been some wonderful successes, more often the result has been a plethora of games that are neither effective nor engaging. What are the keys to success? This interactive session will explore the characteristics and qualities that make games for learning successful, provide guidelines for where games work best, and identify some key considerations when creating these types of games.

Derek Featherstone
Further Ahead
Ottawa

Bio

Accessibility beyond compliance

New technologies for web applications open up interactions to a highly sophisticated level. Learn how these new technologies can help designers move beyond simply complying with accessibility rules to create applications that work for everyone.

Nathan Gilliatt
Social Target
Apex, NC

Bio

The many faces of social media

Is it technology or people? More than a marketing fad, social media offer opportunities across the organization if you’re willing to explore. We’ll go beyond the use of social media as a platform for advertising to consider their value to different parts of the organization, from marketing and communication to customer service, HR, and finance. Examples emphasize the benefits of listening to, learning from, and connecting with people inside and outside of your organization. We’ll separate hype from reality, decode buzzwords, and leave plenty of flexibility to go in the direction most useful to the people in the room.

Dwayne Hammond
Algoma University
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Bio

First steps in an emerging approach to health care

This presentation will discuss the challenges involved in starting a new game development studio within the field of games for health, based on Algoma University’s efforts to form Algoma Games for Health.

Algoma Games for Health is a video game development studio with a focus on research and development of game technology for health care applications, particularly video games for rehabilitation and therapy. Formed in partnership with Algoma University’s Masters in Game Technology program as well as leading health care researchers, Algoma Games for Health is uniquely positioned to combine world-class game development expertise with cutting edge health care research.

Trina Histon, PhD
Kaiser Permanente

Bio

Incredible adventures of the amazing food detective

Kaiser Permanente presents the Amazing Food Detective Game. The game, aimed at children ages 9-10 and available to everyone at www.kp.org/amazingfooddetective, complements Kaiser Permanente’s nationally recognized childhood obesity clinical strategy. Based on a popular character from Kaiser Permanente’s Educational Theatre Program, the Amazing Food Detective takes children through activities that show how to choose healthy foods and get more active. Children playing the game follow the routines of eight culturally diverse children whose activities or conditions would benefit from healthy food and exercise choices.

The Case study will disucss the development and deployment of the game in Kaiser Permanente.

Jeremy Morgan
Saskatchewan Arts Board
Regina

Bio

Jim Omer
Rival Interactive
Springfield, VA

Bio

How interactive gaming can boost internet learning

Examines how learning can be improved by the simulation and entertainment power of interactive gaming technology. By using latest computer gaming graphics and 3-D animation, learners will be more engaged and excited by the materials while providing a more realistic environment in which they can practice what they learned.

Jim Parker
University of Calgary
Calgary

Bio

The booze cruise: the reduction of impaired driving using a video game

As a part of the first course in Canada on Serious Game development, students worked on a video project – a simulation of impaired driving called the ‘Booze Cruise’. It was designed in conjunction with the alcohol unit from the Calgary Police Service, and was intended to show how difficult it would be to drive while impaired. A result, difficult to measure, should be a decrease in player’s willingness to try it.

This is a summary of the design process for that game, relates the stages of development, and summarizes the response by the media, the University, and by NGOs.

Mike Patterson
Human Factors International
Boston

Bio

The art and science of persuasive design

This presentation will cover an introduction to the concept of Persuasive Design as part of a method for creating successful interactions. This process emphasizes not only the usability of websites but also how to provide information and guidance to help users make choices and motivate the user to perform a task or take action. Different concepts that guide the creation of a Persuasive Design will be explored as well as walking through a case study of the practical techniques that could be applied during the construction of a Persuasive UI.

Peter Sametz
Saskatchewan Arts Board
Regina

Bio

Thomas J. Shelford
Author, “Real Web Project Management: Case Studies and Best Practices from the Trenches” and Executive Vice President,
Promotions.com

Bio

Rapid prototyping for real people: how to get clients on board with your development process.

