Fade to Play

On Friday I attended the PopVox Awards and Gala as part of the VIDFEST (Vancouver International Digital Festival). It was held at The Hangar, Centre for Digital Media on the Great Northern Way Campus. The place had a gala-type look and atmosphere as many women were dressed in evening gowns and many of the men were sporting suits. There was even valet parking.

The evening began with the awards show. Below are the winners (taken from the PopVox site).

All the photos from the PopVox Awards are viewable on my Flickr site.

· Best Digital Animated Short: PSYOP, for Coca-Cola “Happiness Factory, the Movie” [see great blog writeup]

· Best Digital VFX: Ubisoft, for Assassin’s Creed

· Best Game (Console/PC): Metanet Software and Slick Entertainment, for N+ on Xbox 360 / XBLA

· Best Game (Casual): Acronym Games, for Rocketmen: Axis of Evil

· Best Mobile (Game): The Saints, for NavBall

· Best Mobile (Application): CellMap Inc, for CellMap

· Best Digital Campaign: Rainmaker Entertainment and Zeros2Heroes Media, for A ReBoot ReLaunch

· Best User Generated/Crowd-sourced Content Site: Invoke Media, for Memelabs.com

· Best Digital Score: Clicktoy Interactive Inc., for The Meadow

· Best Do-Gooder site (Social Change Initiative): smashLAB, for DesignCanChange.org

· Homegrown Award (Best BC-based Venture): smashLAB, for MakeFive.com

Here are photos of the winners that were in attendance:

Rainmaker Entertainment and Zeros2Heroes Media PopVox Awards Winner

Invoke Media PopVox Awards Winner

Acronym Games PopVox Awards Winner

Clicktoy Interactive Inc. PopVox Awards Winner

smashLAB PopVox Awards Winner

CellMap Inc PopVox Awards Winner

smashLAB PopVox Awards Winner

smashLAB and memelabs PopVox Awards Winners

Following the Awards show, the chairs were put away and the fun began.

Relic Entertainment

Lady in Black

Nadia Nascimento

Singing Wonderwall by Digital Luminaries on Rock Band

More Rock Band by Digital Luminaries

The high energy of VIDFEST that began with Opening Night continued to the close with the PopVox Awards & Gala. The PopVox night was definitely the most fun I’ve had in a while and I met a number of people that I expect will become great friends. A world that had been hidden became revealed and my life has been changed forever.

Relevance: As a first time attendee of VIDFEST, I was blown away at how much I learned and happy to live in a city with creative mind and energetic people. I am looking forward to VIDFEST next year and hope to see you here!