WEBWIRE – Tuesday, May 17, 2022
For the first time since early 2020, Ukie was back on the road with an in-person hub crawl event. Our first stop was Guildford, often described as the Hollywood of video games, it is an established cluster of video game studios and a perfect location to kick off this crawl. As the rain poured down on Wednesday evening, we warmly welcomed local developers into the Guildford Pavilion for an evening of casual presentations and a panel, centred around the theme Next Level Indie. A theme relating to concepts of growth within independent studios, throughout this hub crawl, this theme stretches from issues involving PR, community management and cloud service to finance and studio design.
First up in Guildford, we had Elaine Dowman from Barclays introducing us to Barclays Games and Esports division. Followed by Matt Murphy from Genba Digital talking about Levelling up your Release by highlighting where marketing tasks could be made easier through hiring addition support. Nick Ferguson from Microsoft introduced the crowd to ID@Azure, explaining how cloud services could be integrated into game design; before Gareth Hill from BDO took a broad approach through discussing Road Maps to Future Growth. A talk which broke down various stumbling blocks for growing studios, including overseas recruitment, recognising alternative funding streams and integration of non-cash employee rewards.
We then invited Kostas Zarifis (Rogue Sun) and James Brooksby (Absolutely Games) on stage to partake in a panel talk where the concept of growth was unpicked through tales of success and failure for the two developers. By this time, the sun had started to shine across the pavilion as the panel came to an end and those in attendance mingled. After over two years of not being able to visit in-person, it was lovely to stand back and watch local developers share a drink and catch up with acquaintances old and new. One of the reasons we at Ukie wanted to put these in-person events on was to provide an opportunity for local game businesses to come together. On Wednesday night the feedback was that we succeeded in that goal, with speakers suggesting it was a fantastic and unintimidating opportunity to get back to presenting in person. For attendees, feedback was similar, the Guildford hub crawl was a space which allowed people to remember why they enjoyed local events and meet those they may have not seen for a while.
If you missed Guildford, dont worry, we have many more stops on our crawl including Brighton (18th May), Dundee (25th May), Liverpool (1st June), Leamington Spa (9th June), Bristol (15th June), Belfast (22nd June) and London (4th July). Hopefully see you there!
If you would like to speak at one of our events, the call for speakers is open until 20th May for Leamington Spa, Bristol, Belfast and London. Please use this link to submit your talk.
Oct 29, 2021 | International
Montreal – National Film Board of Canada
The NFB at The Rooms is launching a new series this fall with 13 National Film Board of Canada (NFB) documentary and animated works. The screenings run every Friday from October 22 to December 17.
The fall series is a continuation of the partnership between the NFB and The Rooms, which began in July with a summer program that welcomed guests back to The Rooms while keeping everyone safe. To continue to keep staff and the community safe, The Rooms has updated its COVID-19 protocols, which align with the provincial vaccine passport system that launches on October 22.
The Rooms is Newfoundland and Labrador’s largest public cultural space—an excellent choice for anyone looking for an enriching way to experience the finest in NFB cinema in a cozy public setting.
The table below shows the fall selection and schedule.
With the purchase of regular admission tickets, guests can watch the films and get full-day access to exhibits. The Rooms Café is open until 9 p.m.
Learn more at therooms.ca/visit-us.
October 22
Short
11 min 17 s
Stories Are in Our Bones
Janine Windolph
Feature
98 minutes
We Will Stand Up
Tasha Hubbard
October 29
Feature
106 minutes
The Silence
Renée Blanchar
November 5
Feature
119 minutes
The Forbidden Reel
Ariel Nasr
November 12
Short
5 min 41 s
Mystery of the Secret Room
Wanda Nolan of St. John’s
Feature
78 minutes
Conviction
Nance Ackerman, Ariella Pahlke and Teresa MacInnes
November 19
Feature
101 minutes
The Whale and the Raven
Mirjam Leuze
November 26
Short
4 minutes
The Storm
Monica Kidd with St. John’s animator Duncan Major
Feature
88 minutes
Wintopia
Mira Burt-Wintonick
December 3
Feature
75 minutes
Luben and Elena
Ellie Yonova
December 10
Short
13 min 7s
Nalujuk Night
Jennie Williams, an Inuk artist and filmmaker from Happy Valley-Goose Bay, now based in St. John’s
Feature
94 minutes
Theater of Life
Peter Svatek
December 17
Feature
91 minutes
Sovereign Soil
David Curtis
About The Rooms
A remarkable feature of the skyline of historic St. John’s, The Rooms is the place to experience the rich arts and culture of Newfoundland and Labrador. Here, you’ll find collections, exhibits and programs that tell our stories and interpret our natural world through art, artifacts, archaeology, architecture, and archival records—a portal to the many stories this province and its people have to tell. Since it opened in 2005, The Rooms has presented hundreds of exhibitions and more than 1,000 education and public programs, capturing the imagination of over 1 million visitors.
