Jason is the founder of Perimeter Partners, a consultancy focused on helping organizations successfully navigate the game industry ecosystem and maximize their efforts in the interactive digital entertainment sector. For nearly nine years, he served as the executive director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), a professional society committed to advancing the game industry and the careers of developers. Jason was honored for his industry building efforts with the inaugural Ambassador Award at the 8th annual Game Developers Choice Awards. He continues to be an advocate for the expressive power of games and their capacity to change the world.
Steve Bocska is currently the founding President of Pug Pharm Productions Inc., a startup in Vancouver focusing purely on social networking online games. He has over 9 years of direct experience in the video game industry, having worked for Disney Interactive, Black Box (E.A.), and Radical Entertainment in roles as lead designer, producer, and executive producer. In 2006, he became the founding President and CEO of Hothead Games, winner of the Canadian New Media Association’s award for “Most Promising New Company of 2007.”
Steve has 10 years of post-secondary education, including a B.A. (Honors), M.A. (Planning), and an M.B.A. (Entrepreneurship). He currently serves on the founding Board of Directors for GDC Canada, and has spoken at a variety of video game industry events, including Game Developer’s Conference (San Jose, California), South by Southwest (Austin, Texas), Vancouver International Game Summit (Vancouver, BC), VIDFEST (Vancouver, BC), Banff New Media Festival (Banff, Alberta), GameON Finance (Toronto, Ontario) and several others.
Trevor Fencott
Managing Partner & CEO Bedlam Games
Trevor brings 8 years of game industry experience to the Bedlam management team and has been credited on more than 20 games including Playboy: The Mansion, Pariah and Land of the Dead. He was co-founder and president of boutique video game publisher, Groove Games. Previously, as a practicing attorney, Trevor built the video game practice at the law firm Goodmans LLP and Goodmans Venture Group where he advised developers, publishers and the investment community on licensing, game development and financing. He is a founding member of the Toronto IGDA, frequent industry speaker and holds an Honors Bachelor of Arts degree and a Bachelor of Laws degree.
Jussi is the CEO and founder of Everyplay, a social gaming startup based in Helsinki, Finland. Previously he was the business development director for Bugbear Entertainment, a leading console racing game developer. In his role at Bugbear Jussi closed several multimillion euro game deals, produced console and handheld games, introduced agile processes and filled in the dishwasher.
For over 15 years he has been an entrepreneur and the main organizer of ASSEMBLY, an annual 5000 person computer festival in Finland. Jussi is the vice-chairman of the Finnish Association of Game Developers.
The founder and president of M2 Research, Wanda Meloni is a
leading industry analyst and strategist covering interactive entertainment and
digital media. She covers emerging trends in games and entertainment and
specializes in tracking the impact that technology, development issues, and
consumer preferences have on these markets.
M2 Research publishes industry reports and newsletters that provide in-depth analysis on emerging trends in interactive entertainment, highlighting new business models, and consumer trends. M2 Research also consults with numerous companies on client-specific projects to facilitate with investment strategies, strategic positioning and competitive analysis.
Prior to starting M2 Research, Wanda was president at DFC Intelligence a leading strategic market research and consulting company focused on the global video game industry. She also worked at Jon Peddie Research as a senior analyst where she grew the company's graphics research and consulting business to cover 3D gaming, animation, virtual worlds, 3D web applications, 3D gaming, CAD, visual simulation, and enterprise graphics solutions.
Ms. Meloni holds an MBA in International Marketing and speaks several languages. She is a frequent contributor for some of the industry's top publications and speaks at various trade events. Wanda has been quoted in numerous publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, USA Today, Fortune, London Times, New York Times, SF Chronicle and LA Times.
Over
the past eighteen years as President of R.G. Shoniker & Associates
Inc. and Courage Capital Corporation, Mr. Shoniker has arranged more
than $800 million of financings, mergers, acquisitions and
transactions. From 1985 to 1987 he was Director, Emerging Growth
Investments at McCarthy Securities Limited. In 1980 he co-founded and
became Chief Executive Officer of formerly TSE listed Accugraph
Corporation.
Prior to this, he founded two consulting
companies, Management Resource Group and R.G. Shoniker & Associates
Inc. From 1970 to 1975 he was Senior Investment Analyst with Burns
Brothers & Denton Limited. Mr. Shoniker graduated from Queen's
University with a B.Comm and an M.B.A. He currently serves on the board
of PARTEQ Innovations and Mondial Energy. He is also the Chairman of
Bedlam Games, a Toronto based video game software developer.
Dean Takahashi is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. He previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked.
Trevor Fencott
Jussi Laakkonen
