#idm703

 If I had to use an emerging technology to build something entirely new, I would probably focus my efforts on building an app that would let riders use a QR code that they could pull up on their phone as opposed to a metropass or a day pass for the TTC. They would no longer need to buy the physical pass at a station and all charges would be done electronically. As an added bonus, the app would also allow riders to discreetly report security concerns so that they would not have to actually pull the emergency assistance alarm strip (there is often a fear of being seen doing this when someone is unstable on the subway). Since the user would be tied to the app, there would be complete accountability and the TTC would not have to fear being flooded with pointless alarms. 

Here are 5 Links that support market’s need for this new product/user experience: 

Subway expansion - The subway will continue to grow, increasing the number of metropasses sold 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/rob-ford-is-right-subways-are-best-for-toronto/article14394647/

Problems with Toll Collectors - The use of QR codes could create an automated system that might eventually eliminate the need for toll collectors. 

http://www.blogto.com/city/2010/01/ttc_union_chief_blames_riders_for_not_waking_sleeping_staffer/

TTC ridership continues to increase - There will be more and more riders buying more and more metropasses. 

http://www.ttc.ca/News/2012/October/News_Release_TTC_sets_new_ridership_record.jsp

Presto Cards and how they help the GO train in Ontario - An example of an electronically paid system that is working in Ontario

https://www.prestocard.ca/en-US/Pages/ContentPages/FaresTravel.aspx

Current State of TTC apps and the purposes they serve - People already use TTC apps and they only serve a few purposes right now. 

http://www.blogto.com/tech/2013/08/the_top_5_ttc_android_apps/

Here are 5 links that support choosing Mobile, QR and application driven technologies to power this user experience: 

People are demanding Wifi in the Subway because they are using their phones

http://www.blogto.com/city/2013/09/ttc_confirms_wifi_coming_to_two_stations_for_december/

The TTC have been exploring adding Cell Reception/Data reception

http://www.thestar.com/news/ttc/2012/10/22/ttc_ready_to_let_subway_riders_talk_and_text.html

It could be a way of dealing with Fake Metropasses, which is a big issue for the TTC and costing tax payers

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/02/17/fake_metropasses_and_tokens_cost_ttc_close_to_2m_last_year.html

Similar technology being tested in Edmonton

http://metronews.ca/news/edmonton/36034/digital-bus-pass-tested/

Similar Technology in London Ontario for Student Passes

http://www.westerngazette.ca/2012/02/08/news_electronic-buss-pass/

GO goes electronic

The Fall Tour Interactive 2013 was a two days incredible experience where students and freelancers had the chance to visit the leading companies from interactive digital media industry in the downtown Toronto core. As well as attend workshops, presentations and panel discussions with experienced industry professionals and have the opportunity to ask questions to presenters and panelists in an intimate environment and learn from them a little more about the interactive digital industry.

  The highlights of this particularly year was enjoy on Day 1 all about interactive design, marketing and advertising and on Day 2 have the opportunity to select your passion, whether if it's Gaming, Interactive Advertising or Post/VFX and attend to a specific industry workshops, presentations and panel discussions about those theme, meet people from other programs and schools and make new friends with the same interests as you. The participants were divided in small groups that allowed the interaction with the tour guides, presenters and panelists were in a relaxed, informal and intimate atmosphere to speak freely and ask any kind of questions.

  On Day 1, I had the opportunity to visit four companies related with interactive design, advertising, public relation and social media, very different from each other. Derooted an agency specializing in innovation, creative exhibitions and projections; Bensimon Byrne a big company with huge clients like Google, Scotiabank and Aldo; Lotus Leaf Communications a fashion and public relations agency; and S-Trip a company that brings fun trips to Canadian high schools and universities around the world. On Day 2, I decided to make the most out of the day and spend the morning with a Gaming group and the afternoon with an Interactive Advertising group. I went to Social Game Universe a small group of passionate and talented game makers with a great working environment; and Secret Location a great interactive entertainment agency with huge clients and awesome projects, I can tell it was one of my favorites.

