 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Guest Speakers |
Guest SpeakersWe are currently confirming additional Guest Speakers. Check back for updates. Click on the name to read a detailed bio :
Guest Bios
Ryan Shwayder - 38 Studios Ryan Shwayder comes to 38 Studios from Sony Online Entertainment. While at SOE, he contributed to EverQuest II as a quality assurance analyst, community relations representative, apprentice game designer, and finally community relations manager. Prior to EverQuest II, Ryan worked on Fighting Legends for Colorado developer Maximum Charisma Studios and ran several websites about online gaming. He is recognized for his honest, playful, matter-of-fact (read incredibly blunt) style of community relations, founding one of the strongest MMOG communities as the creator of EverQuest II fansite EQII.com. A lifelong gamer (literally, because he was born after video games were invented), Ryan has been playing massively multiplayer games since "back in the day," when he was a self-confessed PK (player killer) in games like Ultima Online. Known best to the online world as Blackguard, Ryan runs a game development blog at Nerfbat.com and writes articles about gaming, game development, and the industry for various publications. As far as the most important questions are concerned: Pirates are better than ninjas, and pirate ninjas are greater than both. Pie is better than cake, especially if it is pumpkin pie.
Rich Gallup - 38 Studios After more than four years at revered gaming news and review site GameSpot.com, Rich Gallup answered the siren call of his native New England, traveling 3,000 miles to cross over from game coverage to game production. As a member of GameSpot’s video crew, Rich created and hosted shows including the HotSpot, On the Spot, Button Mashing, Tournament TV and Time Trotters, and helmed countless hours of live events coverage such as E3. Before GameSpot, Rich worked in QA for THQ, was one of ten finalists for Nintendo’s Eternal Darkness Film Competition, interned on the Ken Burns documentary Jazz, and held the requisite job for any film major: video store clerk. Drawn to games ever since his parents said he was too young to play with the giant plastic revolver that came with their Pong system, Rich hopes to one day help kids around the world subvert authority via entertainment. When not hard at work, he can be found playing hockey, poring over fantasy sports data, and campaigning to make the Fluffernutter the official sandwich of Massachusetts.
Among the games brought to market with Chaz Sutherland’s vision is The Matrix: Path of Neo, on which Chaz served as visual effects animator. He also worked on GoldenEye 2, Medal of Honor: Rising Sun, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Spearhead, and serving a dual-duty role in visual effects and concepts for Nightcaster 2: The Black Rose and Nightcaster: Defeat the Darkness. Most recently Chaz was concept artist on Shiny Entertainment's His Dark Materials: the Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman and New Line Cinema. Prior to working in the gaming industry, Chaz served on the Naval Submarine Force USS Aspro SSN 648 out of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Founder and CEO In 2005 Christian von Duisburg founded the developer studio SnapDragon Games, which is located in Hamburg, Germany. With SnapDragon Games he made his dream come true – building up a company which is solely focused on game development for consoles. In it´s two years of existence SnapDragon has released one title for PC and five NDS titles. Currently SnapDragon has about 40 people working on three titles for NDS and three for the Nintendos Wii console. Christian von Duisburg looks back on almost 20 years experience in the games industry. After studying physics he started working for Germanys leading PC and console game magazine Powerplay in 1990 as a journalist. In 1993 he became chief editor to the game TV shows Megahit (Bavaria/ Action Games) and X-Base (Me Myself & Eye), produced for the ZDF, one of the two leading public TV channels in Germany. In 1995 Christian von Duisburg joined Philips Media in Hamburg. So he finally joined the development side of game business. At Philips Media he was responsible for several ports of existing titles as well as for developing own titles for the company. When Philips Media was acquired by the Frankfurt based Bo-mico Christian von Duisburg left the company in order to found his first own company, TURBO D3. This full service agency had customers like SEGA Europe, GT Interactive or Infogrames/Atari as well as many German internet companies having their roots in the first dotcom boom. In 2004 Christian von Duisburg sold his shares in TURBO 3D in order to get the startup funding for SnapDragon Games.
In early 2007 Sören Wilrodt joined SnapDragon Games. As the CFO he runs the the company together with it´s founder and CEO Christian von Duisburg. Sören Wilrodt studied business administration in Germany and Finland with a special focus on investment banking/entrepreneurial finance, law and eco-nomics, and strategic management in media industries. Prior to his work for SnapDragon he worked as an intern in the investment banking/corporate finance departments for private banks like M.M.Warburg & CO. or Berenberg Bank in Hamburg, Germany. Further he was professionally involved in the internal due diligence process of a leading logistics company which was planning to go public.
I am Willy Ashworth, and I have been working in the animation biz in Toronto since 1973!! I have had a varied and interesting "career" in animation and have been fortunate enough to have animated traditionally, for a great number of years, although in the last few years, I have spent more time designing and storyboarding. Teaching, and lecturing about animation is also a great joy. I prefer classical animation, with Warner Brothers and the Fleisher Studio being my favourite. Having said that, I think THE INCREDIBLES is next to perfect. So, now that I've seen RATATOUILLE three times, I have to say, it might have bettered THE INCREDIBLES. Great storytelling, the hallmark of Pixar movies, is once again the high point. Just a stunning achievement! Speaking of feature animation, I count THE IRON GIANT, PINOCCHIO, MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO, SPIRITED AWAY, and THE TRIPLETS of BELLEVILLE among the best features created.
