When he was young, Chris Anderson learned of the arduous process that his grandfather had to endure to patent and licence the first automatic sprinkler system. At that time, there was little chance an inventor could also be an entrepreneur and bring a manufactured product to market if he was not already one of the big guys with a factory at his disposal.

But recently, Anderson and a small group of “makers,” who knew nothing about sprinkler systems, designed and built from scratch an open-source digital system that can be controlled by a mobile device and offered it for sale – all within six weeks.

It is just one example of what is being referred to as The Maker Movement and the societal shift we face as manufacturing becomes as democratized by the personal computer as publishing was two decades ago. This shift has inspired the former editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine to start up a drone manufacturing company called 3DRobotics on the expectation that North America is about to experience a “manufacturing renaissance.”

Anderson shared his story and his predictions for the future during a keynote address on the first day of the CDMN’s Canada 3.0 conference.

He challenged his audience to consider the profound ramifications of how anyone today can become a creator and distributor of content:

“You’ve taken something that was once a big industrial process at great cost and turned it into something in which you can potentially reach a billion people with a push of a button. A factory job turned into a button in a browser.”

It is inevitable, he said, that the same new innovation model for the creation and sharing of content made possible by the Internet, in which amateurs from anywhere can do things together and in public, will spread to other industries, such as manufacturing.

This is already manifesting with the Maker Movement, where all the tinkers and inventors who once toiled away in seclusion in their garages, basements and workshops can now come together and, for a fee, make use of equipment and tools they would otherwise have no access to and engage with teachers and collaborate with peers, either in person or virtually. And with the advent of cloud manufacturing, their digital designs can be easily uploaded to a contract manufacturer who will churn out the finished products for them.

With the advent of $1,000 3D printers, laser cutters for home workshops, design tools like Autodesk’s 123Design, free design libraries like Thingiverse, and small business e-commerce sites like Alibaba.com, it’s now within anyone’s reach to become an industrial designer … and manufacturer, without any of the extensive engineering or machining skills that would have been crucial even a decade ago.

Children are now their own toy makers

Anderson’s own children are growing up with this technology and while still in elementary school are using 3D printers to create everything from doll furniture to game pieces.

“Their relationship with plastic has changed,” he said. ”They are less likely to go to Walmart now and just make it for themselves.” It’s no longer a process of consumption, but of creativity.

As the abilities of 3D printers and other fabrication tools become more sophisticated, it will mean the mass transformation of industries. A parent who buys this technology now, he said, is making the same forward-looking investment that their parents did 25 years ago when they decided to invest in a personal computer for the family.

It is what he calls the Third Industrial Revolution and the birth of the replicator featured in Star Trek.

“The past decade was about finding new social and innovation models for the Web,” he said. “The next decade will about applying them to the real world … the opportunity to do with atoms what we did with bits.”

Reed Hastings is not a man concerned about competition. In fact, he invites it because it can have only positive results for his industry and for consumers.

That industry is of course Internet video. Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, shared his thoughts about the future of Internet video and what it takes to build a winning corporate culture on the first day of the CDMN’s Canada 3.0 conference.

Dave Caputo, President and CEO of Sandvine, introduced Hastings as an innovator “at the square centre of the intersection between Internet geeks and Hollywood moguls” and Netflix as at “the forefront of the shift from download and enjoy later to ‘entertain me right now.’”

Within the next 10 to 20 years, Hastings predicts that linear cable television services will have become as outdated as the traditional fixed phone line – something many people still hang on to as a security blanket even though their primary communications devices are now their smartphones. Consumers will be able to access, with any device of their choice, an application framework that can stream any combination of information and video, tailored on-demand to their immediate desires.

The shift is already happening, he said, as the emphasis has turned form creating new channels to building applications. BBC has already set the bar for other broadcasters to follow with its iPlayer and made British viewers more accustomed to on-demand content than anyone else in the world.

But while providers such as Netflix are not burdened by legacy investments in traditional broadcast technology and can react quickly to this new market reality, broadcasters and cable companies are saddled with costly and difficult upgrades to old firmware. Their most efficient path forward is to instead invest in their Internet platforms. In Canada, we have already seen Rogers and Videotron launch their own Netflix-like services.

Which is all good, said Hastings.

“We all compete for (consumers’) relaxation time,” rather than with each other, he said. The old limitations no longer apply. Consumers are not limited to one service provider. They can flip back and forth as they wish between Rogers Anyplace TV, Netflix, Youtube or iTunes.

In fact, he believes the increased competition will not only create more choice for consumers, it will also accelerate the evolution of Internet TV and make it more mainstream more quickly.

And while Hastings didn’t say it in so many words, the message between the lines is clear: there’s a huge market opportunity here for companies that can help traditional broadcasters and cable companies create these killer apps.

Third time’s the charm

But becoming such a disruptive player in the market did not come quickly. When Netflix began in 1997, Hastings and his cohorts saw streaming content as the ultimate goal. This is why the company was named Netflix, rather than DVDflix, even though it began with its DVD mail order business.

He joked that making the same prediction three times will make it come true. Netflix expected that half of its business would come from streaming by 2002. It didn’t happen. Then it pegged 2007, but the milestone wasn’t reached until 2012.

Today Netflix is in 40 countries and still maintains the DVD business only in the U.S. Along the way, Hastings has learned some important lessons about how to manage people and strike the right balance between authoritarian rule and unorganized anarchy.

“The problem with trying to dummy proof a company is you only get dummies who want to work there,” he said. “It stifles creativity (and) deviations that lead to innovation.”

His second company went to far the other way. With Netflix, his third venture, his management team has achieved what he considers to be the right mix — “highly aligned, loosely coupled,” where he seeks to inspire without over-managing and lead by providing context rather than hard directives.

Canada’s ICT companies need more help at home to create more innovative and globally competitive products, but at the same time, they must take the initiative and actively pursue opportunities abroad.

The first day of the CDMN’s Canada 3.0 conference was packed with innovative ideas and awe-inspiring predictions of where digital technology is taking us. But one central theme that emerged throughout the day was the need to build companies capable of commercializing technology with the teeth to compete beyond our borders.

Tom Jenkins, CSO and Chairman of OpenText, was blunt in his morning keynote: We exist in a globalized world. There is no hiding from it. In fact, that best way to fuel Canadian innovation is to embrace it.

But Canada is a nation that suffers from the perception that many of its entrepreneurs and executives are not competitive enough. It’s an assertion supported by the country’s relatively low productivity rate versus many other industrialized nations.

Jenkins said it’s a consequence of our history, in which government policy has been used to protect key industry sectors — transport, uranium, telecommunications, broadcast, financial services and culture – from foreign competition. But companies that do not face external competitive pressures have no incentive to innovate and productivity suffers as a result.

Jenkins emphasized that he is not advocating for wholesale removal of such trade barriers. But public policy makers must consider how they can strike a fair balance between supporting and protecting domestic industries, while at the same time allowing the competitive pressures that spur innovation. There is a need to balance global competition with national control and societal aspirations.

What Canadians must appreciate is how Canada is uniquely positioned to succeed in the global digital economy thanks to what he refers to as the “reverse diaspora:” Canada is a magnet for skilled international talent with diverse backgrounds and expertise, representing just about every overseas market.

“That’s the amazing thing about Canada,” he said.

Nor is Canada’s relatively small size in terms of its population or GDP a barrier. In a global market too large for any one country to have a “lock” on it, “Canada punches way above its weight in the use of digital technology,” he added. “The size of a (domestic) economy doesn’t necessarily indicate how successful you will be in the global digital economy.”

Government as customer to push the envelope

Government at all levels has a crucial role to play in preparing Canadian companies for the global marketplace and it isn’t only in the obvious way with programs that support R&D, such as SR&ED tax credits. In fact, a recent report found that programs such as SR&ED contributed only two per cent to innovation, while demand from customers in the marketplace drove 62 per cent of innovation.