Agile methodologies have transformed the web site development process, but making these medthods work for paying clients is another story. Web project management consultant and author Thomas Shelford offers in-the-trenches tips and best practices on on how to structure your client engagements so that real people will go along with your fancy ideas about how to make software. Based on years of gritty experience in New York City working with client organizations of all sizes, Thomas presents a humorous and “real-world” take on practical approaches contractors can use to structure your web software development engagements.

Greg Sutton
TinyEYE Therapy Services
Saskatoon

Bio

From revolution to evolution – launching a new media application

Taking an idea from concept to reality is no easy task. But once you have built it and no one comes – what do you do? TinyEYE started out as a company that created software for Speech-Language Pathologists to work remotely through video conferencing (telepractice). They would sell their software to school divisions with large geographic areas. One day everything changed when they realized there was more value providing therapy services through their software than there was selling their software. Within one year of this realization they had a team of 25 therapist providing services online all over the world.

Rob Swick
Alpha Search
Halifax

Search marketing & conversion

There are always new tactics and technologies to promote your company online. But for simple effectiveness and ROI, most companies are falling short in the two most fundamental aspects involved in winning customers and sales. Search Marketing is the first of these… get it right and you’ll bring targeted customers to your site in large numbers. The second is visitor conversion – getting that visitor to do what you want him or her to do once they arrive. This talk will show you where most sites go wrong – and how to get it right.

The psychology of internet marketing
Technology is great – it enables us to communicate more efficiently and effectively. But the forgotten factor in Internet marketing is human psychology. Technology alone won’t tell you how to plan a site that doesn’t suck, how to understand online consumer behaviour, how to get your head around the paradigm shift of today’s marketing from what we’ve known in the past, and how to handle finicky programmers. But this talk will.

Mark Van Langeveld
University of Utah

Bio

Entertainment arts and engineering in education–games, animation and more

Mark will explain and analyze the University of Utah’s Entertainment Arts and Engineering Program (EAE) that was designed with industry’s input for games and animation education. You will learn the process used in creating the program and the curriculum details. Then he will focus the discussion on two classes that are considered directly in the middle of our animation and computer science program, namely the Digital Character Production and Machinima courses. The University of Utah uses two digital visualization tools that have considerably improved the learning experience for the students. Mark will demonstrate the tools and show student’s work.

Doug Whatley
BreakAway Ltd.
Hunt Valley, MD

Bio

Taking the PULSE!! of next generation gaming

Provide insight into how game-based tools and techniques are transforming the training industry. Examine the convergence of gaming, educational theory and clinical needs to re-create emotionally realistic, immersive environments that are used to teach and train medical professional and first responders (and everyone else).

Hank Williams
Koudshare
New York

Bio

Web 3.0

The goal of Web 3.0 is to reorganize information so users can capture what things are and how they are related. This seemingly simple concept will have a profound effect at every level of information consumption, from the individual end user to the enterprise.

Today information is stored inside specialized inflexible databases that are, in effect, information silos. What’s needed now is an end to the silo and the emergence of a single unified view of our information universe where related objects are freely connected in meaningful ways.

Mike Wood
Motorola

Bio

Design for the mobile environment
Presentation Abstract: Website publishers have begun to supplement their experiences with mobile products; this demands a reexamination of the functionality is appropriate for the mobile consumer. An understanding of the environment in which users will be consuming said content is essential. It is constantly changing, frequently subject to interruption and limited to the micro moments of time in which users tend to squeeze in sessions with their mobile devices.

Topics will include user attention, designing within a paradigm and use case selection for the mobile environment. Session will include a lecture, short exercise and time for review and questions.

David Wortley
Serious Games Institute
Coventry University, UK

Bio

Intelligent shared spaces – bridging the physical and virtual

SHASPA brings the power of video games, virtual worlds and social networks to the physical environment. It is a technology platform that intelligently connects the future “Internet of Things” to 3D visualisations of real time data.
SHASPA bridges science and creativity with the potential to have major impact on some of the world’s most pressing social and economic issues, including energy management and sustainable development.
This presentation demonstrates SHASPA, some of its applications and describes how to join the SHASPA community.