  On these two days event I had the opportunity to interact and meet students from others colleges like Seneca and Sheridan College and talk with the tour guides and ask question about their experience, internships, tips and suggestions about the industry. The workshops, presentations and panel discussions gave me the opportunity to meet creative and talented people who knows very well about the digital media industry and learn from them where and how to start. It’s very gratifying to know that this industry is growing and we may have a safe future and good chances of being successful. 

When I asked myself "Why IDM?" in the first post on this blog, I answered honestly that I wasn't quite sure. It's one thing to be a user of interactive tech and consumer of digital media, but what was it like on the other side? Fall Tour Interactive, an annual event founded by Tim Willison, the Director of media solutions provider Oddly Studios, gave attendees a glimpse at what it would be like to work in the local industry, and introduced me to a number of talented people working in Toronto. FTI provided tours of local businesses, held panel discussions and keynote presentations with industry talent, and set up workshops that gave attendees a chance to network with said talent, as well as students from other schools.

Some highlights from the two day event: Bensimon Byrne, an advertising agency responsible for many national campaigns (including Svedka Vodka and Scotiabank). The building where the agency was located was completely nondescript on the outside, but inside revealed a sleek and ultramodern office. My group was given a tour of the agency's many departments and their duties.

A presentation by Jay Bregman, CEO of Hailo, an ingenious smartphone app that puts people in touch with taxi drivers using GPS. The story of this company's humble beginnings on a boat and its expansion to cities around the globe was insightful and really quite inspiring.

Rachel Kennedy and Shauna Roe, "Canada's Ballsiest Interns": These two bright and talented women - who both currently work at ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi - showed us the creative ways they were able to distinguish themselves from hundreds of other interns: by challenging agencies to complete outlandish tasks in exchange for an interview. An interesting look at what it takes to get noticed in the industry.

Shopify, an e-commerce platform that acquired local UX design agency Jet Cooper earlier this year. This stop on the tour was a pleasant surprise for me personally, as I happen to know the company's Director of Design and former Co-Founder of Jet Cooper. Representatives Arati and Trevor described the services the company provides, and detailed the many perks you receive when working there. The most intriguing thing we learned was how the company breeds creativity by holding "hack days," a 48-hour period that allows employees to work together on creative, non-work related projects. Shopify is definitely one of my top choices for prospective field placement next year.

Get Set Games is a local game developer known for popular mobile games Mega Jump and Mega Run. What I think was supposed to be a presentation by Producer Andy Smith quickly turned into an excellent Q&A session that provided a lot of insight into the mobile gaming industry.

A keynote presentation by one of the Animation Directors from Ubisoft Toronto, developer of "Splinter Cell: Blacklist." Using gameplay videos, the keynote showed how character animation and dialogue interactions further immerses players in the game world. I have no interest in game animation but this inside look at what goes into the making of a single feature of a AAA blockbuster game was a tour highlight.

For future students taking the tour next year, some words of advice: be prepared for long walks and cold weather. Be sure to grab a business card from keynote speakers, panelists, and studio tour guides. If you have your own cards exchange them with other people taking the tour. And most important: ask questions. The people you're there to see are fountains of valuable information; you just need to ask the right questions to get it out of them.

The Fall Interactive Tour is an event that provides emerging professionals the opportunity to get involved with media companies around Toronto, visit them and learn about the jobs they might be offering.

The FTI 2013 wasn’t the exception, the tour was full with energy students from different college across Toronto, media professionals, collaborators and amazing experiences. We visited 5 different companies throughout the tour (Shopify, S-Trip, Taxi, Derooted and Social Game Universe). We also watched presentations and workshops by media professionals from other companies such as EA, Ubisoft, Get Set, Oddly, Asteroid Base, etc to help us gain a greater understanding of  the media industry in Toronto.

One of the more amazing and inspiring presentations that we saw was from Asteroid Base. They are a small group of guys ( Matt Hammill, Jamie Tucker and Adam Winkels) that are creating a very unique indie game calls “Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime”. The entire group started in a complete different path from the game industry but with a similar passion between each other: “games”. The story began at Toronto Global Game Jam 2012 where LIADS starts. The team has been developing the game since then and also showing it to the community, that gives them excellent comments about it. The game is 2 player co-op platformer inside a spaceship and is very active and colorful. Players work together running back and forth between ship control rooms trying to kill the enemies outsite of the spaceship.

