DigiBC - Digital Media & Wireless in BC

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...

H+ Technologies!

(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:

Adrroit Technologies

Archiact Interactive

Electronic Arts Canada

Eventbase

FusionPipe

H+ Technologies

HelpHub

Indiloop

Kerberos Productions

Latergramme

Payso

Pinshape

POF

PressReader

Procurify

QuestUpon

QxMD

Recon Instruments

RentMoola

Roadhouse Interactive

Skyrocket Digital

Tangoo

Tradable Bits Media

Unbounce

Visier

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!

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.

Job Fair

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.

"There’s a Line Up Out the Door!”

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.

Keep Playing

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.

On the night of December 4th, DigiBC held its 2014 Holiday Party at the headquarters of HootSuite. Over 150 people from Vancouver and the Lower Mainland’s technology industries came out to party, network, win prizes, be merry and eat festively.

This was our second year holding the Holiday Party at HootSuite. Thanks to the assistance of over a dozen owls, as well as with the help of volunteers from AIESEC, the raffle team from POF, our party sponsors and the DigiBC companies that furnished great door prizes, the event went smoothly and was a great success!

  Gifts & Room Destinations

We handed out over $4,000 worth of raffle prizes this year, a record! Some of the amazing prizes that winners walked away with included a pair of interactive snow goggles (courtesy of Recon Instruments); Canucks hockey tickets (thanks to Disruptive Publishers, PwC & Fasken Martineau); a sweet prize basket stuffed with DVDs and movie swag (thanks to our pals at Sony Pictures); a beer-themed gift basket (courtesy of Steamworks Brewery); a video game bundle (Electronic Arts Canada); and so much other goodies.

Just that alone would have made it a fun evening, but when Carly, Kelsey and I started planning this year’s Holiday Party, we wanted to go all-out. We reached out to attract sponsors so we could bring in “destinations” throughout the room, to give our guests more to do. And we had three great companies step up to become Silver Sponsors of our party:

Cologix, a North America-wide provider of co-location & cloud services, sponsored the Oculus Rift gaming display made by CDM students

Fusion Projects, the interior design team that made HootSuite’s incredible working space, sponsored our photo booth

BenefitDeck, an extended health & worker benefits company that specializes in covering the employees for tech companies, brought us the Oxygen Bar

Throughout the night each of these three room destinations were consistently busy. Every time I would glance over at the Oculus Rift, there was a line-up of people waiting to try on the virtual reality glasses. People were putting on wacky costumes and having their group’s photo taken, while there was always only standing room around the oxygen bar.

  Food & Beverages

  It also looks like our choice of Roaming Dragon as the night’s provider of snacks and light meals also went over well. Red Truck Beer Company also partnered with us on the night’s suds, while Erik & Dave from Vancouver startup Indiloop came through by delivering a full night’s worth of DJing and cool tunes.

Also, a thank you should go out to Vitay from Billy Bob’s Jerky. Vitay had a table by the snack table, and judging from the number of beef jerky wrappers I spotted people holding, it seemed that there was a lot of nibblers of Vitay’s snacks.

With all this activity going on, it’s almost easy to forget that people can come to the Holiday Party to network with other tech company owners and employees. And while that’s a great attraction to this annual DigiBC event, our team wanted to expand and make this a fun event that offered many different activities for everyone. We hope that we succeeded and surpassed your expectations.

For the people that missed out on going to this year’s party, our humble apologies. With more than a week to go until the event, we sold out of tickets. For 2015 we’re planning more social events throughout the year, and if demand remains high we’ll have to look for larger spaces to accommodate everyone. Keep in the know by signing up for our newsletter or following us on social media (Facebook, Twitter) so when we make those announcements, you’ll be among the first to know.

  On behalf of Howard, Carly, Kelsey and myself, thank you again for being a part of DigiBC and for making our Holiday Party a great time!

For over 20 years British Columbia has been a leader in making video games. Whether its triple-A titles or breakout indies, games made in BC have captivated audiences worldwide with their innovative gameplay, dazzling graphics and superior art and sound.

While Vancouver is perhaps the best known quadrant of BC known for game creation and employment, other regions in BC are rapidly gaining in reputation and visibility. One such community is BC's capital city, picturesque Victoria. In several ways Victoria's gaming industry is establishing its own unique identity, with young companies sprouting up fast to take advantage of the local talent and enthusiastic community support for games.

Have a look at this infographic released by VIATeC (Victoria Advanced Technology Council) which breaks down the city's gaming scene as of mid-2014. Some eye-catching details that stand out:

After the government sector, the next largest group of employed workers is in Victoria's technology space.

$24 million is spent in Victoria by the gaming companies (on employees salaries, R&D, goods & services, etc.)

64% of all employees working for game studios were local residents of Victoria.

With events like Gottacon attracting thousands of people and emerging studios like Code Name Entertainment, TinyMob Games, GameHouse Canada and Metalhead Software making releases for browsers, social and PC platforms, this "City of Gardens" is quickly emerging as a hotbed for cool video game culture and industry.

Keep up the momentum Victoria!

[See larger image here.]

