DIG London is a London, Ontario based game developers conference, attended by the likes of Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Bioshock 2's Digital Extremes, Silicon Knights, and other influential development studios. Debuting last year, speakers like Jade Raymond and Denis Dyack brought a lot to the developers conference, but DIG London is back for 2009, and looking to expand on it's success last year.
Gaming Union sat down with DIG London Event Convener, Larry MacKinnon of the London Economic Development Corporation (LEDC). MacKinnon represents the LEDC at DIG London, and takes care of strategic planning for the event. With word that EA and Ubisoft are returning to the show, Gaming Union had to get more details.
Gaming Union: What did DIG london 2008 achieve?
Larry MacKinnon: DIG London, in 2008, really put London on the map in Ontario as the destination for game development. I think it sent a message to developers across Ontario that there's something going on in London; it sent a message to a lot of college and university students that there would good game developers in London but also in Ontario, that they didn't necessarily need to leave Ontario to have a great career in the game sector; and it alerted some of the bigger publishers to the fact that there's a lot of independent companies in Ontario that they may have not known much about. I recall a comment from on of the speakers, a speaker from EA that he had no idea there was so much interesting stuff going on and his recommendation to us was to make sure EA, from a corporate perspective, understands that Ontario has a lot of good independent game developers, that there's a lot of things going on here, because it would be in their interest to know that for the future.
Gaming Union: For future possible opportunities?
MacKinnon: Well, I don't know, could be future opportunities to build studios, could be future opportunities to partner with independent developers to develop their games. I don't know but his thinking was that they would want to know that Ontario was a happening place, so to speak, for the game development sector.
Gaming Union: As successful as DIG 2008 was, what have you prepared for this year to make it even better?
MacKinnon: This year we're bringing in a few more speakers from outside Ontario, we think we've improved our panels by having a greater range of Ontario and other developers on our panels, we have a VIP reception component which we think we'll be of interest to a lot of the leadership of the game companies that will be attending the event from a networking perspective. We are also adding a partnershipping opportunity which we think will be from a business to business perspective, a great addition. It will be an opportunity for companies to pre-arrange meetings in a secure VIP style area at the venue, where they can discuss business opportunities between themselves and there will also be a workshop which will help smaller emerging developers understand how to better structure their product pitches to publishers. So we've added those components on the business side we think that those will be attractive to the industry and there will be opportunities for us to build for the future on the business to business side.
Gaming Union: What's the dream for DIG, with regards to its future in the video game industry?
MacKinnon: I think the organizers of DIG London would like to see it become a well recognised event in the gaming community, particularly one, if not one of the largest ones, in Ontario, helping to put Ontario on the map from a global perspective in time. It would be great if it eventually became one of the go-to events on the calendar for the industry, much as a GDC Vancouver is, or Montreal Game Summit is right now.
Gaming Union: Are you confident in DIG London becoming a premiere conference in Canada?
MacKinnon: Based on the commitment of the DIG organizers, which include the industry, the universities and colleges , and the government support that we've had so far, we're confident that we'll improve each year and at some point in a few years from now we'll be highly recogised as a go-to event in the industry.
Gaming Union: How does Ubisoft's opening a studio in Ontario change your outlook for those goals?
MacKinnon: I think that the Ubisoft announcement is great both for the city of Toronto, but also for the industry in Ontario as it's a validation for the size and depth of the talent pool in Ontario, and it has people in the industry all over North America and europe asking the question, "What's going on Ontario right now?" Because Ubisoft is going to be in Toronto we think that's going to put the focus on Ontario for the foreseeable future and DIG London will share in that focus because we are close and because Ubisoft has participated in our event in the past and we hope they will continue to participate.
Gaming Union: EA and Ubisoft were involved in DIG London last year including Jade Raymond, who was the producer on Assassin's Creed one, and is now the executive producer on Assassin's Creed 2, and soon to be director of the Toronto studio. Is there been any involvement from either studio this year?
MacKinnon: We've been in discussions with EA and Ubisoft, Ubisoft has confirmed that they will have representation, a speaking roll at DIG London this year and we're in discussions with EA in the same way and we believe we will have representation from EA as well.
Gaming Union: What's left to organize with DIG London?
MacKinnon: There's a thousand details in organizing a conference. I think what we're doing right now is finalizing our key note speakers and that we hope we'll have them in place in the next 30 days. We're still working with our sponsors, sponsorship response has been very good and there's still a number of opportunities out there to increase our sponsorship and provide those opportunities to companies, and then there's of course organizing the event itself in terms of the details, registration and so on, but the vast majority of it's in place already from a registration point of a view. We're already talking registrations, we've got most of our speakers online and we're adding those on a weekly basis as we finalize the details and acquire their images and bios. So we've got lots of work still ahead of us, but the vast majority of the work is done and its just a matter of the final details being put in place and announcing our key notes as soon as we can confirm them.
Gaming Union: So there's still lots of time for other developers considering participating to sign up?
MacKinnon: Yes we are certainly encouraging people to register for the event, and any developers that are interested in taking part, can be in touch with us and we'll see what opportunities might be there for them.
Gaming Union: What are you most excited for? Besides the dinner afterwards?
MacKinnon: [Laughs] To be honest, I'm most excited to see the response to our dinner keynote speakers, for me its the highlight of the event because what it does is it attracts a lot of individuals to the game conference who wouldn't otherwise wouldn't attend. [For example] local businesses and government officials, so the response to our keynote there is very important to us so that's going to be the most exciting thing for me.
Gaming Union: I believe Jade Raymond was the headliner last year.
MacKinnon: Jade Raymond was the headliner last year, she attracted a lot of attention to our event on the first year and we were very, very fortunate we had her. Her presentation was excellent and very well received by the audience and that particular dinner presentation was well received by the business community and I would like to see a repeat of that.
Gaming Union: How can people find out more information about DIG London?
MacKinnon: I would say they could first go to our event website which is www.diglondon.ca to learn about the event and associated information, and if they have further questions they can contact us directly, either through the site or myself at my email or number.
If you have questions for Larry MacKinnon, Larry's information is as follows:
Larry MacKinnon, CEcD
Director, Business Development, Technology
London Economic Development Corporation
P (519) 661-5011
lmackinnon@ledc.com
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