In other words, government can provide the biggest boost by assuming some risk and becoming a demanding customer that doesn’t simply settle for the lowest bid from a middle-of-the-road supplier, said Jenkins. The Canada First Defence Strategy, a $490-billion investment to modernize all branches of the Canadian Forces, is a major step in the right direction.

But it doesn’t end with government. Other stakeholders have roles to play, such as academia, which must be more supportive of commercialization programs at the post-secondary level.

Plenty of help to go global

Later in the day, Scott Fraser, Director General of Global Business Opportunities at DFAIT, stressed that, regardless of how supportive the environment at home, a technology company must inevitably go global, due to the small size of the domestic market.

Fraser moderated a panel that featured representatives from the Netherlands, Japan, Brazil and Germany, a mix of mature and emerging markets.

But despite their differences there were several common themes: ICT is crucial to just about every growth industry in each country; there is a great desire to partner with foreign technology companies; and there are a variety of channels to assist those foreign companies establish partnerships and commence operations, from embassies and consulates to other government-supported funding programs and business development organizations. Growth industries that need ICT investment include financial services, e-learning, telemedicine, manufacturing, resource development, telecommunications, disaster prevention and mobile technology.

And of course there are the various resources available from DFAIT, such as the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service, Fraser added.

“The reality is that 80 or 90 per cent of your business is going to be export, so you have to look abroad and find those opportunities,” he said.

On the first day of its Canada 3.0 conference, the CDMN recognized four outstanding Canadian companies with its inaugural Moonshot Awards.

The awards embody the CDMN’s mandate to bring more digital media solutions to market and create more companies, jobs and wealth in Canada. The name comes from the CDMN’s ambitious “Moonshot” goal – that anyone can do anything online by 2017.

The winners were selected from among 15 finalists that were chosen from more than 30 initial submissions from across Canada.

“It was an incredibly tough decision,” said Dr. Kevin Tuer, CDMN Managing Director and an awards judge. “The innovation and technological creativity coming out of Canada is truly inspiring. It’s critical that we continue fostering and recognizing the abundance of talent in Canada with awards like these.”

The CDMN Digital Media Dynamic Company of the Year award was presented to Magnet Forensics Inc., developer of the Internet Evidence Finder, used by the world’s top law enforcement, military and corporate organizations to recover digital evidence like instant messaging chats, social media artifacts and web history. This award recognizes the Canadian company demonstrating the greatest increase in productivity through the adoption of digital media.

The CDMN Digital Media Globalizer of the Year award was presented to Axonify, an employee training process that is transforming the way corporate enterprises train their employees. This award recognizes a Canadian company that demonstrates the greatest increase in international sales, investments or other contributions to the growth of the Canadian digital media industry internationally.

The CDMN Digital Media Innovator of the Year award was presented to Miovision Technologies. Miovision has created an Adaptive Signal Control which automatically adjusts traffic signals based on real-time demand of vehicles and pedestrians. The award recognizes the Canadian company that has demonstrated the greatest degree of innovation through the adoption of digital media.

Finally, the CDMN Digital Media Company of the Year award was presented to Desire2Learn, which develops customized, cloud-based e-learning solutions. The award recognizes the Canadian company that has made the greatest contributions to the growth of the Canadian digital media industry in the past year.

The Honourable Reza Moridi, Ontario’s Minister of Research and Innovation, was on hand to congratulate the winners.

“The Moonshot awards recognize trailblazing companies that are pushing boundaries and boosting the economy with innovation in digital media,” he said. “I was pleased to see so many companies from Ontario among the nominees, and proud that the four winning digital media firms are based in Ontario.”

In addition to Tuer, the judging panel included Kevin Newman, CTV host, W5 correspondent and Founder of New Man Media; Sid Paquette, Director at OMERS Ventures; Terry Stuart, Deloitte Canada’s Chief Innovation Officer; and April Dunford, RocketScope Managing Director and Founder.

They invited me to be a keynote speaker and, as one of the two thousand delegates who headed to Stratford, Ontario, it was a Woodstock-like moment. Though we all came from different sectors and knew little of what to expect, we all shared a commitment to the event’s success and more importantly, we had a shared sense of purpose to realize Canada’s potential in the digital age.

On the eve of its annual blossoming as one of Canada’s major theatre centres, Stratford invited creativity, spontaneity, and passion. Moreover, its cultural industries represented the emerging digital integration of arts and sciences, of culture and technology, of literacies and data, of economic and social cohesion.

The event was held in an impressive hockey arena – the only place in town able to hold such a large crowd. But the venue proved to be highly appropriate, not only as a community hub, but also consistent with the event’s Canada-pride theme and the Gretzky strategy of going where the puck will be rather than where it is.

From the start, the atmosphere was electric. The private sector formed a strong contingent with tiny start-up companies and a few multi-nationals such as host OpenText under Tom Jenkins` leadership. One hall was filled with kiosks to display cutting-edge innovations like Christie Digital’s tiles that work like mobile computer screens able to display unlimited images independently or in stunning concert. Small groups clustered to hear young entrepreneurs pitch their plans to develop prototype apps for global markets.

Academic researchers from diverse fields across the arts and sciences presented new ways to think digital, and to build tools to analyse data, enhance learning, and improve quality of life in homes and communities. Students from local high schools as well as from post-secondary campuses across Canada were connecting across the arena and beyond as Canada 3.0 began trending on Twitter.

Copious notes were taken as Federal Minster of Industry at the time, Tony Clement, took to the stage to launch the consultation paper for a federal digital economy strategy. Everyone asked about who should do what in terms of policy, regulation and investment. The Mayor of Stratford, Dan Mathieson, joined the President of the University of Waterloo, David Johnston, now His Excellency the Governor General, to announce the creation of a new satellite campus devoted to enhancing the digital media experience through research, teaching and partnerships with the private, public and non-profit sectors including those in the local cultural industries.

The emphasis in my presentation was on the deep changes in values, perspectives and behaviour that have been inspiring technological developments and making their use so pervasive and usually beyond all expectations. Rather than living in a technologically-defined era, we are using new media to fundamentally change how we interact with each other.

The early results herald the arrival of a new people-centered approach across the private, public and non-profit sectors including the blurring of such distinctions. The digital age is enabling the new customer-driven marketplace, student-centered learning, patient-oriented health, user-focused services, and citizen-engaged politics.

The overall result of this inaugural event was a new optimism, a new determination, and a new sense of a digital community bridging companies, post-secondary institutions, and government. We all left convinced that Canada could indeed lead the world in making analog to digital transformations for the benefit of humanity.

The fifth annual Canada 3.0 conference begins on May 14 and, for the first time, we will not be gathering in Stratford but rather at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. This year’s program reflects the continued development of much that had been foreshadowed at the start as well as new dimensions of the rapidly evolving Digital Age.  Keynote speakers such as Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, executives from Facebook, YouTube and CBC`s Jian Ghomeshi illustrate how the digital ambition has moved mainstream while a new Youth Movement initiative and Big Data Workshop will build on key features that defined the initial conference. First-time features include a new wiki-like open invitation to develop the actual program.

What will remain constant, however, is a shared commitment to do all that we can do to realize Canada’s potential to lead in the Digital age…there is no time to lose especially since 2017 now seems right around the corner.

Chad Gaffield is President of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. His many awards as a historian include the Zampolli Prize given in 2011 by the International Alliance of Digital Humanities Associations.

• Canadian companies are eligible to receive up to a maximum of 50 percent of the total R&D project value, ranging from a minimum of CDN $300,000 to a maximum of $500,000 per R&D project. This award could be increased up to a maximum of CDN $1 million for high quality consortium-led projects with at least two Canadian industrial and two academic partners.
• Canadian academic partners from universities and colleges:  Leveraging a partnership with CIIRDF, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) will fund eligible academic components of selected CIEST Fund projects. NSERC will award funding directly to collaborating Canadian university and college researchers as a non-repayable grant if the project has an integrated CRD (Collaborative R&D) or ARD (Applied R&D) component.

