Victoria-based game publisher Codename Entertainment has a hit on ther hands called “Crusaders of the Lost Idols”. Their downloadable PC game is hitting the top of the charts on several digital distribution platforms, and along the way also setting records.
Find out what achievements “Crusaders of the Lost Idols” has accomplish in its brief foray online in this new infographic made by the Codename team.
On Thursday, May 21, 2015 25 of BC’s most innovative companies gathered together to learn who would be taking home this year’s NEXTBC awards.
The early evening was sunny and warm at Science World. Inside over 400 people from tech, marketing, investment, startups and other sectors walked through the Eureka Gallery and Rotunda to partake in the showcase portion of NEXTBC 2015.
Top photo: Inside Science World’s rotunda on NEXTBC 2015 night
In addition to the top 25 finalists, there were also sponsors and associations that had booth space at our event. Feedback was positive, ranging from the catered food to the positive, energetic vibe that the companies projected.
Once 8PM rolled out, the second portion of the evening began inside the Omnimax theater. After a greeting from DigiBC President Howard Donaldson, emcee Patrick Maliha introduced the first round of nominees.
DigiBC’s Howard Donaldson greets the NEXTBC 2015 crowd.
Very shortly the audience had learned which companies had won the top prize in their categories:
Most Innovative Startup: Adrroit Technologies
Most Innovative Entertainment Company: QuestUpon
Most Innovative Digital Media Company: Tradable Bits
Most Innovative Business Solution: Eventbase
Most Disruptive Innovation: H+ Technologies
Once this stage of the awards were done, the interactive panel begin. Our four judges asked representatives from the five companies thought provoking questions designed to show which one had the most innovative approach to their business.
(Left to right): Representatives from Adrroit Technologies, H+ technologies, QuestUpon, Tradable Bits, Eventbase answer the judges’ questions.
After 45 minutes of questions, the judges retired to make their decision. That left time to reveal the winners of three special awards:
Spark of Creativity Award: Agentic Communications for their work on the High-Muck-a-Muck website
(Left to right): Nicola Harwood, creative lead on the project, and BB Magazines Executive Director Sylvia Skene.
Lifetime Achievement Award: Tarrnie Williams Sr.
(Left to right:) BCIC CEO Greg Caws, Tarrnie Williams Sr. and DigiBC President Howard Donaldson.
Audience Choice Award: HelpHub
The judges then returned and the final award of the night was given out for Most Innovative Company of the Year. And the winner was…
(Left to right:) H+ Technologies’ Dhruv Adhia holds the Company of the Year award, which was presented by Microsoft’s Marjorie Trithardt.
If you would like to see all of our photos from NEXTBC 2015, visit our Facebook album.
Thank you to everyone that attended NEXTBC 2015, and congratulations to all of the winners!
DigiBC is excited to reveal the Top 25 finalists for NextBC 2015, taking place on May 21, 2015. These are the companies in British Columbia that are pushing the envelope with innovation, and being the leaders in their respective industries of technology, entertainment, startups, marketing, digital, business and culture.
Our NextBC 2015 Top 25 Finalists:
Congratulations to our NextBC 2015 finalists! DigiBC would like to thank every company that submitted a nomination this year; this year we nearly doubled the number of companies that submitted their consideration!
Each of the 25 Nominees will be invited to showcase their innovation at Science World, on the evening of Thursday, May 21. At 8pm, the Awards portion of NextBC 2015 begins, and we’ll find out which 5 companies will be selected by the NextBC judging panel as the tops in each of their respective categories.
Immediately following, the top 5 companies will participate in an interactive panel. Questions from the judges, special VIP guests and the audience will be asked in a rapid fire format. Whichever company can build the best case for their company’s approach and execution to its innovation will win the top prize of the night, the Most Innovative Company of the Year!
NextBC tickets are now on sale. For more information on the event, attending as press, or becoming a sponsor, please contact Kelsey [at] digibc.org or call 604.602.5237.
On April 14th DigiBC hosted its second “Level Up” event of the year. For those not in the know, “Level Up” are DigiBC’s video game-themed events; for example, in March we presented a panel featuring six of the Lower Mainland’s movers and shakers in the video game industry, to discuss what it might take for BC to raise the gaming industry to a higher stage of growth and visibility.
For the most recent “Level Up”, Digi chose to focus on the emerging virtual reality (VR) games being built in Vancouver. Six developers were on hand to show off their VR game creations including Archiact (makers of “Lamper VR”); the makers of the shadowy and spooky “Gorgon VR”; Conquer Mobile and their medical VR sim “PeriopSim”; and last but not least, H Plus Technologies brought their Holus device, showing off the holography entertainment that they’re building.
But that’s not all that happened at April’s “Level Up”. The week before, a local video games studio had to downsize a significant portion of their Vancouver staff. We know the people there, and our hearts immediately went out to the affected employees as well as the management team who had to go through this difficult adjustment.
I had the thought to turn Tuesday’s night “Level Up” into an impromptu job fair, hoping that a handful of Vancouver gaming studios could send someone from HR to meet with these new job seekers. The actual results startled me: in only the space of 48 hours, 15 video game studios confirmed to send representatives, and another 5 IT recruitment agencies also confirmed their interest.
We held this “Level Up” at the offices of Mobify, one of Vancouver’s emerging tech leaders in the mobile marketing and shopping space. By the time 6:30pm rolled around and the doors were open, there was a line-up down the stairs to get in the room.
Over 140 people showed up to “Level Up”, and it looked to be about evenly split between VR enthusiasts, job seekers and employers. I had originally planned to have the VR developers give a short presentation, but the level of interactivity between the crowd and the so-called “VR pods” where the teams were set up was always high.
In the end, I heard reports from a couple of gaming companies that they had made offers that night to job seekers, and that the VR game companies had gotten high levels of interest in their creations. That’s a win-win I’ll take any day.
DigiBC wants to do regular “Level Up” events, so look for the announcements on our social media channels and website. What I also learned is that the Vancouver video game industry has massive respect for each other; companies stepped up and helped over three dozen people find new homes to build great games. That was awesome to see and experience, and I’d like to hold something like this again. We’ve got a special thing going in video games here in Vancouver (and, from what I hear, in Victoria as well), so the more that this sense of pride of community can be cultivated, the stronger our industry should be.
Thanks to everyone that came out to April’s “Level Up”, and keep your eyes open for new developments with the VR game companies that showed their work that night.
Patrick@DigiBC