It’s my second week on the job, and it’s time for a new blog post. My name is Patrick Sauriol and I’m the new Executive Director for DigiBC. One of my main duties is to help promote and support the many different companies, both established and starting up, across our province. I’m also here to build value and show you the benefits that come from being a member and sponsor of DigiBC, and how my organization can help you achieve your goals. Have no fear: Howard Donaldson will continue to be involved with DigiBC as both a board member and its' President. I’m coming in to build on the amazing work that Howard has done over these past three years. He’s leaving big shoes to fill, and I don’t want to let him down. I also don’t want to let myself down. Let me explain:

I’m a lifelong resident of Vancouver and I love both this city and the province. Since I was old enough to hold the joystick of an Atari 2600 (old school gaming shout-out) or learn to code on an Apple II, I’ve loved technology. Games, software applications, new energy technologies, smart machine intelligence research, online marketing, machine automation, smartphones...all of these things are now a part of our world and cultural identity. I’ve had my own experience carving out a living and a career in tech, first as a fanboy that owned his own bulletin board system (BBS, another old school shout-out) and then as the creator of a website that grabbed the attention of Hollywood. I’ve had the opportunity to be interviewed by Vanity Fair, Wired, The New York Times and other publications about my online accomplishments. I’ve worked at several Vancouver start-ups doing marketing, SEO, content creation, web series producing and growth hacking. Immediately prior to joining DigiBC, I served as the Creative Director for a Burnaby-based digital marketing agency for five years.

Why Join DigiBC? There are a few reasons why I accepted this opportunity: Look around BC and you’ll see a tremendous level of talent in what I refer to as the “digital industries”. Whether it’s gaming, marketing, content producing, software/hardware development, bootstrapping a killer app idea to its launchpad, this is the place to do it. The people here have the talent, the creativity, the tenacity but most importantly the vision. We don’t have to be another Silicon Valley; we can be something just as innovative and successful on our own terms. Like yourself, DigiBC is a fighter and a dreamer. Our organization is an advocate for yours. The world is rapidly changing to a digital society, and it’s our mission to help support and grow your digital business. We’re educators to the public, to the government and to potential investors and talent looking for you. We share your vision of bright, fully realized future of opportunity, and we’ll help your business get there. To make a difference. Howard and his team have done so much but they will be the first to admit that there’s still a lot to accomplish. I want to help promote and celebrate what BC’s digital industries have created, but more than that, I want to help make things even better. We can be a global superstar for all things digital. We can attract the biggest companies and brands to set up a home in British Columbia. I also believe that we can give birth to new brands, forms of media and business leaders that will be known throughout the world. The next Apple or Facebook or Tesla Motors won’t be born here sometime in the future; it already has. I want to help the creators of those companies make their grandest vision become a reality. I’ve spoken with many successful C-level business owners as well as startup founders, and they all share one thing: passion for their companies. Working with leading edge digital leaders and their companies is my passion, and here with DigiBC and at home in BC is where I want to be.

Stick Around I’ve been privy to what’s going on behind the curtain here at DigiBC and I can safely say (without fear of violating any NDAs and sending a drone after me) that some truly creative and amazing events, actions and plans are afoot. A few you already have seen, like last spring’s inaugural NextBC showcase and awards night. Others are coming and will start to be announced very soon. Make it a plan to sign up for the DigiBC newsletter and follow us on our social media streams (Facebook here, Twitter here). And keep your eyes on this blog for more insight into the stories behind the trends, companies and forces shaping our industry’s future. Thanks for reading and feel free to contact me with you thoughts, opinions, ideas or concerns at any time at patrick [at] digibc.org.

DigiBC is excited to announce the Top 25 Showcase companies for NextBC: The Showcase for Technology Innovation in BC that will Shape our Future.

Congratulations to the Top 25 Finalists

 Avigilon

 Build Direct

 CapTherm Systems

 CineCoup

 Cognilab

 Conquer Mobile

 D-Wave Systems

 Electronic Arts Canada

 EchoSec

 Elix Wireless

 Fusion Pipe Software Solutions

 Gener8

 General Fusion

 HootSuite

 IoT Design Shop

 Medeo

 MTT Innovation

 Payfirma

 PayWith

 PHEMI Health Systems

 POF

 Recon Instruments

 Trulioo

 Urthecast

 Vision Critical

Thank you to all the companies that applied to showcase at NextBC. Stay tuned for announcements about the distinguished panel of judges and the topic for Andrew Harries, former Co-Founder, Sierra Wireless keynote presentation.

Secure your tickets for NextBC before they're gone. More information and tickets here. Contact Carly Graham (carly [at] digibc [dot] org) for more information.

Wow, I am stunned, totally stunned by the Facebook acquisition of Oculus announcement.

It’s both amazing that VR has come this far, and a bit shocking. Right now the PR backlash on Oculus is brutal, but if it’s motivated with true ambition and a sensible future, then this could be a good thing. If it wasn’t before, Oculus Rift is now a household name. And Facebook’s open hardware logistics will be able to ramp manufacture and protect Oculus from the bumps of scaling this to global launch. Never ever has a brand new hardware company been able to pull off growth this aggressively before. This was a dazzling win for any entrepreneur.

So Conquer picked a really unusual day to make a VR announcement. We’re teaming up with VRcade for out-of-home, and intend to deploy with Oculus Rift for at-home setups. I hope that Mark Zuckerberg keeps a respectful distance and lets Oculus run at full speed. Never have I seen such strong, viscerally negative reaction before. Not even the Google Reader API debacle got this much flash press.