• For Israeli companies, funding will be provided by the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS), Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, Israel (MOITAL).  As such, regular OCS rules apply to this CFP.  In addition to regular one year funding, applicants may pursue additional support for an International Project. Funding will be determined by the R&D Review Committee of the OCS up to a maximum of 50 percent of the Israeli company’s project budget. Please click here for complete OCS funding guidelines. 

• Submission of Proposal Summary for Pre-Proposal Assessment: Ongoing
• Deadline for Submission of Full R&D Proposals: July 19, 2013
• Notice of Funding Decision:  October 2013

• Tomoko Nishino, Program Manager of CIIRDF (Canada): tomoko@ciirdf.ca.
• Les Abelson, Operations Manager, CIIRDF (Israel): lesabelson@ciirdf.ca 

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• Les entreprises canadiennes peuvent recevoir jusqu’à 50 p. cent de la valeur totale de la portion canadienne du projet de R et D, allant d’un minimum de 300 000 $ cdn à un maximum de 500 000 $ par projet. Cet octroi pourrait être haussé à un million de dollars canadiens pour des projets de grande qualité, dirigés par un consortium comprenant au moins deux industriels canadiens et deux partenaires universitaires. 

• Partenaires des universités et des collèges canadiens : Mettant à profit son partenariat avec la FCIRDI, le Conseil de recherches en sciences naturelles et en génie (CRSNG)financera les volets académiques admissibles de projets sélectionnés par le Fonds CISTE. Le CRSNG procédera à l’octroi direct des fonds aux chercheurs d’universités et de collèges canadiens, une subvention non remboursable si le projet comprend un volet intégré de R et D appliquée ou concertée. 

• Les entreprises israéliennes obtiendront du financement du Bureau du scientifique en chef (BSC) du ministère de l’Industrie, du Commerce et du Travail d’Israël (MOITAL). Les règles du BSC s’appliquent donc à cet ADP. Les demandeurs peuvent entreprendre une démarche visant à recevoir de l’aide supplémentaire pour un projet international. Le niveau de financement, qui sera déterminé par le comité d’examen en R et D du BSC, pourrait représenter jusqu’à 50 p. cent des coûts du projet pour l’entreprise israélienne. Veuillez cliquer ici pour obtenir les directives de financement complètes du BSC. 

• le Service de jumelage technologique Canada‑Israël, offert par la FCIRDI;
• la présentation des capacités de l’écosystème technologique et le portail de connaissances Israeli Innovation for Canada’s Oil Sands qui lui est associé;
• le compte rendu de l’atelier sur la R et D dans le domaine de l’énergie et des rencontres de partenariats technologiques Canada-Israël.

• harmonisation avec les objectifs du financement;
• mérite scientifique du projet;
• potentiel commercial du projet (comprenant un plan de transfert de technologies et de connaissances);
• avantage pour les économies canadienne et israélienne;
• aptitudes et capacités de l’équipe affectée au projet;
• critères du CRSNG pour les projets assortis d’un volet de R et D appliquée ou concertée : formation de personnel hautement qualifié.

• Soumission d’un résumé de la proposition pour évaluation préliminaire: En cours
• Date limite pour le dépôt des propositions complètes : 19 juillet 2013, minuit (HAE)
• Annonce des décisions de financement : octobre 2013

• Tomoko Nishino, gestionnaire de programmes, FCIRDI (Canada): tomoko@ciirdf.ca

• Les Abelson, gestionnaire des opérations, FCIRDI (Israël): lesabelson@FCIRDI.ca

To highlight the international collaboration, Scott Fraser, Director General, Global Business Opportunities Bureau, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT), will moderate a panel that discusses the importance of ICT and mobile technologies to each nation’s economy, what industries benefit most from ICT and mobile, and how Canadian companies can best connect with international business leaders for partnership and problem-solving. The panel will include:

• Mr. Masaaki Tanaka, Deputy Director-General, Science & Technology Policy Bureau, MEXT (Japan)
• Simon Smits, Vice Minister for Foreign Trade, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (the Netherlands)
• Marcos Vinícius de Souza, Director – Secretariat for Innovation, Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade – MDIC (Brazil)
• Lars Hansen, Head of International Business Cooperation, Innovations-Zentrum Berlin Management GmbH, Internationale Incubator OWZ Berlin-Adlershof (Germany)

In the Grow Global pavilion as part of the Interactive Showcase at Canada 3.0, DFAIT is also hosting a ‘Grow Global Hotspot’ where Canadian companies can make valuable international business and government connections to help them take their business global. The Holland Lounge is also part of the Grow Global pavilion.

NEW SPEAKERS 
Also announced today, Canada 3.0 added two new speakers to its roster – Tom Jenkins, Executive Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer of OpenText Corporation, will provide a state of the nation on digital media in Canada and Michael Serbinis, CEO of Kobo Inc., will offer a Canadian success story as part of his keynote address.

MENTORING LUNCHES
Spaces are becoming increasingly limited for Canada 3.0 Mentoring Lunches. Canada 3.0 attendees are encouraged to pre-register for Mentoring Lunches with director-level or above mentors from TVO, LG, Manulife Financial, CBC, CTV, Transgaming Inc. and more. A full list of mentoring topics is available online and attendees are encouraged to sign up to secure their opportunity to learn proven business approaches straight from the source. Advance registration for the lunches closes Friday at 5pm ET, with only limited spots available for on-site sign up.

‘SIDE BY SIDE’ FILM SCREENING
CDMN has also opened free public registration for the Canadian premiere of SIDE by SIDE, a film produced by Keanu Reeves that documents the science, art and impact of digital cinema through interviews with Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, George Lucas and more. The screening will be held on the evening of Monday, May 13 at the Scotiabank Theatre and acts as a kick-off to CDMN’s Canada 3.0 2013. Sponsored by TVO, the film will be followed by a live Q&A with the film’s co-producer Justin Szlasa. You do not have to be registered for Canada 3.0 to attend the screening. Seating is limited, so those interested are encouraged to register today.

EXCLUSIVE OFFER FOR CONFERENCE ATTENDEES
Conference attendees can also benefit from an exclusive deal with Mitacs, a national not-for-profit research organization that supports innovation by coordinating industry-university research projects with human capital development. Mitacs helps companies identify challenges and the talent required to move to the next level of development, and provides co-funding through the Mitacs-Accelerate Program. Canada 3.0 attendees are eligible for a discounted rate of $6,000 (from $7,500) which is then matched by Mitacs. The business development team will be onsite at Canada 3.0 on May 15 to answer questions about the program and match industry needs to academic researchers from GRAND that can help overcome their business challenges.

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
CDMN Canada 3.0 is made possible through the support of the following sponsors and partners: Lead Sponsor, OpenText; Official IT Media Sponsor, IT World Canada; Media Partner, Toronto Star; Network & Mentor Sponsors, Waterloo Stratford Campus; Workshop Sponsor, Corus Entertainment; Workshop Sponsor, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; Connect Sponsor, Canada Media Fund; Mentor Sponsor, Virtual Causeway; Video Partner, Angle Media Group; Charging Station Sponsors, Wavefront and Front Street Capital; Media Sponsors, Backbone and TechVibes; Film Screening Sponsor, TVO. Limited sponsorship opportunities are still available; contact Drew Carroll at drew@sponsorshipcanada.com for more information.

CDMN’s award winners will be selected from the over 30 submissions received from across Canada. The winners will be determined by a panel of expert judges including Kevin Newman, CTV Host, W5 Correspondent and Founder of New Man Media; Sid Paquette, Director at OMERS Ventures; Terry Stuart, Deloitte Canada’s Chief Innovation Officer; April Dunford, RocketScope Managing Director and Founder; and Dr. Kevin Tuer, CDMN Managing Director.

The winners will be announced at the CDMN Canada 3.0 Conference in Toronto on May 14, 2013. The finalists are presented in four categories:

1. CDMN Digital Media Dynamic Company of the Year – This award recognizes the Canadian company demonstrating the greatest increase in productivity through the adoption of digital media.

