Just returned from a whirlwind trip in leading the first Digital Alberta trade mission to China from Oct 27 to Nov 6. Our delegation included Ken Bautista (Digital Alberta, Hotrocket), George Georgeadis (Dreamgazers Interactive), Blaine Bertsch (Fission Media Group), Susan Kennard, Angus Leech, Rupinder Deol (Banff New Media Institute), Denean Tomlin (Calgary Economic Development), Josephine Choi, Kelly Xu, Jessica Jiang (Government of Alberta) and Sandra Jiang (Foreign Affairs & International Trade Canada).

We met with many and saw so much during our (brief) 11 day mission across Hong Kong, Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing. You can just feel the energy as the digital media industry across China continues to ramp up towards becoming a major international player. There's definitely opportunity for Alberta companies to enter the market through collaboration with local companies. Programs like our Digital Alberta Market Access Program give companies the competitive opportunity to make those face-to-face connections. Here's a quick recap (thanks for Blaine and George for helping to put this together).

Telefilm Canada recently announced that 20 Canadian companies will participate in its On the Road to GDC market preparedness program leading up to the Game Developers Conference and Game Connection America, both of which will be held in San Francisco from February 18–22, 2008. The GDC is the world’s largest professionals-only game industry event. Telefilm Canada is offering this market preparedness program, for the second year in a row, through the Canada New Media Fund. Of these 20 companies, 3 were selected from Alberta including HermitWorks Entertainment Corporation, Neojac Entertainment, and XGen Studios Inc.

The On the Road to GDC 2008 program consists of a one-day workshop and an eight-week, individual mentoring program, as well as on-site support and a networking event during the GDC. Consultants will help game developers refine their marketing skills by working with them to define a well-targeted marketing strategy and to set realistic goals in terms of what they can achieve at GDC and Game Connection. At the same time, the consultants will ensure that participating companies are ready to take on the challenges of the market. Workshops will be held in Calgary on November 19; in Toronto on November 21; in Charlottetown on November 23; and in Montreal on November 26. Participants will benefit from the knowledge and know-how of Telefilm’s industry development and international market specialists.

For more information about the program and participants, visit http://www.telefilm.gc.ca/data/Communiques/rel_858.asp?lang=en.

PDNOnline reports that Corbis announced Tuesday that it is acquiring Calgary-based stock distributor Veer, which appeals to designers with fonts, illustrations and trendy merchandise in addition to high-quality stock photography. Corbis will operate Veer as a separate brand, a change in strategy that echoes competitor Getty Images.

Veer has marketed itself as a design-savvy brand, appealing to graphic arts professionals. Veer even sells its own line of hip T-shirts and bags. Corbis, by contrast, is a general-interest agency with editorial customers like magazines making up a large portion of its business. Veer employs 170 people at offices in Calgary, Alberta; New York; Berlin and Düsseldorf, Germany. Veer CEO Brad Zumwalt and its chief operating officer Nairn Nerland are staying with the company and will join Corbis' executive team, Corbis says.

Corbis says Veer is the world's fourth largest stock photography company, a claim that is difficult to verify since Veer's revenue figures are not public. After leader Getty Images, Corbis is the second-largest stock agency and JupiterImages is the third. Measured in 2006 revenues, Corbis is about one-third the size of Getty.

Due to a scheduling conflict with our keynote presenters, this workshop has been postponed to May 2/3, 2008. However, we are pleased to confirm that Jake Nickell and Jeffrey Kalmikoff (threadless.com) from Chicago, Ryan Lejbak (zu.com) from Saskatoon, and Jasmine Antonick of Cambrian House will be presenting at this dynamic session. Watch for details and registration information in early 2008.

From CBC News:

"Video games giant Electronic Arts Inc., the company behind the Madden series of football games, has acquired Edmonton-based BioWare Corp., a video game developer known more for its sci-fi and sorcery role-playing titles.

Electronic Arts (EA) announced on Thursday it has reached an agreement with private equity firm Elevation Partners to acquire VG Holding Corp., the owner of Bioware and Australian-based action game developer Pandemic Studios.

The acquisition gives EA two award-winning game developers working in niches outside the company's strength, which has historically been in sports titles such as the Madden football games. It also produces the popular Sims series of games.

Under the terms of the deal, EA will pay as much as $620 million US in cash to the stockholders of VG Holding Corp. and will issue up to an additional $155 million US in equity to certain employees of VG Holding Corp.

In addition, EA will also assume outstanding VG Holding Corp. stock options and has agreed to lend VG Holding Corp. up to $35 million through the closing of the acquisition.

"These are two of the most respected studios in the industry and I’m glad to be working with them again, said John Riccitiello, EA’s Chief Executive Officer. "They’ll make a strong contribution to our strategic growth initiatives on quality, online gaming and developing new intellectual properties."

From IGN Games:

"What we're about is making great games and that's not going to change," said Greg Zeschuk of BioWare. "Ray and I have been doing this for almost 15 years now and we've been very fortunate to make some really seminal games in the role-playing game space. We really think that this move -- we believe in the vision. We believe in the opportunity this gives us and the chance to stretch our wings and do even more. We're excited about what John is bringing to the table. We of course worked with him when he was the CEO of BioWare and Pandemic. We believe in where things are going and we think BioWare can be even stronger in the future."

For more discussion on the deal from Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka of BioWare, check out their interview with IGN.

We've made it even easier for you to become a member of Digital Alberta. Once you've finished checking out our membership packages, head on over to our secure online registration form and complete your registration today!

Digital Alberta and CIPS Edmonton are partnering to bring together a feature presentation on the relationship between digital media and technology. Fuel Industries' Chief Strategy Officer will deliver a presentaiton titled "The Role of the CIO in Navigating the Shifting Mediascape". Brady Gilchrist, will explain how technology is fundamentally changing how people interact with each other and with mass media, how it's affecting the marketing and advertising industry and why it will be the CIO who is increasingly called upon to solve marketing challenges. He will provide real-life case studies of the technical and strategic sides of how branded entertainment, viral marketing and social media have been deployed for major brands, with a focus on helping to establish best practices for developing the backbone of a major online campaign.

At the next Oct 18 Digital Alberta mixer, join Ian Chiclo, publisher of Fast Forward Weekly. Hitting the web in 1997, Fast Forward Weekly was one of the first print publications in Canada to print a full online edition. Sadly, the publication hadn't done any development of the site since then. In 2007, that all changed with the relaunch of www.ffwdweekly.com. How (and why) does a free print publication take its content online? What can an alternative weekly offer online that the big guns (Google, Yahoo, CanWest) can't? What was involved in making the site as sticky as possible. This upcoming event will be held at BEAT NIQ Jazz & Social Club at 811-1st Street SW in Calgary starting at 5:30 pm. RSVP to rene@digitalalberta.com.