If everything they say is true, then the advantages will bear themselves out over time. I’m also deeply grateful for everything Palmer Lucky and the Oculus team accomplished; the enthusiasm, getting John Carmack support pre-2013 GDC, running a great kickstarter, and pulling together a heck of a dev kit. The interesting thing is the basic VR tech is already well defined with lots of prior art. VRcade is built on a lot of pre-existing tech, and done really well, and Oculus has addressed a lot of issues with the home configuration. This announcement has simply catalyzed VR as a real legitimate thing, with an insanely rabid fan base.

This will without a doubt will snap awake investor interest in all of the related VR projects and propel the greater VR industry forward.

– Aaron, CTO, Co-Founder

The Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit (IDMTC) of British Columbia expires September 30, 2015. The BC government will be reviewing the merits of the IDMTC in 2014 and recommending action to either let the tax credit expire, renew the tax credit in its current form or make changes to improve the tax credit. The BC government does not collect adequate information about our industry and it is likely the information they do have is not up to date. We believe the IDMTC has been beneficial to the industry but can and should be improved significantly. In order for your industry association to approach the BC government with our recommendations to improve the tax credit policy, we will need to collect current industry information like we did in 2009 before the original IDMTC was approved. Your company information is very important and will be treated with the utmost confidentiality. 

DigiBC hosted a town hall to discuss the state of the industry, and what we are going to do going forward. To hear overview, panel and discussion, click here

Below are some questions the audience asked or commented on. We want to hear all of your opinions, ideas and feedback. Don't hesitate to contact DigiBC. 

IDMTC Town Hall Discussion Portion Recap

  Panelists

James Hursthouse, Roadhouse Interactive

Jon Lutz, EA

Brenda Bailey, Silicon Sisters

Lance Davis, Slant Six Games

  Q1: Anonymous: Everyone here is from the video game industry. I’m not. What is the impact of tax credits to companies who are not video game, yet still digital media? A lot of the criteria I don’t meet, and I’m not eligible now.

A1: How broad do we want to make this? We want to hear all from all companies in order to expand the eligibility. Companies like yours feed the ecosystem. We all hire similar people. We want to increase the tax credits laterally and horizontally.

  Q2: Comment from PwC: Comment about lateral expansion. I’ve found when there isn’t a lot of definition about who qualifies; it excludes a lot of companies. For example: There is a company creating a learning app for education [helping improve education], but it has been excluded from BCIDM. I think we need to recognize these companies and stories and show them to government. Explain why we need the tax credits. Enlighten them.

A2: This is why the survey needs to go out far and wide. We need recognize who is creating what and what challenges each company is facing. Equally with product showcase, we want to show breadth of what our industry is working on.

Todd: [Knowledge and experience of drafting policies] We need to focus on hardware (iOS). It all starts with data, sirveys, studies of programs eligibilities. The more data and patterns and emerging trends present, the better chance we have.

  Q3: Victory Square: Since day 1, we’ve been struggling and now we have nine employees. Small companies struggle a lot. I want to hear more about this tiered idea for development. Are there any plans to include this in government?

A3: We want to include all kinds of studios from the 2-person basement project, to the larger HQ studios. Firstly, it’s important that the smaller companies continue to stay a part of the dialogue.  Key to a small company is cash flow. Being able to receive the incentive on a regular basis would be something I’d focus on. DigiBC represents across the board, so continue to stay with us.

  Q4: Anonymous: Is there any notion of current participation rates for the program or do we have a goal number? What is the magic number to convince government?

A4: We don’t have data as of yet. It’s one of the questions that we are asking on the survey. Last time we talked to government, we wanted to attract 5K workers. That’s what we are working towards, and we believe it’s achievable. Being on the West Coast, we have studios and people flooding to Vancouver to open operations (especially the animation industry). A lot of companies set up tester studios here (20-30 employees), but if the tax credit were higher, we’d be seeing studios operate at 1000+ employees. Our goal is to double the work force and create a healthy ecosystem. We want to create direct, indirect and induced jobs. Up to 2008, the work force was increasing 20%. Capacity isn’t the issue, but we need to give them an opportunity.

  Q4: Anonymous: We need to build contractors and we are seeing wonderful shifts in the indie community. For ourselves, we are fully contracted and that’s just the stark reality of trying to manage overhead from point A-B. We’d love to have 30-40% tax credits, but the biggest benefit would be full time employees.

    Q5: Anonymous: What are we doing to foster the local talent and people in Vancouver? I can’t wait around 2 months to get hired. How do we get these start ups to get money? Micro-loans? Some companies only need 1K. How can we accentuate that? We have talent here: Two thousand indie developers made 68 games in 48 hours. IF we put more money into it, or showcased this, it would change the tide.

  A5: Contactors issue. If tax credit were 30-35%, does that mean we’d have more projects coming and less contractors? In some ways we need to fix competitiveness, which attracts investment. There is only so much risk we can take and a limitation in stuff we want to build. We are trying to foster long-term employment. How do we bring investment and projects here? If a customer can get 8K a month if their company were taken to Montreal, of course they will do that. We need a level playing field here.  We are missing investors in this climate. It’s all interconnected and part of the same ecosystem.

  Q6: Joan Miller, BC Regional Film and New Media Commissioners

WE are really effective as a strong lobbying group. We are willing to put our collective efforts together. We’ve got the ear of people who make big decisions. Ministers have home ridings and are very interested to see new cluster of indie media companies coming to set up shop here. We are coming here to support the growth throughout the whole province. Sascha Williams of Club Penguin in Kelowna reiterated he has a 300+ studio that’s unknown, but important to regional credits. You think Vancouver has a talent acquisition problem, you should see Kelowna. We import employees from Europe and North America. We will always hire locally before internationally; we just don’t have as many positions as we’d like anymore. We’re pretty flat.