• Magnet Forensics Inc. – developer of the Internet Evidence Finder which has allowed the world’s top law enforcement, military and corporate organizations to recover evidence like instant messaging chats, social media artifacts and web history.
•  Vidyard – a platform designed to help organizations embrace digital media as a central resource for all marketing initiatives and transform how businesses drive growth through video.
•  TalentEgg Inc. – an online job board and career resource designed to help students and recent graduates in Canada find meaningful careers with top employers.

2. CDMN Digital Media Globalizer of the Year – This award recognizes a Canadian company that demonstrates the greatest increase in international sales, investments or other contributions to the growth of the Canadian digital media industry internationally.

• Axonify – an employee training process that is transforming the way corporate enterprise trains their employees.
•  Desire2Learn – an education platform helping to transform the way the world learns by helping clients break down barriers to access the highest quality learning experiences.
•  Zighra – an emerging leader in the crowd-sourced mobile authentication space that builds innovative solutions to leverage the mobile technology and crowd-sourced intelligence of consumers to reduce costs associated with fraud in high-risk and high-value transaction environments.

3. CDMN Digital Media Innovator of the Year – This award recognizes the Canadian company demonstrating the greatest degree of innovation through the adoption of digital media.

•  Miovision Technologies Inc. – creates intelligent solutions to address the challenges facing today’s global transportation networks through its Adaptive Signal Control, which automatically adjusts traffic signals based on real-time demand of vehicles and pedestrians.
•  Voices.com – a website that connects businesses like radio and television stations, advertising agencies and Fortune 500 companies to search for, audition and hire voice actors.
•  Bionik Laboratories Inc. – a state-of-the-art medical technology company that provides advanced healthcare solutions for patients with restricted physical development.

4. CDMN Digital Media Company of the Year – This award recognizes the Canadian company that made the greatest contributions to the growth of the Canadian digital media industry in 2012/2013.

•  Finalists for the CDMN Digital Media Company of the Year are Desire2Learn, Vidyard, Magnet Forensics Inc., Axonify and Miovision.

In addition to CDMN’s award winner presentations on May 14, CDMN Canada 3.0 is also announcing several updates to the conference program:

•  Jeremy Butteriss, Director, Strategic Partnerships at Google Canada (YouTube), will present the closing keynote address on May 15
•  Ticket prices are now $549 (full conference pass); $499 (not-for-profit or government pass); $299 (one-day pass); and $250 (startup or student pass)
•  Girls In Tech Toronto will host the opening reception on May 13 at Turf Lounge featuring special guest speaker Claudia Hepburn, Executive Director and Co-Founder of The Next 36; Register at http://gitcanada30.eventbrite.com/
•  A popular monthly event for entrepreneurs, developers, and business enthusiasts, Startup Drinks will host a networking session at Hotel Ocho on May 15

This opening reception offers an opportunity for Canada 3.0 attendees to network amongst peers at one of Toronto’s hottest new venues, Turf Lounge.

Special guest speaker Claudia Hepburn, Executive Director and Co-founder of The Next 36, will share her insights on entrepreneurship and Canada’s education system. Is our system of public and post-secondary education up to the task of training future entrepreneurs?

Tickets are $20 and the event will feature light snacks and refreshments.

To register, click here.

Two years later, the Walt Disney Company came calling, putting up $350 million for Club Penguin and putting the Okanagan Valley’s nascent startup scene on the map.

Merrifield recently left Disney, not to retire to a life of leisure, but to plunge right back into the startup life in Kelowna. His team is looking to make life easier for teachers, parents and students by building state-of-the-art assessment software for classrooms.

CDMN caught up with Merrifield for a chat in advance of his upcoming keynote address at CDMN Canada 3.0 in Toronto.

Q – When Disney bought your company and people asked, ‘What are you going to do now?’, did you say, ‘I’m going to Walt Disney World’?

A – I actually would have responded more like ‘I’m going to Disneyland’, because that was the first place I ever worked. It was my first job.

Q – Really?

A – Yes. I’m Canadian by birth, but I grew up with my family in southern California, and then moved back up here for university afterwards.

So, during high school, that was my thing.

Being able to say ‘I’m going to Disneyland’ was certainly something I dreamed of back when I was working there.

It was kind of an odd, serendipitous thing when this (Club Penguin acquisition) came through, like a Disney story, I guess.

Q – Tell me a bit about how it feels at the moment you find out a company of the magnitude of Disney wants to acquire your startup.

A – It’s a really good question.

When you take a few seconds and talk about it or think about it, obviously it was overwhelming; it was a roller-coaster; it was kind of all the feelings that most people would think about and associate with something like that.

But, the reality was, there was so much work and time and effort that preceded it, and so much work and time and effort that came after it.

Obviously, it’s easy to romanticize the numbers, but there was also a pretty big expectation that, you know, ‘Now we need to justify those numbers.’ And for us, it was never an exit strategy.

Athletes will talk about this and say, ‘We won the Stanley Cup and tomorrow I’m thinking about how we start the next season; how do I start training for next year.’

It was that kind of a really exciting moment, but immediately followed up with, ‘Well now we’ve got a lot of work to do.’

We had this great company, and we’d been very fortunate with a lot of growth and all of that, but . . . you want to create something that has value and worth, and you want that company to thrive, and it was always more than just a business or an exit for us, and you want it to do well for those reasons. There’s also a little bit of pride; you don’t want to be that news story that says, ‘Boy, look how much money Disney wasted on this thing; look how it all fell apart a month later; what a flash in the pan it was.’

Those types of things kind of push you to say, ‘Well, now we’ve got to justify this,’ because in the media there’s always people talking like this.

Nothing made me happier than, two or three years into it, to have fully earned that back for Disney, and then some, and be able to go from there.

To see it continuing to thrive today is almost more gratifying in the long run than that instant moment was at the time.

Q – You’ve since left Disney and are now into another startup. What can you tell me about it?

A – I can tell you it’s in the education space.

It’s funny, because when we first started Club Penguin, kids’ online interactive was not a very hot space. It wasn’t something all the (venture capitalists) were chasing down; in fact, most people thought we were nuts or crazy or both.

And so, when we were starting Club Penguin, we were kind of doing what we felt passionate about, trying to build something great for our kids. And then obviously after some of the success, and the acquisition by Disney and others, then it became a hotbed and everyone kind of flooded in.

Since then, some of them have stuck around and others have moved on, and that’s just how we kind of saw it go.

Being in education, because it’s such a hot topic right now, it’s an interesting place to be. We’re at the early stages of building a product and a company, and we’ve got a really great team; a really strong, passionate team.

It’s not a huge team; we’re really wanting to be more of a SWAT team with it than a giant army, and so it’s a great group that’s really focused on how we make teachers’ lives easier, and subsequently make students’ and parents’ lives and the whole educational process easier.

If you have kids in school or you grew up in school, you watched how many repetitive tasks went into teaching that could be very easily automated. They’ve been automated for years in the business world, but sadly, there was never enough money or never enough interest or never enough passion to really take that up.

For me to be diving into this world is no different from what I dove into at (Club) Penguin. I’m passionate about my own kids’ experience and about making it better, and making their educational experience better.

When you approach it from that perspective, failure becomes a lot less scary, because whether it becomes wildly successful or it falls apart, you’re in it for something more than just pure financial success. You’re trying to do something better and trying to make the world a better place, not to sound cliché or cheesy.

Whether or not you’ve made some big financial windfall from it, if you made an impact on the users or on the futures of those who are participating in it, then it’s a win.

We’re approaching it very similar to (Club) Penguin; it’s very kind of scrappy, it’s bootstrapped, it’s very small right now. We’re focusing on the product, first and foremost, so we’re not doing a lot of press and publicity right now. We want to make sure we build something worth talking about before we go out and try and drum up a lot of excitement and enthusiasm for vapour-ware.

