Digital Media People to watch in Alberta in 2010
It was interesting to see Alberta’s 2009 Digital People to watch as the year progressed. We’ve expanded the list to 10 people this year – although there’s far more than 10 people doing cool things in Alberta. Props to Cam Linke and Kevin Dahl for helping me compose this list.
Trevor Doerksen – Mobovivo – Doerksen has been working the mobile video scene since before you knew it existed. Mobovivo has been inking deals with content producers all over the place and with investors coming to the table, we expect the next two years will be big for them. We can’t wait to see this local Calgary company work towards dominating the mobile content arena.
Terry Hughes – Widality – Hughes wants you to track all of your Blackberry calls. He’s helping Blackberry users save money with his Call Time Tracker (currently rocking the Blackberry app sales) and is rolling out more stuff in 2010. As we’re keenly watching Blackberry’s apps compared to iPhones, we’re wondering what Terry and his crew at Widality will think of next.
John Lowe – Multiplied Media – Lowe, with The Multiplied Media team believes online media distribution is beginning a long term expansion, as the multi-connected consumer emerges in the market. Their goal is to assist established local media operators in reaching their audience – through every relevant, high traffic, connected device available. The Multiplied Media Blackberry app Poynt is a hit and their stock has been rising. (they are on the tsxv)
Richerd Chen – Tapium – Chen was one of the first guys in town to start developing for iPhones – Richerd has several games under his belt – and just completed the iPhone verison of Hootsuite, our fave Twitter client. He seems poised to take over the iPhone app world. We can’t wait to see what he does next.
Ken Bautista, the founder of CIE: Seek your own proof, must never sleep. In addition to CIE, he works at RED: The Agency, is the co-chair of artsScene Edmonton, is bringing the TEDx program to Alberta and is one of the most fun people at any conference. No wonder Avenue Edmonton named him as one of their Top 40 under 40, Ken Bautista is currently unstoppable and shows no signs of slowing down in the next year.
Tys von Gaza, Sean Healy – TouchMetric – Two guys out of Edmonton, working day jobs and building Surveyor on the side. Surveyor helps you perform customer satisfaction surveys, research data collection, political polls, census surveys, in-class quizzes, market research, event crowd feedback, on-site inspections, all from people’s iPhones. Pretty cool. We’d like to see more from Tys and Sean in 2010.
David Gluzman has 17 years of experience bringing together IT and design to create compelling web experiences. His work with start-ups, including some he founded himself, right up to established brands in a wide variety of industries, enables him to approach each project with the entrepreneurial perspective required to develop ground breaking brands. David’s skill set is unique in the industry and puts him in high demand. In addition to his contract work, he runs Wine Collective and R4NT, he has a successful side photography business and he always willing to help others learn about the stuff he’s good at. We think David Gluzman will just keep on getting busier in 2010.
Jay Baydala – uEnd – previously an Information Technology Project Manager, is the founder of Uend.org (previsouly Christmas Future). He passionately leads the organization combining the lofty goal of ending poverty with the ubiquitous world of the Internet. It is hard to go anywhere without hearing someone talk about uEnd, so Jay must be doing something right. He is constantly pushing towards educating people on how they can help those in need and we’re hoping his altruistic goals pay off for him as well.
Peter Urban – Smibs – is an entrepreneur with over 18 years experience. He is the founder and president of Smibs Inc. and the Plainpeak Group and has acted as a consultant for several Fortune 500 companies. With Smibs, he’s launched Doorbell, VideoLobby (demoed at TC last realtime crunchup), and Content Mover. He’s making our online life more simple and organized and we hope he continues to do so in 2010.
Jessica Mason – Significant Differences – Mason started Significant Differences to bring joy to underprivileged people across the world. It is based on the idea that giving money to a underpriviledged person that is personally meaningful gives the donor more value than traditional charitable giving. Jessica went from an idea to launching her website all with a volunteer team of people, indicating to us that she must be on to something people are interested in. We’re looking forward to seeing just how big she can make this.