  A big thank you to Club Penguin for donating $10K at the town hall. Please show your support by donating.

    Q7: Anonymous: Representing small start-ups and indies: Are there any organizations that would hypothesize a loan, sort of like SR&ED?

A7: Same guys. If you know them, hit them up.

  Q8: I’m a student and I’ve been told I will only get a job if I move out east. I can’t find work here because there aren’t the same opportunities. We have 12 grad students a year coming out of AI, and only a few of the grads will snag a job after graduation in Vancouver.

As Vancouver welcomes the Merging Media Conference 2013, we have been lucky enough to interview one of the conference's amazing speakers and global media experts: Liz Rosenthal, Founder and CEO of Power to the Pixel. To learn more about the conference or to purchase your Day 2 pass, click here.              

                                    1) Tell our members a little bit about yourself and your background in the digital media industry   I am the Founder and CEO of Power the Pixel (PttP). My passion lies in storytelling, design and innovation. I've always been interested in pushing boundaries  and questioning established and accepted practices. I started my media industry life in the independent film business and was lucky enough to work with a division of the IFC, Next Wave Films where we challenged film production methods and encouraged  easier ways for filmmakers to create and produce using digital tools, financing digital films and helping launch the careers of several super talented emerging directors. But that was over 15 years ago and because digitisation has now disrupted every part of the media industries, I established PttP to help creators and businesses find new ways to engage today's fragmented audiences, and build sustainable projects and businesses. I feel particularly inspired and privileged to be working on a daily business with leading innovators, creators and entrepreneurs from around the world and with my great PttP team.   I’ve had the pleasure of advising multiple international film and media organisations. I regularly speak at international conferences, film festivals and leading filming schools including Berlin, Cannes, Rotterdam, and have  lectured at TEDx Transmedia. And now the Merging Media Conference in Vancouver – so excited to be here for the first time.  2) Can you give our readers that may not have heard of Power to the Pixel a brief  background and explanation of the great work you do?   We’re an organization that helps international film and media businesses adapt to digital change. We help creators and businesses develop stories and entertainment products to engage today's  audiences across the multiple platforms, devices and spaces they now inhabit. We also help broker relationships between creators businesses and across industry silos through the forums and events we run. Our annual centrepiece event is the renowned Cross-Media Forum run for the 7th year in association with The BFI London Film Festival, connecting the film and media industries with key innovators pioneering new models of storytelling, finance and distribution, in a conference, a think tank and the world’s largest and only dedicated cross-media marketplace, The Pixel Market. Our other main programme is The Pixel Lab, a leading European project-focused business course for developing cross-media properties. We also advise creators, producers and media organisations on a wide range of areas including project development and innovation strategy.

   3) How did you get involved with the Merging Media Conference?   I was introduced to Christine by the fantastically talented Loc Dao, Head of the English Digital Studio here at NFB Canada, with whom we've had the pleasure of collaborating with on many a Cross-Media Forum and Pixel Lab.  At this year's Cross-Media Forum, we had a special Focus on Canada, with 5 Canadian supporting partners, a delegation of Canadian organisations and producing talent. We're delighted that Merging Media chose to be be one of our supporting partners with their inaugural Merging Media Pixel Market Prize that was awarded Text Me for a European cross-media project with the greatest possibility of co-producing with Canada. Victoia Mapplebeck, creator and director of the project is presenting it at the 360 Pitch Competition. We're delighted to be partnering with Merging Media and see the collaboration as an opportunity to help cultivate collaborations between European and Canadian Producers.   4) What are the benefits of this conference taking place in Vancouver, BC? Vancouver is the centre for media and television. This city is one of the greatest hubs in North America for extremely talented people working and revolutionizing these industries. As a progressive New World City, we see Vancouver as the perfect place where leading internstional pioneers meet and cultivate relationships in this new area of storytelling and media business.    5) What keeps you passionate in this industry?   Working in an area that is permanently in flux is challenging but exciting. It’s great to just be constantly growing and learning – whether it be as an individual or collectively with others in this industry. I also have the privilege of working with some of the smartest people in media and find my day-to-day conversations with them inspiring.   6) If you could have any superpower, what would it be?   I'd be the bionic woman! How amazing would that be? I could exponentially achieve more every day, be in more places and get to places faster… and beat jet lag. There’s so much I want to do and I have a ton of great ideas but it's time that is my main challenge! 

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DigiBC would like to thank Nicole Reader from The Modern Mirror for contributing to our members series. If you would like to connect with Nicole, please contact us (Carly [at] digibc [dot] org) and we will be happy to facilitate an introduction.

1. Tell me about yourself and about your company.

I am the CEO and co-founder of The Modern Mirror.  I have a diverse background in the fashion industry ranging from importing luxury goods,  retail sales, visual merchandising, design and pattern making, producing and directing fashion shows and runway modeling.  I’m a huge supporter of women in business as a mentor and consultant to start-ups on the side.

The Modern Mirror is a fashion + tech company specializing in visualization technology.  The Modern Mirror provides consumers the ability to experience how clothing looks feels and wears on their actual image and body type without ever stepping into an ordinary fitting room again.