That’s where we’re headed now, trying to build something great.

Q – What does it say that so many founders like yourself go on to start new companies after a big exit, rather than just take the money and go lie on a beach somewhere?

A – It’s funny, I get asked that a lot.

I think for some people, if their goal is to be able to lie on a beach somewhere, then they can do that afterwards. For me, that was never my goal.

I grew up with a family and in an environment where you’re not working just to get a paycheque; you’re working because, if you’ve got certain gifts or abilities, and there are certain contributions you can make to the world, then you make them.

It’s something that I want to teach my kids as well. I don’t want them to simply see, well, as soon as you get a windfall, your work life is over.

It changes; certainly being back in the startup world, back when we were starting (Club) Penguin, I was doing kind of two full-time jobs. We were building (Club) Penguin and we were trying to fund it at the same time, which is a crazy, difficult task and I commend anyone who has gone through it, having gone through it myself.

So it’s nice to be in mode where, back when I was trying to earn the money to fund (club) Penguin, now I’m able to invest that time in my family.

For instance, we just got back from India. We spent three weeks trekking through northern India, and then spending some time in the south in some of the cities, on more of an adventure trip. It wasn’t a go-lie-on-a-beach-somewhere kind of a trip by any means.

Those are the types of things that I’m thankful for, and I’m thankful we have the ability to do them, but with work, I never got into this to find an exit from work life; I got into this to hopefully get a chance to build some great things, and I’ve had some great chances to do that, and I’m excited about hopefully getting a few more.

Q – What do you want the audience to take away from your appearance at CDMN Canada 3.0?

A – I’m trying to figure out what are some of the nuggets, without giving too much away.

A couple of things: Number 1, the quick synopsis that you read about in a Fast Company article or a Forbes article, about the mentality of the people who go into entrepreneurship, like anything, is often kind of a Cinderella story that isn’t always reality.

So, entrepreneurship is great, but it’s also incredibly, incredibly hard. There’s a hope that people can understand a little bit more about the story behind the story, and not simply the glamour, but what were some of the hard lessons, as well.

And, the biggest thing for me, especially being at Canada 3.0, is what an incredible opportunity we have as Canadians, and I mean that.

One of the questions I get asked more than anything right now is, ‘Why are you still living in Kelowna?’ or ‘Why are you still living in Canada?’

They understood it when I was part of (Club) Penguin and that’s where (Club) Penguin is headquartered, but now I could live anywhere, so why not move?

But, I didn’t choose to live here simply because I had to back when we chose to raise our kids here, and those realities haven’t changed.

In fact, having spent a lot of time travelling the world and having seen it all – and having been a part of not just Disney, but seeing a lot of other big companies and where business in general was going – there are some really key advantages that we have as Canadians, that I don’t know we fully appreciate, and don’t know if we’re taking full advantage of.

Q – That seems to be a bit of an emerging trend around successful Canadian startups, that they are going to places like Silicon Valley to secure investment, but are then returning home to build their companies.

A – Yes, absolutely. I’m sensing that and seeing that, and I think it’s not without reason. There’s a very justified momentum behind that.

It’s easy to have a grass-is-greener mentality. If you grew up in Canada and you wanted to be an entrepreneur, whatever you did you had to make your way to the Bay Area, but more and more, I’m hearing both about Canadians who are migrating back up to start their company, and about more and more Americans who are trying to figure out how to get into Canada to start their company, because they’re sharp enough to see the advantages as well.

Sometimes you don’t know what’s under your own nose, and I think, sadly, a lot of entrepreneurs might even waste a lot of time and a lot of resources trying to figure out how to relocate or how to find the ideal environment, when they might be living in it right now.

Toronto, ON (April 11, 2013) - The Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN) has secured a number of key sponsors for CDMN Canada 3.0 – a two-day conference on May 14 and 15 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto. CDMN Canada 3.0 is the annual culminating event for CDMN’s world-class commercialization activities like international soft landings, sharing of best practices, online collaboration and access to expertise and research that enables Canadian digital media companies to succeed at home and abroad. Additional sponsorship opportunities are still available.

Now in its fifth year, CDMN Canada 3.0 is attracting a TED Talk-caliber roster of keynotes. Following on yesterday’s announcement of Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, the conference organizers today announced the addition of Steve Irvine, Group Director of Global Marketing Solutions at Facebook to the lineup of speakers. Facebook joins the already impressive list of speakers, which includes Jason Townsend, NASA’s Deputy Social Media Manager (who will be appearing via telepresence); Chris Anderson, best-selling author and former Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine; and Jane McGonigal, game designer, futurist and best-selling author.

This two–day long conference for business leaders and IT executives celebrates Canadian achievements in the commercialization of digital media, defined as information and communications technology (ICT) and mobile innovations. It also provides attendees with the tools to grow their businesses, and make powerful connections to prospective partners and clients. To create more points of interaction, this year, CDMN Canada 3.0 has added 65 mentoring lunches that will give attendees exclusive access to proven, Canadian entrepreneurs who understand how to effectively do international business, grow a business and improve productivity through the deployment of digital media.

CDMN Canada 3.0 is made possible through the support of the following sponsors and partners: Lead Sponsor, OpenText; Official IT Media Sponsor, IT World Canada; Network & Mentor Sponsors, Waterloo Stratford Campus; Workshop Sponsor, Corus Entertainment; Workshop Sponsor, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; Charging Station Sponsor, Front Street Capital; Media Sponsors, Backbone and TechVibes; Film Screening Sponsor, TVO.

Companies interested in sponsoring CDMN Canada 3.0 can contact Drew Carroll at drew@sponsorshipcanada.com or 416 703 3589 x 229.

About the Canadian Digital Media Network

The Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN), a federal Centre of Excellence in Commercialization and Research (CECR), is dedicated to establishing Canada as a world leader in digital media (ICT + mobile) by creating and enabling connections and collaboration between entrepreneurs, companies, research institutes, government and intermediary organizations across the country.

CDMN helps bring more digital media solutions to market to create more companies, jobs and wealth in Canada. Together, the Network provides access to the knowledge, connections, services and support that digital media companies need to successfully innovate and market themselves at home and abroad. Major initiatives include an exclusive online national collaboration platform; an online Research Portal that provides one-stop access to important information about key digital media issues; the CDMN Soft-Landing Program to drive Canadian success globally; National Tour events enable companies to go global; and CDMN Canada 3.0, Canada’s only national digital media conference focused on the commercialization of innovation.

Learn more at www.cdmn.ca or follow @CDMN on Twitter, join the Canadian Digital Media Network Group on LinkedIn, and like the Canadian Digital Media Network Page on Facebook.

-30-

For more information:

Jeri Brown, Media Profile
Direct: 416-342-1842
Cell: 416-520-9381
Jeri.Brown@mediaprofile.com

CDMN, Canadian Digital Media Network, and Canada 3.0, and the CDMN and Canada 3.0 logos are trademarks. Trade names of other companies used in this announcement are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of appropriate companies.

]]> http://canada30.ca/blog/2013/04/11/sponsors-sign-on-for-canadian-digital-media-networks-canada-3-0-conference-netflix-facebook-added-to-keynotes/feed/ 0 http://canada30.ca/blog/2013/04/10/netflix-ceo-reed-hastings-joins-speaker-lineup-for-cdmns-canada-3-0-conference/ http://canada30.ca/blog/2013/04/10/netflix-ceo-reed-hastings-joins-speaker-lineup-for-cdmns-canada-3-0-conference/#comments Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:09:13 +0000 linda http://canada30.ca/?p=1758 On May 14-15, Canada 3.0 will link sought-after industry experts with business leaders, IT decision-makers and entrepreneurs, offering them proven business-growth strategies

Toronto, ON (April 10, 2013) – Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is the latest speaker to join the TED Talk-caliber roster of presenters at CDMN Canada 3.0 2013, which is organized by the Canadian Digital Media Network. Canada 3.0 is the annual culminating event for CDMN’s world-class commercialization activities like international soft landings, sharing of best practices, online collaboration and access to expertise and research that enables Canadian digital media companies to succeed at home and abroad.

