The Digital Alberta Awards ceremony honours digital industry experts in Alberta, ranging from philanthropy, film, software, community and education, television and gaming, mobile and start-ups, design and creative, to marketing and social media. Some of the highlights for the evening included and amazing display of steampunk circus antics and visuals.
Owen Brierley, President of Digital Alberta, said, "This year's awards were an incredible opportunity to celebrate the province's most influential digital leaders and gave us a glimpse into the future of digital, mobile, media and technology in Alberta."
In addition to the judged categories, a People's Choice award for the Most Inspirational Digital Leader is conducted through an online vote where the winner is selected by his or her peers in the digital sector. This year's victor is Kevin Hayes from Pixel Blue College. The other inspirational leaders nominated alongside Kevin Hayes were: Shaun Brandt from Versett, David Cronin from DevFacto, Dana DiTomaso from Kick Point, Trevor Doerksen from Mobovivo, Sean Healy from Touch Metric Inc., Christians Izquierdo from DevFacto, Brittney Le Blanc from Capital Ideas Edmonton, Adam Rozenhart from Calder Bateman, Steve Seeley from Studio Dialog and Kylie Toh from Chic Geek YYC.
"We are just thrilled about the impact of this year's event," commented Michelle Sklar, Past President of Digital Alberta. "It has really built on the success of last year and has grown in both scope and submissions. Congratulations to all of our nominees, finalists and winners."
The 2013 Digital Alberta awards are sponsored by CMF, Robots and Pencils, Alberta Film, Yellow Pencil, Pixel Blue, Graphos, Norton Rose, LiftInteractive, BenefitDeck, Grant Macewan, Strong Coffee Marketing and Achilles/nextMEDIA. Additional sponsors include: AccleratorYYC, BucketDuck Inc, Calder Bateman, Chelsea Klukas Creative, Device Media, Guru Digital Arts College, Innovate Calgary, Marketwire and The Agency.
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Digital Alberta 2013 Award Winners
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Community and Education
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Best in Student Interactive Digital Jetpack Kitty, Orest Nazarewycz
Media and Creative Design
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Best in E-learning Solar Energy Defenders, MindFuel
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Best Digital Media Leader - Community Duane Szafron, GRAND NCE
Leader, Educator, Program Leader, or
Department Head
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Philanthropy
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Best Digital Philanthropy Innovation Charity App Challenge - A Hack-a-thon
for Good
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Film, Television and Gaming
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Best in Cross-platform Content Sketch 3D, GRAND NCE
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Best Use of Film, Animation or Painted Black, CH Video & Photography
Special FX Inc
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Best in Gaming Spy vs Spy, Robots and Pencils Inc
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Software, Mobile and Startups
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Combined Hardware & Software Simulation Tools for Medical
Experience Training, GRAND NCE
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Mobile Entertainment Pop Quiz Show, Uppercut
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Mobile Applications Beaucoo
Honourable Mention: FastCab
Smartphone App
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Best In E-Commerce Solutions Blame Betty, Cornerstone Technologies
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Best Digital Startup BeauCoo
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Design and Creative
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Best Digital Design ARC Resources Corporate
Responsibility Report, ZGM
Collaborative Marketing
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Marketing and Social Media
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Best In Social Media Make Something Edmonton, Lift
Interactive Inc
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B2C Innovation Connecting You to Edmonton's Past -
Interactive Bus Bench Campaign,
Strong Coffee Marketing
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Best Digital Advertising/Marketing The Big Burn, ZGM Collaborative
Campaign Marketing
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To learn more about Digital Alberta visit www.digitalalberta.com.
About Digital Alberta:
Digital Alberta is an industry-led organization devoted to promoting and connecting the thriving digital media community across Alberta, Canada. Through professional development workshops, advocacy work, education, event, and business development activity, Digital Alberta is building the digital media industry provincially and promoting it abroad.
The digital media industry is defined as the creative convergence of digital arts, science, technology and business for human expression, communication, social interaction, and education. The industry spans several disciplines, including but not limited to: audio, video, game design, animation, modeling, simulation, and interactive design.
In Alberta, digital media is considered a key contributor to the provincial ICT industry which is made up of 6,300 companies, 57,000 employees, and generating over $450 million in annual revenues. Areas of key growth in Alberta's digital media industry include: Social media content and applications, Interactive entertainment, Content and applications for mobile devices, E-Learning and games for training and education, Interactive marketing, and finally Standards-based web design and development.
Contacts: The Agency Arleigh Galant Vasconcellos +1 403.561.4810 arleigh at digitalalberta dot com