My goal is to bring back the luxury experience to the fashion industry, which has been lost due to mass production and bottom line.  Fashion continually evolves yet  the process has remained the same for centuries, and it’s time for fashion to embrace the new and exciting technologies being developed.   

  2. What is the most challenging about being an entrepreneur in Vancouver.

Although there are a number of VC funds available in Vancouver, many of them are designated to  specific areas of technology.   Fashion + tech has a lower profile and interest to Vancouver investors.  This is primarily due to fashion + tech being a new industry and a lack of expertise and knowledge in this particular field. 

  3. What inspires you?

As humans, we all face obstacles and challenges in our daily lives, whether it be in business, relationships, financial, or our health.  What inspires me is how we can overcome these obstacles and challenges and thrive while doing so.   Believing in oneself is the most powerful resource …. If we all believed in ourselves we would be unstoppable.

A personal philosophy is that comfort is the breeding ground for mediocrity.  As a result, I like to raise the bar and empower my team members to unleash their greatness and be game-changers.

When I speak with others about our venture, some common reactions are “it’s impossible,” “it’s too difficult,” “it requires too much capital,” and “you are not the calibre of person to take this project on.”  My response has always been “if they put a man on the moon …. I can make this bold vision a reality.”  I do not believe in impossible…I only believe in possible.

  4.What is fashion + tech?

Fashion + Tech = Is the intersection of design and scientific innovation where these two industries cross-over to redefine the way we experience the fashion industry.

5. Where do you see the future of fashion + tech going?

It’s an exciting time witnessing two of the world’s most powerful industries collide.  We’ve experienced a significant influx of new fashion + tech start-ups over the past couple of years and how the fashion industry has embraced such technologies. Third Wave Fashion reported a total of $803.5 million dollars has been invested in fashion + tech start-ups just over the course of the summer. Investors are continuing to seek the next fashion + tech company that will be the big game-changer within the industry. Savvy investors recognize the potential of this industry and are adding to their portfolios to avoid being disappointed and left out.

Historically the fashion industry has been slow to adopt new technologies, however during recent years industry leaders have recognized that technology plays a critical role in their success. The acceptance for technological innovation has grown exponentially and by adopting technologies global fashion leaders have seen significant growth and impact within their companies.  Technology has provided industry leaders the ability to connect with their global customers more effectively and provide a deeper inside look of the brand and it’s legacy.  It has also begun to shape the market and increase the size by providing the global reach between the brands’ and their customers.

Global luxury retailer, Burberry, has proven this theory and has successfully integrated technology to improve operational proficiencies and to provide a luxurious shopping experience for their customers. They are currently recognized as one of the most innovative fashion design companies in the world and are diligent in investing in technologies that significantly impact their “global reach” between their suppliers, stakeholders and customers.  Some of the ways they have integrated technology are:

Transforming Fashion Shows:Burberry has demonstrated innovation and leadership when it comes to introducing their collections. They have utilized technology in various forms from livestreaming their fashion shows to their customers globally, to implementing digital commerce purchase capabilities that allow customers to make purchases right off the runway.  

Retail Theatre: Burberry introduced the concept of “Retail Theatre” where they livestream their runway shows to their retail locations.

Digital Footprint:Burberry is leading the way amongst luxury brands in digital media marketing.  They have over 15 million fans on Facebook, over 2 million followers on Twitter and more than 24 million channel views on YouTube and continue to invest in their digital footprint in order to leverage the greatest exposure.

RFID Mirrors:In some of their locations Burberry has implemented RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) mirrors that convert to screens to showcase their latest merchandise.

Burberry World:  Burberry launched their new .com site, which is transactional in 45 countries and provides a “Click to Chat” and “Click to Call” service for customers in 14 different languages in order to create a more enjoyable online shopping experience.

“Most luxury companies see technology as a cost; Burberry sees it as a key differentiator.” - VERIZON

The fashion + tech industry shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. There has been a lot of innovation by fashion + tech start-ups that have influenced the fashion industry in terms of design, manufacturing, distribution, sales channels and retail. 

We see these start-ups branching out in many different areas:                                                                                                                                      

E-Retailers (e-commerce)

Augmented Reality

Mobile Apps & Gaming

VTO (Virtual Try-On) Solutions

Social Media & Networking

Discovery Platforms

Digital Marketing

Wearable Technologies

3D Printing

In some of the above-mentioned areas we are beginning to see repetition and duplication amongst fashion + tech companies and their business models.  Areas such as e-retailing (or better known as e-commerce) has a tremendous amount of duplication and is becoming saturated.  What is the key differentiator amongst all these e-retailers? How do they distinguish themselves from the market leader Net-a-Porter, who was one of the first companies to successfully conquer the e-retailing segment of selling luxury fashion goods online?     

There has been a staggering amount of investment injected into selected segments that are oversaturated that I believe investors will have to be very patient before seeing a return. This is due to the fact that many of the companies operating in these segments are overcapitalized and the returns are so unrealistically optimistic that it will be difficult for these companies and shareholders to see sufficient returns. This will lead to a Fashion + Tech Bubble that has the likelihood of bursting if the technology doesn’t evolve and the companies don’t produce substantial gains.  

Investors should not be deterred from making investments in the fashion + tech industry, it is however important for investors to recognize the diverse opportunities and to broaden their scope of investment within different segments of the fashion + tech industry.