During FTI 2013 we had the opportunity to speak with many media professionals from different companies, developers, designers, illustrators, animators, etc but Tim Willison founder of Oddly and sponsor of FIT was one of the most impressive guys at the event. He was always involved in almost every presentation during the tour, participating and giving us his experience about the topic. He’s very social and incredibly friendly to everyone. In my particular case having the opportunity to share with such a successful person is an incredibly valuable experience and gave me the feeling that I’m able to be part of this industry.

This Tuesday and Wednesday, I participated in Fall Tour Interactive - a conference and tour dedicated to building community in the Toronto digital media field. Over the two days, I visited seven studios across the downtown core and attended five panels. The variety of the studios was very diverse - everything from travel companies to ad agencies to game studios. It's clear from the range of the companies we visited that digital media is becoming a more omnipresent and integrated across a diverse arrange of industries. The size and scale of the companies ranged from hundreds of employees in several offices located worldwide to staff of two or three. What was interesting to me was that the size of the company seemed to have little relation to their capacity for incredible work or huge clients. The last studio we visited on the first day, DeRooted, was made up of a core team of 2 principals and an intern. Yet they had been contracted to create all of the creative and marketing material for Toronto MasterCard Fashion Week - quite an accomplishment for such only three people! What really impressed me about DeRooted was their interactive installation projects. Since it is a field that I am very passionate about, I was thrilled to discover that there was a studio in my hometown working on the kinds of things that I had, until recently, only seen done in Montreal, New York and various European cities. I had an exciting chat with the director, Simon, after his presentation and I will definitely be pursuing further communication. 

The other studio that interested me was Secret Location (and gathering from the response of my peers, it seemed I wasn't the only one!) I was thoroughly impressed by their projects that acted as companion pieces to traditional TV shows. These pieces were exceptional examples of the ability to use so-called "second-screen" projects to enhance the viewers experience of the primary work. With their apps and websites, the creatives at Secret Location had managed to enhance the stories being told by the TV show - therefore creating a symbiotic relationship between the two pieces. I think this is a factor that is often overlooked by studios creating pieces to accompany traditional media works such as films or TV shows. So often you seen apps or websites that simply repeat the content presented in the primary work.

The Fall Interactive Tour was an event I was looking forward to for the past few weeks, it generated a lot of buzz and promotions that made it look really appealing. I figured it would be a great chance to meet fascinating leaders in the industry and learn from their experiences and provide worldly advice for emerging students like myself.  I was spilt up into a group filled with all Seneca and Sheridan students so I figured it would be a great way to network and meet fellow students with the same educational background.

Our very first workshop introduced the lovely Trina Boos from Boost Agents. Her lecture providing interview skills as well as preparation upon graduating from school was very compelling and informative; I felt like she understood the problems students face, bringing in personal experiences as well as scenarios to help answer questions. She seemed really down to earth and offered tips and tricks to on research skills and networking tools that would be beneficial and relevant in the near future.

One of the main highlights from the tour was introducing Jay Bregman from Hailo because the app he created along with his team is one of the apps I absolutely adore. He described how the idea and creation of Hailo formulated from a boat in the UK, a story which I found rather fascinating and inspiring, especially for start-up businesses. It also helped that I received a $10 credit on my Hailo account redeemable for my next cab ride. Another highlight from the tour was meeting the creative director of SapientNitro, I got a chance to talk to him personally and ask him about his previous work experiences that would eventually lead him to a director, as well as his recent Harley Davidson campaign he took part in.

After we finished the panel discussion, our next mission on the itinerary was to stop at a studio called Shopify, a commerce platform that allows people to sell online and offers a professional online storefront. The inside was really modern- a loft style office filled with Macs and glass windows so everyone can see what’s happening in the meeting rooms. On a side note, the inside of the office also used to be a brothel. The graphic designer Trevor introduced himself as a previous Seneca student and the perks of working at Shopify which just recently bought out Jetcooper. The one thing that surprised me about this company was how young the company and employees were. Grip Limited was the next studio on our tour and my favourite in terms of the interior structure of the office; it allowed everyone to be treated “equally” where everyone can be seen. The railings allowed workers to view down to the main atrium where people utilize that area to make announcements as it is a focal point of the studio. There is also a really cool orange slide located on the side of the atrium, creating a “fun workplace” environment as well as an interesting interior concept.