About the NFB
The NFB is Canada’s public producer and distributor of award-winning documentaries, auteur animation, interactive stories and participatory experiences, working with talented creators across the country. The NFB is taking action to combat systemic racism and become a more open and diverse organization, while working to strengthen Indigenous-led production and gender equity in film and digital media. NFB productions have won more than 7,000 awards, including 12 Oscars. To access this unique content, visit NFB.ca.
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Stay Connected
Online Screening Room: NFB.ca
NFB Facebook | NFB Twitter | NFB Instagram | NFB Blog | NFB YouTube | NFB Vimeo
Curator’s perspective | Director’s notes
About the NFB
Lily Robert
Director, Communications and Public Affairs, NFB
C.: 514-296-8261
l.robert@nfb.ca
May 10, 2021 | International
Today, the Honourable Mary Ng, Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, joined Anja Karliczek, Germany’s Federal Minister of Education and Research, to celebrate 50 successful years of the Canada-Germany Science and Technology Agreement.
May 7, 2021 – Ottawa, Ontario – Global Affairs Canada
Science and technology collaboration between Canada and international partners is critical to maintaining the country’s competitiveness and to creating and sustaining good middle-class jobs as it builds back better from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today, the Honourable Mary Ng, Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, joined Anja Karliczek, Germany’s Federal Minister of Education and Research, to celebrate 50 successful years of the Canada-Germany Science and Technology Agreement.
Minister Ng praised the strong and dynamic relationship between the 2 countries, which has led to more than a thousand joint research projects in priority areas, such as industrial cooperation, life sciences, sustainable energy, the oceans and the Arctic since the agreement came into force in 1971.
The ministers noted that this rich and successful cooperation, which spans all fields of science, is further strengthened by the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and by the recent energy partnership that positions Canada as a clean-energy partner of choice for Germany, notably for hydrogen, critical minerals and liquefied natural gas.
“This year, we celebrate 50 successful years of cooperation between Canada and Germany in the fields of science, technology and innovation—helping solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges to build a better future. We have collaborated in over a thousand joint projects, and as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, our collaboration will continue to benefit our communities and our economic recovery on both sides of the Atlantic.”
– Mary Ng, Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade
“50 years ago Germany and Canada agreed to cooperate closely in science and technology in order to shape the future together. Today Canada is one of our most important partners in scientific cooperation worldwide with a variety of activities and on many different levels: between our governments, universities, numerous companies and many organizations. We also support the exchange of students and young researchers from both countries, which lays a decisive foundation for our future cooperation. Over 50 German-Canadian events to celebrate the anniversary in the coming months will make it clear: We still have a lot to do together!”
– Anja Karliczek, Germany’s Minister of Education and Research
Germany is Canada’s largest export market in the EU and its sixth-largest trading partner globally, with the value of 2-way merchandise trade totalling $23.7 billion in 2020.
Canada is seeking to strengthen cooperation in applied research and innovation-based business activities with Germany, whose world-leading export performance is driven by industrial innovation.
Over the past few years, German research organizations, such as Max Planck, Helmholtz, the Fraunhofer Society and Leibniz, have established research partnerships with Canadian organizations that include joint research, technology development, and commercialization of R&D.
The most recent partnership is the recently launched Max Planck-University of Toronto Centre for Neural Science and Technology. The initiative will train over 25 PhD students in both Canada and Germany, aiming to create advanced technologies for the study of brain circuits to improve human health.
Cooperation between German federal states and Canadian provinces is an element of the bilateral research relationship. It includes cooperation between Bavaria and Quebec, the Ontario/Baden-Württemberg Student Exchange program, and the Alberta-Saxony Intercultural Internship Alliance, all of which support the mobility of researchers and students between Canada and Germany.
Youmy Han
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade
343-551-0246
Youmy.Han@international.gc.ca