There has been an increasing number of accelerators, incubators, forums and organizations forming that are dedicated to connecting entrepreneurs, innovators, investors and industry players together to accelerate the growth and development of the fashion + tech industry.

There has been significant growth and development revitalizing the fashion industry, however this is a mere glimpse of what is possible when fashion embraces the technologies of tomorrow.

  6. What are some the benefits of being a tech entrepreneur in B.C.? Would you ever base your company outside of Vancouver?

B.C. provides various tax incentives as well as a number of programs that assist entrepreneurs to start up technology companies,  gain access to talent and creativity, and has established organizations that offer services to mentor and build networks with other entrepreneurs.  

Vancouver will always be our base, however we do foresee the company opening additional offices in NY, Toronto and Montreal in order to be accessible to our potential customers in our industry.

  7. Does being a female tech entrepreneur help or hurt you?

Over the past several years, my experience as a female tech entrepreneur has been challenging in this traditionally male dominated industry.  I did not fit the typical profile in my 4.5 inch stilettos discussing how I was going to integrate fashion and technology together, therefore I was often overlooked and my credibility was questioned. I was seen to be as foreign to the tech industry as the word “fashion” itself.  Neither “I” nor “fashion” seemed to belong in the tech world.  

More recently, there has been an increasing amount of female tech entrepreneurs entering the industry.  This has increased acceptance, collaboration, mentorship, and networking amongst all tech entrepreneurs and industry service providers.  These initiatives that have taken place have empowered and encouraged more women to enter this field.   It is personally gratifying to see more 4.5 inch stiletto representation at our industry events.

8. Where do you see your company in 5 years? In 10 Years?

In 5 years, we will be established at the forefront of the fashion + tech industry providing innovative solutions to luxury fashion retailers.  We will be recognized as the fashion + tech expert that has the capability of spotting opportunities and trends and offering technology solutions to respond to this potential. 

In 10 years time, we will continue to be a leader in our industry offering a broader scope of products and services in the fashion + tech industry and one of the largest of its kind.  We will be a significant employer in the region playing an important role in the local economy.  Our company will create positive impacts within the environment in which it operates and will contribute to its social responsibilities through philanthropic endeavours. 

  9. How did you get involved with DigiBC?

I was initially invited to a DigiBC event by an industry service provider.  I continued to participate in further meetings and events, which subsequently led us to join the association.  Whitney and Carly were instrumental in our decision to join as they are extremely supportive and genuinely interested in the success of our company.

  10. How have you benefitted from being a DigiBC member?

DigiBC member Andrei Mincov is a Lawyer and Trademark Agent for Mincov Law Corporation and The Canadian Trademark Factory. Andrei is an expert in the field and has a great deal of experience working with BC's digital media industry. This week, Andrei shares with us all the tips, tricks & secrets you need to know about Trademarks. You can learn more about Trademarks & contact Andrei at trademarkfactory.ca.

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."

Albert Einstein

  Like everything else in this world, if you dig deep enough, trademark laws have many subtleties and important little things about them. 

However, just like a tourist does not need to fully understand aerodynamics to decide whether they should travel by plane or by car, a business owner does not need to have read hundreds of cases about registrability of trademarks to decide whether their brand is worth protecting.

A lawyer's job is not to stun his clients with his brilliance. A lawyer's job is to make the clients' life easier by clearly explaining what needs to be explained and then doing what needs to get done. 

This is the philosophy behind the Trademark Factory, a service that makes deciding whether or not to register trademarks as simple as 1-2-3 and getting the trademarks registered in Canada as simple as buying a Big Mac.

In this article, I am going to share the Trademark Factory process in order to demystify the complexities surrounding the trademarking process.

On the highest level, the three steps that every business owner goes through are:

Do I have anything trademarkable?

Should I register my trademarks?

How do I register my trademarks?

Let me walk you through these three steps.

1. Do I have anything trademarkable, a.k.a. Can I register my trademark?

What's most important here is to clearly understand what is and what is not the function of a trademark. The function of a trademark is to allow the end consumer to tell your products and services from identical or similar products and services of your competitors. 

For example, cab companies rarely offer services that are vastly different from what other cab companies offer. Often, local governments even force all cab operators to charge the same rates. Through the use of touting or catchy trademarks, some cab companies try to lure first-time customers who may be looking for a cab on the web or through Yellow Pages. On top of that, trademarks make it easier for customers to give repeat business to a particular cab company.

Again, the function of a trademark is not to compel the public to choose a cab over buying a bicycle, but to allow those who have already decided that they want to take a cab, to choose which one it is going to be.

Trademarks can take many forms, as long as they perform this distinguishing function: they can be plain words ("iPad"), logos (the bitten apple design used by Apple), slogans ("I'm lovin' it" by McDonald's), characters (the Hello Kitty design), shapes of products (the Coca-Cola bottle), colors (the famous red soles of Christian Louboutin's shoes), melodies (the Nokia tune) or sounds (the roaring lion by MGM). As long as a business uses a particular identifier to distinguish its products and services from identical or similar products and services of its competitors, it can usually be protected as a trademark.

Importantly, trademarks don't give their owners a monopoly over the name or the logo itself. They only give a monopoly over their association with specific products and services for which the name or logo are used. For example, BLUE SHIELD trademark is owned in Canada by two completely different entities: one in association with prepaid financing and administration of medical services, and the other in association with various items related to welding. 

The ability of the trademark to distinguish products and services is called distinctiveness, and is the first of three requirements of registrability of a trademark.