This two–day long conference for business leaders and IT executives celebrates Canadian achievements in the commercialization of digital media, defined as information and communications technology (ICT) and mobile innovations. It also provides attendees with the tools to grow their businesses, and make powerful connections to prospective partners and clients. To create more points of interaction, this year, CDMN Canada 3.0 has added 65 mentoring lunches that will give attendees exclusive access to proven, Canadian entrepreneurs who understand how to effectively do international business, grow a business and improve productivity through the deployment of digital media.

“Canada has an abundance of talented people with creative ideas, but can, and must do a better job commercializing those ideas so that all Canadians can prosper from the jobs and wealth that are the byproduct of a successful digital economy,” says Dr. Kevin Tuer, CDMN Managing Director. “The CDMN’s purpose is to accelerate this process, and our Canada 3.0 conference combines key learning from our more than 20 regional commercialization hubs across Canada, with insights from leading international experts to help the next generation of entrepreneurs succeed.”

CDMN Canada 3.0 2013 will be held on May 14 and 15 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Now in its fifth year, CDMN’s Canada 3.0 goes beyond social media marketing to discuss a range of issues from entrepreneurship to talent, and attracting investment to gamification with ideas coming from business elites, government representatives and academic leaders. CDMN Canada 3.0 2013 will be the site of the inaugural CDMN Moonshot Awards presentation. Nominations for the awards, established to recognize Canadian companies that create jobs and wealth for Canada through innovation in digital media, are being accepted until 11:59pm ET on April 12, 2013.

SPEAKERS

CDMN Canada 3.0 speakers includes Reed Hastings, CEO, Netflix; Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of Datawind (a Canadian company that are makers of the low-cost Aakash 2 tablet that has potential to revolutionize the developing world’s education system); and, Jason Townsend, NASA’s Deputy Social Media Manager (who will be appearing via video conference). Other speakers previously announced include Chris Anderson, best-selling author and former Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine, Jane McGonigal, game designer, futurist and best-selling author, and Lane Merrifield, co-founder of Club Penguin. Emcee Amber Macarthur will run the show and guide attendees through a variety of featured sessions. Canada 3.0 delegates can also attend presentations by GRAND AGM keynote speakers, CBC broadcasters Terry O’Reilly and Jian Ghomeshi.

FEATURED BREAKOUT SESSIONS

CDMN Canada 3.0 sessions will focus on the five primary contributing factors to achieving the CDMN’s Moonshot goal, announced at CDMN Canada 3.0 2010: that anyone can do anything online in Canada by 2017. Sessions in the connectivity stream will cover issues such as mobile payments and a workshop on the infrastructure to harness big data. Productivity sessions will tackle topics including how to use technology tools to drive productivity and profitability. Content sessions, including a series of Corus Entertainment-sponsored rights management workshops will centre on the development and delivery of digital media and how technology influences the creation and consumption of content. Access to Talent sessions will cover topics like successful international business, feature founders of successful Canadian businesses that have experienced Y Combinator and returned to Canada to grow their businesses, how women in tech can and should “Lean In”. Access to capital sessions will look at topics relating to funding a business for growth. The Canada 3.0 Soapbox is still gathering user ideas for conference programming on day two: add your ideas and vote on topics at http://ideas.canada30.ca

Mentoring Lunches will allow attendees to learn proven business approaches straight from the source by signing up for one of 65 mentor lunches that provide open and direct access to director-level or above Canadian digital media experts like Susan Cranston - Assistant Vice-President, Group Small Business Marketing & Advisor Services, Manulife Financial; Alia Lachana - Director of Innovation and Business Development, TVO; Norm Clare - VP Marketing Technology Strategy, Quarry Integrated Communications; and Ted Hastings - CEO & President, Rebellion Media, Inc.

At the end of the conference,Digital Media Hot Spot Tours will take attendees out of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre to explore first-hand Toronto’s best digital hubs including MaRS Discovery District, Ryerson’s Digital Media Zone, Huffington Post/AOL Canada and Corus Entertainment’s Corus Quay.

Participants have also the exclusive opportunity to attend the conference kick-off on Monday, May 13: the Canadian premiere of SIDE by SIDE, a film produced by Canadian superstar Keanu Reeves that documents the science, art and impact of digital cinema through interviews with industry heavyweights like Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh and George Lucas. Sponsored by TVO, the film will be followed by a live Q&A with the film’s co-producer Justin Szlasa, who will be speaking with TVO commissioning editor, Jane Jankovic about the seismic impact the digital revolution has had on the film industry and what takeaways there are for other industries still navigating the transition. Seating is limited and tickets are available only to Canada 3.0 delegates through the conference’s online community.  

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

IT decision-makers at small, medium and large enterprises looking to connect with prospective partners, resources, mentors, and investors in order to build traction in Canada and internationally, drive operational efficiencies, successfully scale a business and/or expand into new markets.

For one or two-day tickets and sponsorship details visit http://canada30.ca.

CDMN Canada 3.0 is made possible through the support of the following sponsors and partners: Lead Sponsor, OpenText; Official IT Media Sponsor, IT World Canada; Network & Mentor Sponsors, Waterloo Stratford Campus; Workshop Sponsor, Corus Entertainment; Workshop Sponsor, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; Charging Station Sponsor, Front Street Capital; Media Sponsors, Backbone and TechVibes; Film Screening Sponsor, TVO.

About the Canadian Digital Media Network

The Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN), a federal Centre of Excellence in Commercialization and Research (CECR), is dedicated to establishing Canada as a world leader in digital media (ICT + mobile) by creating and enabling connections and collaboration between entrepreneurs, companies, research institutes, government and intermediary organizations across the country.  CDMN helps bring more digital media solutions to market to create more companies, jobs and wealth in Canada.

Together, the Network provides access to the knowledge, connections, services and support that digital media companies need to successfully innovate and market themselves at home and abroad. Major initiatives include an exclusive online national collaboration platform; an online Research Portal that provides one-stop access to important information about key digital media issues; the CDMN Soft-Landing Program to drive Canadian success globally; National Tour events enable companies to go global; and CDMN Canada 3.0, Canada’s only national digital media conference focused on the commercialization of innovation. Learn more at www.cdmn.ca or follow @CDMN on Twitter, join the Canadian Digital Media Network Group on LinkedIn, and like the Canadian Digital Media Network Page on Facebook.

By Anthony Reinhart

From a childhood spent in the land of lobster suppers to San Francisco at the height of the dot-com boom, Amber MacArthur – more familiarly known as Amber Mac – has become one of Canada’s most prominent voices in the digital media world.

As a host of CTV’s App Central, president of Konnekt Digital Engagement, media commentator, public speaker and blogger, MacArthur is surely one of the busiest, too.

On May 14 and 15, she will take the stage as MC at CDMN Canada 3.0 in Toronto, and in the process, bring some star power to the proceedings.

MacArthur sounded as excited as we are when we caught up with her for a quick interview.

Q – How did a kid from Charlottetown, P.E.I. become one of Canada’s foremost tech commentators?

A – Well, I’m actually from a small town outside of Charlottetown which is even smaller than that, from a town called Dunstaffnage, in the country.

My interest in technology didn’t really start until I was in high school; my mom actually taught computers. After I graduated from high school, I went to journalism school, and I majored in online journalism.

I just knew there were going to be so many opportunities with the internet and technology in general.

I moved out to San Francisco in 1999 to work at a company called Razorfish, and did information architecture and content development out there for a while; I worked for a startup out there, and was in the States for four years and just totally got immersed in the internet world.

I was so excited about the opportunity, that on the Internet you could really build anything, and I just kind of took it from there.

Q – Online journalism must have been a fairly new field of study at university back then.

A – It was, definitely. I did the ’98 to ’99 year at (University of) King’s (College) journalism school in Halifax, and it was kind of an ‘aha’ moment for me.