  Every year, a giant group of interactive digital media students from various schools descend on Loft 404 to take part what is known as Fall Tour Interactive (or FTI). These students spend a good part of two days running around downtown listening to talks, panel discussions and touring various studios. I was fortunate enough to take part in the event this year.  A few days removed from the experience, I feel like I can really sit back and process all the things that happened over the course of those two days. Tim Willison, the head of Oddly Studios and the brains behind the event, said many times over the course of the event that “it was never supposed to be a yearly thing”. Based on the success that I witnessed this year, however, I think Tim is going to have to plan for a few more students next year when he is forced to start it all over again.

  Based on the fact that I am relatively new to the industry, just listening to a few producers and directors talk about the studio culture at their various companies would have probably been enough. But what separates this event is that participants are actually granted access to a wide variety of studios located throughout the downtown Toronto core. Walking into a series of beautiful loft spaces and being greeted by dogs and beer fridges was pretty eye opening. The agencies/studios that I got to personally see included Secret Location, John St., Usability Matters, Derooted, and a host of others. From a professional point of view, the highlight for me would have to have been Usability Matters. This small agency is putting UX and information architecture in the spotlight like no other company I have seen. Considering that these are the areas I am most interested in, I could not help but be excited to meet some of the people who worked there and gain some insight on how I might be able to get into the area myself. From a more personal point of view, I would say my favorite studio was Secret Location. When you consider the types of individuals they are looking for, I really have nothing to offer this studio professionally. That being said, I would kill to grab some beers with the founders of this studio. They told us a lot of great stories and seem to have this certain “coolness” factor to what they do that simply cannot be found anywhere else.

  While the studio tours were great,  another hugely important element to FTI is the people you meet. I had the opportunity to meet people hailing from Seneca’s Digital Media Arts programs and from Sheridan College’s Interactive Media program. It was great talking to these people about their programs and their goals as a way of informing what I might be looking to do. I am really hoping to organize some kind of a gathering in the future with some of those people, as there were definitely a few who I could see working with down the line.

After I finished the Fall Tour Interactive 2013, I think it is a very wonderful event. There are three highlights: First, this event focuses on communication. According to my experience, there is not any event like this in China. In china, we also had some chances to visit some digital media industries, but we could not get any benefits form that events. Most of these companies just appointed a guide to show us around their companies without any explicit explanation. We did not have any communication in these events when I was in China. In fall tour interactive 2013, we form some groups based on our interest, although we came from different positions. During this event, we communicated with each other and we shared our idea about the companies that we had visited. We also had opportunities to talk to the leader of the companies.

Second, we can get the mots advanced ideas of the digital media industry from the Fall Tour Interactive 2013. In this industry, creativity is of great importance. There will be a lot of new ideas in every year; these ideas come from different companies. In this event, they shared the ideas with us. According to those ideas, we can create more and more new ideas by ourselves.

At last, this event gave us some basic information about the digital media industries in Toronto. Before this event, I knew there were lots of digital media companies in Toronto, but I could not figure out either their names or businesses. So this event can help new comers like me know more about the general information of the digital media industries in Toronto, then I can develop a better career planning.

  In the Fall Tour Interactive 2013, I was in green group. I visited Shoplify.ca, S-trip, TAXI and Derooted and I also attend a presentation that about the Halio.

  What impressed me most is the company called TAXI. It is a very small company, but it has programed some famous marketing plans on digital media. I still remember there was a funny marketing plan. They tried to sell a BMW MINI motorcycle on website on April 1st and they provided many details about this motorcycle. Then many people trusted the news and they visited the website. I think this marketing plan is very successful. In addition, the representative of the TAXI impressed me deeply, because he also graduated from computer science, but now he is working in the marketing filed. His experience reminds me of choosing the future career.

  I will give five advices in Fall Tour Interactive 2014,

Don’t be late. The opportunity to visit different companies is very limited. We should take it seriously.

Take notes.  Representatives of the companies went through the content quickly due to the intensive trip; it is better to take notes timely.

Communicate with others. Different people has different ideas, sharing ideas can help each other’s.