The second requirement is that the trademark must not be unregistrable according to specific prohibitions set out in the Trade-Marks Act. In order not to turn this article into a boring textbook no one will want to read, I will only briefly cover the most common ones.

For example, you cannot register as a trademark the common name of the product or the service itself. For example, you cannot register "APPLE" in association with apples, or "ACCOUNTING" in association with accounting. Indeed, registering such trademarks would give their owners the monopoly over the whole class of products and services, as opposed to allowing customers to tell specific products and services within that class.

Neither can you register clearly descriptive trademarks, that is, terms with dictionary meanings that are used to directly describe such products or services. For example, you cannot register "COLOR" for printers or "SAFE" for cars. Often it is impossible to tell with certainty whether the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) will consider a particular trademark descriptive, which may result in some back and forth between the trademark owner and CIPO.

Finally, the third requirement of registrability is for the trademark to not be confusingly similar to another trademark or a trade name previously registered or used in Canada by somebody else. If there is a trademark previously registered in association with identical or similar products or services, CIPO will refuse a subsequent confusing trademark application. This is why it is important to conduct a search of trademarks registered in Canada to make sure that you are not investing in a brand that will never truly be yours.

Unless specifically requested by an third party, CIPO will not check if your trademark is similar to unregistered trademarks and trade names. Yet, If you are planning to build your business around a brand which you have not yet started using, it may be a good idea to also make sure that nobody else in Canada is using a similar mark without registering it. This latter search is usually conducted by professional searchers. A simple test of whether or not to do this search is whether you would readily abandon your brand if the search reveals a similar mark used by someone else. If you are going to continue using your trademark anyway, there is no reason to waste money on a search the results of which will be irrelevant to both yourself and CIPO.

  2. Should I register my trademark?

Just because you have something that CAN be trademarked, does not necessarily mean that it should be registered as a trademark

Unless you want to register your trademark simply to stroke your ego, which is also a good reason, I’ve developed a simple 3-question test that will allow you to decide if it’s the right time for you to register your trademarks.

Think about the name, logo or the slogan that you have established that you can trademark, and ask yourself three questions:

Would it be worth fighting for if you received a cease-and-desist letter demanding that you stop using your trademark in your business?

Yes, you came up with your trademark. Yes, you started using it first. But what if someone else registered your trademark before you do? You would still probably be able to win in court. But it would cost you 20 to 40 times more. So if you ever see yourself fighting to defend your own trademark in court, you should minimize the risk of your trademark being hijacked by someone else. You do it by registering your trademarks.

Would it be worth fighting for if your competitor started using your trademark or a similar name to promote their products or services?

In Canada, you would have some limited protection even for your unregistered trademark, but this protection would only extend to geographical areas where people know your trademark well enough and, just as in the case of the cease-and-desist letter, it is a lot more expensive to win a case relying on an unregistered trademark. So think about this, will you be losing business if your competitor decided to use your trademark to sell their products and services anywhere in Canada? Do people buy from you because of your trademark? Do they find you because of your trademark? 

If you were to franchise, expand or sell your business, would the buyer give you more money for your trademark?

A registration automatically protects your trademark across Canada, regardless of whether people have any idea about your products or services in any particular part of it. This means that if you are to sell, franchise or expand your business, a registered trademark will allow you export the credibility that it has generated in one place to any other place in Canada. Another way to deal with this question is to ask yourself, do my trademarks have any value if I am no longer in my business? MCDONALD'S trademark has value regardless of whether the McDonald's Corporation is owned by anyone whose last name is McDonald. Will yours?

You don't need to answer yes to all three questions. If you answer yes to at least one of them, then you should register your trademarks as early as possible. 

3. How do I register my trademark?

You are not required to use a trademark lawyer or a trademark agent to apply to register your trademarks in Canada.

Indeed, about 20% of all trademark applications in Canada are filed by trademark owners themselves.

Unfortunately, many of these never get registered.

By CIPO's own statistics, 70% - 75% of all applications (including those filed by lawyers) initially receive what is usually called an "office action", a report where CIPO informs the applicant that the trademark application is rejected. There are three possible scenarios from here: the office action may contain specific instructions which, if followed, will lead to the approval of the application; the office action may reveal problems with the application that cannot be fixed and the application will not be registered; or the applicant or the applicant's lawyer can successfully convince the CIPO examiner to change their mind about the initial refusal.

In most cases, trademark owners have no idea how to respond to these office actions because they are not written in a most human-friendly language. 

So while self-filing can be the most cost-effective strategy, it may end up costing you time and money. CIPO does not refund government fees for refused applications. And the earliest you are going to find out that there is something wrong with your application is in about 6 months after you file it.

For business owners, the trademarking process is binary - their trademarks either get registered or they don't. 

The vast majority of trademark agents will eventually be able to get the job done, assuming that the trademark is at all registrable. 

So how do you pick the one to help you with your trademark?

I suggest that you do your market research and ask the following questions:

Can you quote a fixed fee for the entire process from start to finish?

Will you charge me for the initial search of registered trademarks to confirm that my trademark is registrable?

Will you charge me an hourly rate to respond to office actions?

Will you charge me extra every time you receive something from CIPO and notify me about it?

If CIPO refuses to register my trademark, will I get my money back?

In Conclusion

If your branding is important to your business, you should protect it by registering your names, logos and slogans as trademarks. They are your valuable assets.