I realized that we had video cameras, and I would go out and shoot videos. We would edit them ourselves and we would upload them to the web on our own website. So, for me, I thought, ‘This is amazing,’ that all of a sudden I can become my own publisher.

I just knew there would be so many great opportunities in this space, and just really pursued the digital world.

Q – How would you rate Canada’s position in the global digital economy, and the opportunities for Canadians going forward?

A – I think it’s such an exciting time for Canadians, and I feel like there are so many wonderful examples in this country of talent in a couple of different industries, one being around tech startups.

I think there’s a lot of momentum there in terms of small companies, that no matter where you are, there’s ability to be able to build a product and get known throughout the world.

I also think in the mobile space there are quite a few examples of mobile technology companies that have really made a name for themselves.

So when it comes to mobile, and social as well, we are really well-positioned to be a leader in the world in both those things.

Q – You’re a writer, a speaker, a TV host and an entrepreneur. How do you stay on top of everything, and how does technology help you to do that?

A – I think one of the nice things about the different jobs that I do is that they are all connected in some way, and that way is mainly around digital technology and social media.

For me, I see technology as something that has really helped my life and my business life, and helped me to stay organized as well.

So, as much as I report on apps, there are also a lot of apps that I use to keep myself organized. And, as much as I may report on technology trends, like what Google is doing, I’m a user of these tools, too.

I feel like I’m well-positioned to be able to report on what’s happening, but also somebody who has been embedded in the digital community since the early days.

Q – Are there any tools in particular that you find really valuable, and that offer hints of future trends?

A – I think what’s exciting right now is that in some ways, at least in the digital space, we’ve gone somewhat from macro communities almost to micro communities.

I see this specifically in the mobile world. So, as much as Facebook five years ago was, like, the thing to be part of, now I feel like technology is enabling more-intimate conversations in some ways, across micro-networks.

Whether you look at something like Snapchat to exchange photos with another person, or you look at some of the apps out there that let couples communicate with each other, I think we kind of get the fact that you can communicate with mass audiences, but what’s more interesting is the more-narrow niche audiences. I think that’s the way things are swinging.

Q – Why is technology still such a male-dominated field, and how do we change that?

A – I definitely get that question a lot.

For a lot of people and for women in particular, when they think of technology, maybe they think of a more narrow definition of technology than I do. They may think of technology of being something that has to do with computer programming or building gadgets or software, or whatever it might be.

Whereas, I think today, a better definition is a digital space, and I see more and more women getting into this space, whether it’s digital marketing, or blogging, or web design or whatever it might be.

It is taking time, but I do think women are getting more comfortable, especially with the popularity of social media, because historically that’s what women have always done well. We’ve always been great at building communities, and now there’s opportunity to do that online.

Q – What do you hope to take away from Canada 3.0?

A – I’m so excited for the conference. I’m MCing it, so that’s my role there, but more than anything, I think what I’m really excited about is a couple of the keynote speakers and the topics that will be discussed.

Having Jane (McGonigal) there talking about gamification I think is so exciting, because that’s such a popular trend and will continue to be a popular trend. I think the gamification conversation is probably the one that has me the most interested, and I can’t wait to listen to her.

There are a lot of conferences that happen across Canada in the digital space, but it feels to me – and obviously I’m biased – that there’s a top-notch lineup of speakers, and it really is on the cutting edge.

So that’s exciting.

STRATFORD & WATERLOO, Ont. (April 2, 2013) – The University of Waterloo Stratford Campus is staying true to its Canada 3.0 roots and strengthening the future of Canada’s digital media industry by hosting the Canada 3.0 Youth Program  May 13, 2013.

As a key partner in the Canada 3.0 conference since the inaugural event in Stratford in 2009, the university will stage the Stratford Youth Program to provide continued support for national digital media goals. This year’s Canada 3.0 national conference, hosted by the Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN), will be held for the first time in its history in Toronto May 14-15 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

“We’re excited to host an event in Stratford that continues to open up new experiences for students of this region and surrounding areas. This type of programming has been a key component of Canada 3.0 since its inception,” said Ginny Dybenko, executive director of the University of Waterloo Stratford campus. “We look forward to keeping that educational tradition going.”

Presented by the Waterloo Stratford Campus, the Stratford Festival and the CDMN, the Canada 3.0 Youth Program will give Grade 10 and 11 students — and their teachers — insight into how they can contribute to Canada’s growing digital economy and ensure its continued success. The program for this one-day event will highlight ideas for these future digital media professionals, such as the “moonshot” goal. The moonshot,  first described at Canada 3.0 in 2010, targets making it possible for anyone to do anything online in Canada by 2017. The visit to the Waterloo Stratford Campus will also give the 150 high school students a valuable glimpse into the post-secondary experience awaiting them, and will enable them to learn about the Waterloo Stratford Campus – its programs, facility, equipment and resources.

To kick off the Canada 3.0 events and to celebrate the City of Stratford’s continued dedication and support of the Canada 3.0 conference and digital media within Canada, a series of pennants have been placed at the Stratford Rotary Complex, commemorating Canada 3.0 roots in Stratford. This event also marks the passing of the torch to Toronto May 14-15, 2013.

“The City of Stratford has been a proud host of this Canadian initiative and are confident that with the growth of Canada 3.0 as the premier digital media initiative in Canada, its roots in Stratford will always be part of the conference heritage,” said Dan Mathieson, Mayor of Stratford.

The University of Waterloo Stratford Campus was a founding member of the CDMN, being among the first hubs to be connected with other digital media innovation centres across the country. The CDMN now spans 21 hubs from coast to coast.

About The Canadian Digital Media Network

The Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN), a federal Centre of Excellence in Commercialization and Research (CECR), is dedicated to establishing Canada as a world leader in digital media (ICT + mobile) by creating and enabling connections and collaboration between entrepreneurs, companies, research institutes, government and intermediary organizations across the country.  CDMN helps bring more digital media solutions to market to create more companies, jobs and wealth in Canada.

Learn more at www.cdmn.ca or follow @CDMN on Twitter, join the Canadian Digital Media Network Group on LinkedIn, and like the Canadian Digital Media Network Page on Facebook.

About Waterloo Stratford Campus

The University of Waterloo Stratford Campus uwaterloo.ca/stratford-campus/ a is focused on undergraduate, graduate and executive education programs, research, commercialization and community outreach. This collaborative, strategic partnership between the City of Stratford and the University of Waterloo brings students, leading researchers, businesses and entrepreneurs together to create, examine and commercialize opportunities in the digital media space. The campus leads an evolution in learning and career preparation. Students are immersed in a rich, technology driven environment where theory and practice, science and commerce, creativity and innovation merge to forward digital media.

About the University of Waterloo

In just half a century, the University of Waterloo, located at the heart of Canada’s technology hub, has become one of Canada’s leading comprehensive universities with 35,000 full- and part-time students in undergraduate and graduate programs. Waterloo, as home to the world’s largest post-secondary co-operative education program, embraces its connections to the world and encourages enterprising partnerships in learning, research and discovery. In the next decade, the university is committed to building a better future for Canada and the world by championing innovation and collaboration to create solutions relevant to the needs of today and tomorrow. For more information about Waterloo, please visit www.uwaterloo.ca.

These are just a handful of the 20+ mentoring sessions that have just opened for registration. Soon, we’ll have 65 roundtable mentoring lunches available for sign up, but space is limited to just nine attendees at each of the tables, so don’t delay or you’ll miss the opportunity to engage with these truly successful Canadian innovators. Those lucky enough to secure a spot will have the opportunity to have a frank and informative discussion with director-level or above experts from one of our Moonshot 5 categories: Access to Talent, sponsored by University of Waterloo Stratford Campus; Access to Capital; Connectivity, Productivity, and; Mobilization of Digital Content. Mentors that work with some of the top accelerator programs in the country like HYPERDRIVE and JOLT will be helping you to achieve your business objectives! It would be tough to cold call these folks and book a meeting, but CDMN Canada 3.0 makes these crucial meetings possible.

