On the evening of June 12, our GDNL community, as well as other interested visionaries, braved a torrential downpour to fill the Emera Innovation Exchange Conference Centre with inspiration, imagination, and possibility.

We had a fantastic turnout, and at one point had a physical head count of 134 attendees from all different areas of our cool interactive digital media sector. Our speakers were phenomenal, our partners exceptional, the venue and catering exquisite, and the GDNL team and volunteers helped make the evening a night to remember. Thank you to all, but most importantly, thank you to our attendees. This community starts with you!

While GDNL has been around for about a decade (perhaps under different names), this caliber of an event was a first for us. As you all know, we are a volunteer organization with a free membership and, as such, we don’t have a budget to spend and time is hard to come by to dedicate to such an evening. However, CNA’s sponsorship and partnership significantly reduced the financial concern, as well as the support from TCII and their Community Capacity Building initiatives. The team from both institutions were not just supportive, they were actively excited and interested in our event and the journey that can begin from its success.

NATI, Genesis, and Business and Arts NL helped to get out the word, provide their advice and expertise, and work out the details of how an event like this works. Without their support, it would have been difficult for GDNL to connect all the important dots, manage the funding, and deliver the type of event that unfolded that amazing night.

Special thanks to Curtis Rioux of Stellar Boar Productions, James Cann of Initus Interactive, Randy Billard of Virtual Marine, and David Churchill of Memorial University’s Computer Science for their captivating talks that spanned the gamut of serious games, to art pipelines, to artificial intelligence, and independent game development. There was certainly something for everyone with entertaining and inspirational talks.

We also had a great showcase floor with playable demos of Initus Interactive’s game, Xengris; a VR boat safety simulator presented by Virtual Marine; Live art creation demonstrations by Curtis Rioux; and original student games presented by CNA’s Video Game Art & Design program including 2D and 3D games, and a VR experience, adding to a cool evening with interactive enjoyment. The social element saw a lot of folks mingling and realizing the depth of our community and industry here in NL.

What is the most important takeaway from this event?

This is just the beginning!