Trademarks don't need to be complicated for business owners. Now, there is a fully predictable, guaranteed way to register trademarks in Canada. It's called the Trademark Factory. 

  DigiBC had the pleasure of chatting with Conquer Mobile, a specialist in mobile strategy and mobile business solutions. Angela Roberts, Co-founder & CEO of Conquer, sat on a mobile health panel we hosted for Mobile Monday Vancouver in April, Mobile + Digital = Innovation: Can Disruptive Technologies Enable Better Healthcare?

Their company speaks for itself; they have some big plans and some great apps. See for yourself:

  Angela Robert, Co-founderCEO

  Aaron Hilton, CTO

With deep expertise in mobile security, 3D visualization and SharePoint integration,  Conquer Mobile has become a trusted development partner for secure, custom business apps.

Q&A 

What are some of the benefits of having a studio in BC?

BC is rapidly becoming a world class tech hub, with success stories such as EA, SAP/Business Objects, HootSuite and a talent pool covering a diverse range of specialties: from digital media to enterprise analytics and social media.

Being based here in BC means we’ve been able to attract top talent with deep graphics expertise and enterprise software experience. Our people could be working in the Valley, but choose to be here. We’d like to think it’s purely because we’re such a great crowd to work with, but the BC lifestyle is a big factor too.

    How does working at Discovery Parks help your company? Do you think it has any downfalls for business not being in core downtown Vancouver?

We’ve done both. We spent a year in downtown Vancouver at Wavefront which was incredibly valuable for networking within our sector. We also spent a year at the Discovery Parks Generator, which was immensely helpful for sharing ideas with other start-ups. We love to meet clients face to face, and it is a short hop downtown, so it’s not a problem. We even have the Skytrain a short walk away.

  Tell us a little bit about the company culture at Conquer Mobile

The people are incredibly smart, creative and authentic. We all choose to work here for the people, values and intellectual rush. Being a services company, we are accountable for every single hour, so we are extremely focused. Having said that you’ll hear some very loud thumps and shouts at lunch when the guys battle it out in the latest game.

Work-life balance is more than just an empty HR phrase. Our CEO, Angela, leads by example getting out of the building to shoot some goals on the ice, concoct disturbingly healthy smoothies and spend time with her dogs.

   Who are some of your partners and are there any other industries you are looking to partner/connect with?

We have built long-term development partnerships with several industry leading ISVs.  This part of the business is really strong and just continues to grow. For a small outfit we are unusually big on process, which is really valued by our clients. It doesn’t slow us down but keeps everything on track and everyone informed.

We are looking to use our deep 3D graphics expertise and passion for inspired UX to develop solutions for specific verticals such as Life Sciences. We’re working closely with physician specialists and other medical experts to understand the pain points and the opportunities for disruptive change.

  Tell us about your 3D iPad app for GenomeDx Biosciences? And what issues does this app solve?

The UroSketch iPad app is a patient consult app that enables urologists to share interactive 3D models with patients to enhance patient understanding. The app was developed for GenomeDx in collaboration with a panel of urologists, to help improve patient consultations. The app enables physicians to rotate, zoom and explore anatomical features as a way of facilitating the explanation of a patient’s condition, treatment options and prognosis.

  Anything else you want our readers to know about your company/new products?

We have several very exciting Life Sciences projects in the works. We can’t talk about them just yet, but we are pretty stoked about their potential to revolutionize medical training and improve patient safety.

  What is your perception of DigiBC?

DigiBC is a powerful force in the digital media community.  It has given us great opportunities to mingle with peers and network with industry leaders - while learning and having some fun too.

  How can DigiBC help you benefit from your membership and what do you want to see us do for you?

It would be good to promote thought leadership through member hosted roundtables on hot industry topics and new technological frontiers. Also perhaps some events focused on bringing in people from other vertical markets that are new to digital media.

  If you had the opportunity to move your company to another place in the world, would you?

No. We are too busy enjoying the BC lifestyle and sprinting to catch up with our own growth!

  Would you like to be at this summer's most exciting dev conference? Unity is bringing Unite 2013 to Vancouver on August 28-30, and DigiBC has some free passes to give away ($400 value!). 

Contest Details:

1) Like DigiBC on Facebook.

2) Write on our wall and tell us what your favorite DigiBC event/partner event has been. If you haven't been to one of our events yet (which you definitely should do!), tell us what event you would like to see from DigiBC.

3) For an additional entry, follow us on twitter and tweet us, using the hashtag #DigiUnite

4) DigiBC members get an additional entry!

CONTEST EXTENDED!  WILL CLOSE AT 4:30PM ON FRIDAY, JULY 19TH!

This giveaway will start Wednesday, July 10th and will be closed at 4:00pm on Friday, July 12th 2013. Winners (3) will be announced via social media by 5:00pm on July 12th.

  About Unite 2013:

Unite is Unity Technologies’ annual user conference and the authoritative forum for developers, publishers, training providers and enthusiasts to discuss and learn about Unity—the market leading platform for creating video games, training simulations, medical and architectural visualizations and other interactive 3D content. Unite 2013 offers three days of learning, including advanced hands-on class tutorials, technical sessions, previews of upcoming Unity tech and an opportunity to attend some awesome parties. It’s an amazing place to meet fellow developers, learn new techniques and network in a creative and communal environment.

For more information, schedules or to register for Unite 2013, click here.