TORONTO, ONTARIO – September 18, 2009. The McLuhan Festival of the Future announces today the official launch of The Vortex Competition which will take place on November 4th & 5th, 2009.
The Vortex Competition, now in its 5th year, is Canada’s pre-eminent forum that celebrates, educates, and casts a spotlight on emerging video game entrepreneurs and companies. Within the Vortex Competition, aspiring video game developers obtain the opportunity to hone their business and technical skills through educational sessions, presented by world renowned game industry leaders, in the areas of game design, development, business, finance, and marketing.
Competitors in this year’s Vortex Competition are invited to submit concepts or prototypes. All submissions will be reviewed and evaluated by an expert panel and a winner will be selected from each category and announced on November 5th, 2009, at the Vortex Competition Awards Gala. In addition to cash prizes for the winner, they will also receive the opportunity to have their video game commercialized through a variety of channels.
Vortex Managing Director, Sari Ruda points out, “The Vortex Game Competition was established in 2004 in response to the enormous interest and phenomenal growth of the videogame industry in Canada and abroad. Dubbed the “feeder to the Ontario Videogame Industry”, the Vortex Competition has grown each year and attracted the highest caliber of talent in all areas: speakers, judges, competitors. We are thrilled that as a result of Vortex, our mentoring opportunities, networking and access to publishers, every year winners and other competitors have gone on to launch their games and climb the ladder of success.”
Vortex 2009 Finals Judges:
- Blake Lewin – Senior VP, R&D, Turner Broadcasting and Founder of GameTap
- Kevin O’Leary – Renowned Software Entrepreneur, star of Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank
- Yannis Mallat – President and CEO, Ubisoft Canada
- Marc Saltzman – Internally acclaimed Hi-Tech and Game columnist, and TV personality
“It is clear that Vortex’s primary mission to support emerging entrepreneurs and companies in the videogame industry will strengthen Toronto’s position in the competitive global market”, says Rita Davies, Executive Director, Cultural Services, City of Toronto.
An important component of the Vortex Competition is the Vortex Bootcamp, which will be held on October 7th and 8th. The Bootcamp features exceptional networking opportunities with the industry’s best and sessions include Business 101: IP, Legal, Marketing, Finance; Game Industry Overview: Game Industry Eco System, Big Players, Platforms, Publishers and Distributors; Entrepreneurism and How to Pitch. New for 2009 is a Finance Forum featuring presentations and panels of Venture Capital Professionals, Financiers and Government funding bodies related to the financing of videogame products. Also new are breakout sessions concentrating on a choice of Game Design or Game Production. The Game Design stream includes: High Concept, USP, Platforms, and Software in Design. The Game Production stream offers: Process, Planning, Workflow, and Capacity Requirements for Production. The highlight of this year’s Boot Camp Sessions is Key Note speaker, Peter Williams, Chief Strategic Officer of Bamboo Networks, based in New York, Tokyo, China and Thailand.
To commemorate the City of Toronto’s 175th Anniversary, Vortex, in conjunction with our generous sponsor, The City of Toronto, is proud to offer all competitors the opportunity to enter their game in a 175th City of Toronto Birthday Videogame. The winner’s game will be accessible via the City of Toronto’s website which will garner the winner international exposure.
The Vortex 2009 Competition is very excited to announce the involvement of some of the most successful global game publishers, industry leaders, jurists, speakers and mentors who include Ubisoft, Bedlam Games, Transgaming Technologies, Capybara, Yahoo!, Bell, Cerebral Vortex Games, High Road Communications, Miller Thompson, CMF-Telefilm, Frozen North, RBC, Province of Ontario, City of Toronto, Emerson College, Bamboo Networks and many more.
Important Vortex Dates:
| Deadline for Boot Camp Registration | Oct 5 |
| Boot Camp & Networking Reception | Oct 7-8 |
| Deadline for Competition Submissions | Oct 23 |
| Announcement of Contenders | Oct 29 |
| Competition & Awards Gala | Nov 4-5 |
Vortex acknowledges the generous support of the following sponsors: Telefilm Canada, Ontario Media Development Corporation, City of Toronto, Bradon Technologies Limited, Canadian Information Processing Society, Digital Sugar, ANM & Associates Ltd., EM & ME Productions and Parties Without Borders.
Posted by Sim@CanDevs 
