[INTERVIEW] On the Edge of Industry Growth

Watch DIG London interview Brittany Medeiros, coordinator of www.onEDGENetwork.com

Ontario’s digital interactive industry has grown exponentially with incredible talent being procured and recruited regularly. Successful entrepreneurs have begun start-ups and seen their companies grow to multi-national corporations that foster the industry and those who work in it.

OnEDGENetwork.com is a new web platform that strives to bring awareness to the industry and connect the unique individuals within it.

As a not-for-profit web portal promoting the Ontario Interactive Games Industry, onEDGE is a resource created by the community for the community. Users can create profiles to connect with other companies and colleagues, build portfolio based pages specific to their background, project or business and connect with like minded individuals to collaborate or recruit new talent. onEDGE believes that , “if we want to grow we need to support our local companies.”

Brittany Medeiros is the web manager and face of onEDGE, and has been working with Interactive Ontario and the London Economic Development Corporation to see the goals of onEDGE come to fruition. “Our goal is to bring [people] together as one community, where we can break industry barriers” stated Brittany, a digital artist with a background in 3D Animation. “Companies and the community can collaborate and also be educated on what is new and exciting.  Also, we are all about what this industry can bring, which is FUN.”

OnEDGE will be launching on November 14, 2012 at the DIG Conference in London, Ontario where Brittany will be hosting website tutorials and helping people to network, learn, explore, and connect with the site and with each other.

Can’t wait to meet Brittany and see what onEDGE is all about? See what Brittany has tosay about DIG and find out what her favourite memory of last year’s conferencewas in this interview clip.

Register today to attend DIG 2012 at www.DigLondon.ca, and create a profile with www.onedgenetwork.ca before the conference on November 14.

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The Life and Times of London Developer Ian Bullock

Ian Bullock - Photo from  IanBullock.ca

London, Canada is successfully attracting, training and retaining talented digital interactive professionals who often have one thing in common: they have attended the DIG conference.

I had the opportunity to chat with one local web developer who relocated to London for school, found a rewarding career in his field and is thriving in the city.

Ian Bullock, web developer extraordinaire at Digital Echidna and I talked about about life, internet and... well... DIG of course.  Ian’s life is an open book; he is active on twitter (@ian_bullock) and generally posts most of his secrets on the feed. A lesser known interesting fact about Ian is that he was a goal tender in hockey for 13 years, playing  in small across Ontario towns such as St. George and Paris. Maybe this info is on Twitter somewhere, but it’s published here now for your trivia pleasure.

Ian was born in London, moved away, then came back and stayed (#YAY). He studied at Western and Fanshawe:  Multi media Design and Production at F-shawe coupled with a degree in MIT at Western. I feel like I can use the abbrev. “F-Shawe”... being a very proud Alumni of the college and all. Ian has worked at 3 agencies in London in both front and back end development, which grants both the inner artist and programmer the opportunity to shine. Bravo internet soldier. 

Ian knew from an early age that his career would focus around graphic design, with interests in photography and painting Ian gets to express himself in his chosen career. Having a strong parental influence in computer science and visual arts, web development proved to be the perfect fit. My homeboy Ian and I bonded over our love of the craft and if you ask us, Code is Art.

Ian’s first web project was a re-design of the Club Phoenix site in college a mere 5-6 years ago. Now he is working on large projects with Echidna for organizations like WOTCH and has witnessed his skill set evolve from the table-design and image-based text in HTML used 5 years ago to the CMS’s of today. The web development world is rapidly evolving and changing, you have to remain ahead of the curve as new technologies challenge the skill set of a developer daily. Ian will not have to fret this November 2012; we have him covered at DIG.

From networking with fellow web developers and friends I have learned that we all have a certain way of computing. With 8 browser tabs open, grooveshark playing Ska and Dubstep and art supplies handy Ian is ready to work, or be stranded on a dessert island in peace. Although Ian was not sure how he felt about Dubstep, I reassured him that “haters are going to hate” and that it is fine to Lub the Dub. 

Thanks to Ian Bullock for meeting with me! I leave you with this clip from our interview where I ask, “What is the best part about being a developer in London, Canada” and hear about Ian’s experience at the DIG Conference.

Katie Wilhelm is a Marketing and Communications Coordinator at the London Economic Development Corporation. The top 3 things she is good at are The Internet, Photoshop and listening to Eddie Murphy’s “Party all the Time.” Follow her on twitter today: @KatieWilhelm

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