Register for the conference and then sign up for these exclusive mentor lunches through our online community. Click on Wed., May 15 on the schedule to see the full list of sessions available and sign up for the one that will have the greatest impact on the growth of your company!

(March 19, 2013 – TORONTO) From video games and TV to toys and eBooks, there is an ever-increasing focus on interactivity and the interconnections between platforms in the kids’ media space. Interactive Ontario’s INplay conference will highlight new insights and opportunities in kids’ creative industries when it returns on May 15 & 16, 2013 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Now in its fourth year, the 2013 edition will take place in partnership with Canada 3.0, the national digital media conference presented by the Canadian Digital Media Network.

“Canada 3.0 and INplay are both centred on innovation and on the importance of the digital economy in Canada, so it seemed like a natural fit to bring the conferences together for a day.  We’re pleased to be partnering with CDMN in order to bring greater programming and networking opportunities to delegates of both conferences,” said Interactive Ontario President & CEO Donald Henderson.

INplay delegates will have access to CDMN Canada 3.0 programming on May 15th, with the option to attend Canada 3.0 on May 14th at a reduced price. Canada 3.0 attendees will also have access to INplay speakers on May 15th, with the option to attend the second day of INplay at a reduced rate. Of particular interest to delegates from both conferences is the May 15th appearance of Lane Merrifield, co-founder of Club Penguin. He will deliver a keynote presentation on the creation and growth of Club Penguin, the opportunity that Disney saw in opening a studio in Kelowna, thanks to digital production enabling the brand to utilize Canadian animation and programming expertise while also capitalizing on the business benefits of a studio outside L.A. or New York. Sharing a true Canadian success story, Merrifield will speak to the confluence of benefits to Canadian digital media production and how to realize them in other fields.

“Today’s children will be the innovators of tomorrow, so it’s critical that we target the imaginations of young minds for digital media engagement,” said Kevin Tuer, CDMN Managing Director. “The convergence of INplay and CDMN Canada 3.0 provides a great opportunity to broaden the experience and collaboration at both these important conferences and advance objectives for Canada’s digital economy.”
Previous INplay conferences have featured speakers from academia, government and industry, including Mozilla, Schell Games, CBC, Monster Factory, Children’s Technology Review, TVO, BBC, Toca Boca, Fuel Youth Engagement, Sesame Workshop, Pancake Mountain and many more.

Visit www.cdmn.ca/canada30 to learn more about CDMN Canada 3.0 2013. Visit www.inplayconf.com to learn more about INplay.

About Interactive Ontario: Interactive Ontario (IO) is a member-driven not-for-profit trade association committed to the growth of the Ontario interactive digital content industry. IO is the voice of the interactive industry in Ontario, representing companies working in e-Learning, video/online games, mobile, broadcast, social media and other forms of interactive digital media.  IO’s programming includes the INplay, X-Summit and GameON: Finance conferences.

About CDMN Canada 3.0 2013: The CDMN Canada 3.0 2013 conference, organized by the Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN) www.cdmn.ca is focused on the commercialization of Canadian innovation. CDMN, a federal Centre of Excellence in Commercialization and Research (CECR), is dedicated to establishing Canada as a world leader in digital media (ICT + mobile) by creating and enabling connections and collaboration between entrepreneurs, companies, research institutes, government and intermediary organizations across the country.

For More Information:
Carly Beath                                                    Shelley Grandy
carly@interactiveontario.com                         shelley@cdmn.ca
416-516-0077  ext 224                                   905-866-2656

“This is the fifth annual Canada 3.0 conference being staged for the first time in Toronto, and it’s an event not to be missed by anyone interested in leveraging innovation for commercial success,” said Kevin Tuer, CDMN Managing Director. “CDMN has a national mandate to grow Canadian digital media companies and jobs in Canada, and the annual Canada 3.0 conference is a major contributor to that goal.”

This year’s keynote speakers include Chris Anderson, former Editor-in-Chief, Wired Magazine and bestselling author of Makers: The New Industrial Revolution, The Long Tail and Free; Jane McGonigal, internet game designer, futurist and bestselling author of Reality is Broken; Lane Merrifield, co-founder of Club Penguin, a Canadian startup acquired to become Disney Online Studios Canada based in B.C.; and NASA’s Deputy Social Media Manager Jason Townsend, who will share a case study about the Curiosity rover launch.

The program will inspire excellence, showcasing Canadian innovation success stories and providing companies with tools to successfully commercialize their digital media products. There will be up to 65 mentoring roundtables within five topic streams that include: productivity; connectivity; access to capital; access to talent; and the mobilization of digital content.

The conference also features a showcase of more than 100 companies involved in Canadian digital media and ICT innovation. The Canadian pavilion within the showcase will feature CDMN’s 20 member hubs from across the country. A Grow Global Pavilion will feature Canadian government, private organizations and international guests, displaying all the connections and information a company needs to grow globally, including CDMN’s own Soft-Landing Program.

Winners of CDMN’s new national award program, the CDMN Moonshot Awards, recognizing companies that have accelerated growth, innovation or productivity through adoption of digital media will be announced on the opening day. And this year’s Canada 3.0 will feature a conference within a conference – GRAND’s 2013 annual meeting – which will further increase industry-university networking at Canada 3.0.

A unique feature of Canada 3.0 is use of collaboration tools to connect attendees and enable collaboration:

-       Using a crowdsourcing platform, Canada 3.0’s SoapBox at http://ideas.canada30.ca, is helping to engage Canadian digital media companies and enabling attendees to create and vote on session topics;

-       Pathable for Canada 3.0 2013 will allow attendees to create and view their conference schedule, check availability of fellow attendees, request meetings and more; successful completion of conference registration will trigger automatic registration for http://canada30.cdmn.pathable.com/

Canada 3.0 2013 programming updates, registration details, partnership and sponsorship opportunities will be posted to www.cdmn.ca/canada30. Follow @can3_0 and @cdmn on Twitter, like the Canada30Forum page on Facebook and join the LinkedIn Canada30Forum Group for updates.

Also added to the lineup is a keynote presentation from Lane Merrifield, to share the story of the creation & growth of Club Penguin, a Canadian startup sold to become Disney Online Studios Canada based in B.C. This inspirational success story will provide attendees with a blueprint for success and showcase what it is about Canadian digital media companies that make them attractive partners or acquisition targets to major international brands.

GRAND, which is holding its AGM concurrent with CDMN Canada 3.0, has also announced an impressive lineup of keynote speakers. Details are available on the GRAND website.

The response to keynote speakers Chris Anderson and Jane McGonigal, as well as emcee Amber Mac has been very positive. We’re convinced that CDMN Canada 3.0 2013 will be our best conference yet, and we’ve got a lot more to offer beyond world-class keynotes.

CDMN is actively recruiting mentors for the mentoring lunch on day two of the conference. 65 director or above mentors who have “been there, done that,” sharing their time with attendees to talk openly about how they accomplished great things, lessons learned along the way, answer how to get from where you currently are to where you want to be as a successful digital media company. The only way to gain access to these exclusive sessions is by registering to attend CDMN Canada 3.0 and signing up to join the CDMN Canada 3.0 Pathable online community.

And don’t forget that we’re accepting session ideas through CDMN Canada 3.0’s SoapBox at http://ideas.canada30.ca. If you have an idea for a session that celebrates Canadian capacity in digital media, tackles a pressing issue that Canada needs to excel at in order to raise our collective standing in the global digital economy or are looking for feedback on your thoughts about successfully commercializing digital media at home and abroad, suggest it on SoapBox, where attendees can vote to make your session part of the program.

Don’t miss your chance to experience Canada’s only conference focused on the commercialization of innovation. Connect, collaborate and commercialize at CDMN Canada 3.0 2013, May 14 & 15 at Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, Ontario. Early bird pricing has been extended to March 1. Visit www.cdmn.ca/canada30 today to register!