created on Thu, 2008-05-15 09:17

VIDFest is Vancouver's International Fest for all things around the new and interactive media space and is produced by New Media BC and Telefilm.

KK is on duty as a poster boy for the event - his hoodie sweatshirt and scruffy face adorning magazine ads throughout Cascadia and the event kicking off next week, so here's a quick guide to get you up to speed.

First, be sure you are subscribed to the VIDFest RSS feed and friend up the VIDFest Flickr photostream.

There are several parts to the May 21-24th event - well really, 11 parts when combined with the two-day Vancouver International Game Summit 2008. Here's the official blurb:

VIDFEST is eleven events over four days, including conferences, an awards gala, an international partnering forum, a pitch fest, and a recruiting fair.

Let's explore shall we:

Wednesday night starts off the spectacle with a reception at the Vancovuer Art Gallery with "the new KRAZY The Delirious World Of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art exhibit. Plus, see 1500 lbs of mechanical mayhem in action. It’s the Mondo Spider of BurningMan fame - a super cool, ridable, mechanical walking machine."

Next, the International Partnering Forum (IPF) - We'll be representing at at the Granville Island Hotel for most of the day but i am not sure what to make of this event quite yet.

As instructed, we selected 6 companies for the organizers to pre-schedule :25 minute meetings with.

Sounds like corporate version of speed-dating - possibly slow and arduous but, since we host a tech community meet-up on our patio for Thursday bar-b-qs anyhow, i guess we'll keep our routine going and find some interesting folks to meet with and see what they are up to.

I suppose we don't look at opportunities like this as a chance to pitch Raincity Studios' services, but rather as a chance to find out what other companies, organizations, technologists are creating, struggling with, and enjoying immensely. In other words, forming relationship and building our (as well as the larger) industry eco-system is more important is paramount to us - moreso than pitching our comprehensive roster of web services.

At first we considered just scheduling time with all our usual amigo y amiga who are signed up, but since we see folks like Phillip Djwa and Megan Cole regularly, we filled up our slow-corporate-dating-list with a compelling list of organizations and companies - hand-selected based on cool stuff they might be up to, rather than whether they have a project, budget and timeline ;-).

If we aren't lined to chat, please come talk to us anyhow, introduce yourself - maybe we'll record a Raincity Radio podcasts, take some snapshots and go find a beer in the neighbourhood, and oh, yeah "talk some business".

• BC Film
• Consulate General of Canada - SF
• DFAIT
• Karyo-Edleman
• Korea
• SMIA
• Trade Commission of France

The IPF segues right into a happy hour at the Granville Island Hotel so we'll be sure to stay to the end.

Friday is the Creative Exchange Conference Sessions with a lineup of speakers kicked off by Chris Anderson at the Granville Island Stage (Arts Club) from 9~5.

Anderson is the Ed-in-chief of Wired and author of seminal new marketing tomes, The Long Tail and Free. I interviewed Chris in another lifetime and learned he was a Los Alamos physicist turned economist and technologist and is a big remote control airplane geekdad.

I also am planning to catch Heather Armstrong, the acerbic and translucent writer behind wonder-blog Dooce.com and EA's Yoshi Arima's bio describing him as a "Poet, Free Spirit, Artist" puts him on my list for sure.

Evan Biddell (pictured above with KK), best known for winning last cycle's Project Runway Canada (Evan's show blog), is coming in from T.O. to speak on the creativity-focused panel which sounds loaded with practical advice for bridging art and commerce.

Join this eclectic panel of creative geniuses as they compare and contrast their design process. Learn their trade secrets, how they find their personal muse, how to deal with creative block, and how to balance making art with making a living. All creatives unite!

With these fashionista pirates teamed up, there may be some fashion photography happening too.

Another session with a cause features three guys who've made a significant difference in ensuring you get your LOLcats unhindered. They will be addressing the critical issue of Stopping the Throttling of the Internet and wresting control of the tubes back for the people.

Here's the pitch:

Can I Have Your Attention Please? An Internet SOS

 

Margaret Mead said “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Join our small group of advocates for change as they discuss the active steps required to save the net and preserve our digital freedom.

Speakers:

- John Perry Barlow, Co-founder, Electronic Frontier Foundation; Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society
- Matt Thompson, Producer, Writer, Director, Campaign Strategist, ‘SavetheInternet.com’
- Jason Roks, Citizen 001, Digitalpeasants.com; Founder, misovision.org

Friday night at “The Hangar”, Great Northern Way Campus is the PopVox Awards gala - Smith is writing a post with the full low-down. Strutta is nominated (Strutta up for two PopVox Awards). Bonus: here's a Raincity Radio podcast from last year: New Media People's Choice Awards - Raincity Radio.

So that's is the quick version of VIDFest and where the Raincity Studios crew will be. How about you?