George Donovan is the president and owner of Gameagents Corp, a publishing company, and creator of Gogii Games Development Studio. Gogii Games is a growing studio in Moncton with offices in Prague that allow Gogii to develop products rapidly(under 3 months) but still maintain a strong quality par that has given them 7 #1 titles with many more to come. With a 1-2 titles a month scheduled for the next 3 months Gogii is actively looking for strong talent for PC, Wii and NDS development. Establishing Gogii in 2006, Gogii Games has since produced 20 products and 7 major hits. Ten titles are currently in development and scheduled for launch in 2008. Published titles are available in multiple formats including Casual Online, PC retail, Nintendo Wii, NDS, and Mobile Phones. Formerly, Donovan owned Infiknowledge Inc., there he produced Gamefiesta and gathered the skill set required to understand the consumer side of casual gaming. In 2001, he sold the company to Traffix Inc (TRFX:NASDAQ) a publically traded marketing company. Prior to forming Infiknowledge, worked for ICG a promenade Agency that worked with Developers and Publishers for placement, M&A and licensing arrangements. Having spent over 15 years in the Video Game business Donovan has established a large number of relationships and contacts in multiple traditional and non-traditional channels for distribution and licensing.
Ron Doucet was born in the glorious year of 1976 - the same year George W. Bush was arrested and fined for driving under the influence of alcohol. He knew things were going to be tough. To distract himself from life's harsh realities, Ron spent most of his young life watching television. Spiderman, Captain Caveman, Popeye, Scooby Doo, Transformers, G.I. Joe, Looney Tunes, and The Muppet Show became major sources of inspiration for him. He started drawing and realized that this was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He first got diplomas in Graphic Design and Digital Animation and then became a dedicated full time animation junkie. Thus far he's worked on several projects over the last eight years at Collideascope, including Johnny Test, Poko, the first animated Bucket Truck and MSTRKRFT music videos, Delilah & Julius, and the award winning Olliver’s Adventures. Ron has made it his life-long endeavour to help make cartoons on TV cool again. He's currently an animation director for the epic action series Speed Racer.
FOG Studios has been responsible for the creation of over $3 Billion dollars of revenues for its clients and customers via the placement of over 5,700 interactive titles into the international marketplace since 1979. The world’s first and most successful interactive representation agency, FOG exclusively represents independent videogame development studios, brands and intellectual property owners, and service providers to the interactive entertainment industry from around the world. FOG creates opportunity for its exclusive list of clients on all platforms from cellular phones to next generation console games by packaging intellectual property rights with the developers and resources necessary to bring them to market, helping publishers and other potential distributors of the products to make fully informed decisions expeditiously and with confidence based on the longstanding proven track record of success FOG has uniquely achieved. Noteworthy gaming franchises created in FOG’s history include but are not limited to; ESPN, Command & Conquer, Test Drive, Kings Quest, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Castlevania and Warlords. FOG has placed titles with all of the Top 10 publishers and countless other smaller publishers as well. FOG's roster of over 550 clients have included, among others: United Media, BMI, Ubisoft, Atari, Sierra, Westwood Studios, Sega, Paramount, Viacom, Robert Maxwell, Koei, FROM Software, Platinum Studios, ESPN, CBS Sportsline, the US Army Rangers, the Foreign Legion, Jenga, Arthur C. Clark, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, The Three Stooges (Estate), Paramount, Warner Brothers, Wham-O, Marvel, America On-Line, Yahoo, Ebay, Ringling Brothers Barnum and Baily Circus, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. FOG Studios is owned by Ed Dille, Chairman and CEO. It has offices in New Brunswick, Pennsylvania and Kharkov, Ukraine.
Ben is a veteran in the gaming industry, contributing to over ten popular video game titles including GUN, ELDER SCROLLS IV: OBLIVION, and TONY HAWK PROJECT 8. He has lectured at several universities, and runs a free website with over fifty tutorials covering all aspects of 3D asset creation. Ben currently lives in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he is working on CCP's EVE ONLINE expansion pack, AMBULATION.
MWays is located in Hamburg, Germany. The company specializes in business development and content distribution with a concentration in evaluating market needs for new products, establishing relationships between partners and clients, providing access to potential strategic partnerships, account management and building product awareness. They also offer creative services from brand and graphic design to creating web presences to comprehensive portal solutions with databases. MWays delivers end to end service for its clients to cover the entire business process. MWays is owned by Dirk Nagel, CEO and Patrick Schnoor, COO. Dirk concentrates on the business management side of MWays and brings 8+ years of mobile and internet experience. He is former Head of Global Sales at Elkware and CEO of Elkware Inc. US - based in New York City. He was also Director of Sales for Infospace Europe and was the Founder and CEO of "SMS InfoWorld AG", an internet and mobile community, sold to net mobile AG in 2001.
Hotrocket is an award-winning interactive production company which architects compelling multiplatform experiences for today’s connected audiences. They devise creative, production, and financing strategies that provide roadmaps from concept to market. They create cross-platform narrative content based on new or existing creative franchises. They produce original interactive content through their joint-venture production company, Rocketfuel, which was named “Most Promising New Company of the Year” at the 2006 Canadian New Media Awards. In 2007, Hotrocket won the “Pitch It!” competition at the Kidscreen Summit in New York City for their multiplatform tween production, “C.I.E.”. Their principal team has been invited as speakers at several international industry events including nextMEDIA (Banff) and Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum (Hong Kong). They are also active champions of their province’s $9.4 billion digital media and technology industry through our leadership with the Digital Media Association of Alberta. Hotrocket is headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and is owned by partners Ken Bautista and Jason Suriano.
ja·lloo [jah·lu] : noun; from the Manx Gaelic dictionary So How Do You Jalloo? |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Christian von Duisburg - Snap Dragon Games 
George Donovan 
Ron Doucet 
Gail Rabbitts Langdon
Ben Mathis