TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – Nov. 21, 2011) – How is the Web changing the business, marketing, social media and political landscapes? For insight from some of the leading thinkers, meshwest Vancouver is the place to be.

meshwest: a one-day event on Dec. 5 at the Salt Building in Vancouver, provides perspective and information from some of the most innovative minds in digital marketing to embrace and capitalize on emerging trends, tools, and companies.

“We’re excited about bringing meshwest to Vancouver,” said Mark Evans, one of meshwest’s co-founders and principal with ME Consulting. “meshwest is going to be a great day of conversation, connecting and networking.”

Tickets are on sale now for $289, as well as a small number of tickets for students for $49. Tickets can be purchased at http://www.meshwest.ca.

Keynote speakers at meshwest include:

Stewart Butterfield: co-founder of the gaming startup Tiny Speck, whose debut title is an ambitious massively multiplayer online game called Glitch. Glitch hopes to revolutionize online gaming the same way Flickr revolutionized online photo sharing. Butterfield has been nominated for the Chrysler Design Award, and has been named a Best Leader by Business Week, and one of the Top 35 Innovators Under 35 by MIT.

Erik Blachford: A key player in the growth of Expedia, Erik led the creation of the brand as senior vice president of marketing becoming president of Expedia North America, and then president and CEO. Since 2005, Erik has been active within the startup ranks, serving as executive chairman of TerraPass, a leading retailer of carbon offsets, consumer energy efficiency products, and green gifts.

Janice Diner: Janice is a social media strategist with a creative director background. A leader in the arena, Janice and her team have conceived, developed and executed social media programs and technologies for such brands as TSN, BlackBerry, TD Canada Trust, PlayStation, Intel and Hershey. Currently Janice heads up Horizon Studios helping clients socialize their brands, empower customer engagement and bring communities to life across the social media space.

Mark Johnson: Currently CEO of Zite, which is changing the way people browse the web on their iPads by learning what you like and dislike. Before joining Zite as CEO, Mark was a product manager who trained at SAP before he plunged into three successful search startups: SideStep (acquired by Kayak for $180 million in 2007), Kosmix (acquired by Walmart in April 2011), and Powerset (acquired by Microsoft in July 2008).

Elijah van der Giessen: Eli is a project manager and whipper-of-troops. As the Creative Services Lead at the David Suzuki Foundation (www.davidsuzuki.org), Eli leads the online acquisition and outreach work, and has helped the foundation create an online constituency. He also uses his experience in event production and volunteer management to connect web innovators with nonprofit campaigners so they can learn from each other.

@meshcon / #meshwest

“The Hall of Fame seeks to highlight the significant contribution of women to the games industry as well as promote role models to those women considering working in games,” said Alison Cressey, Entertainment Industry Consultant and WIGJ Advisory Board member. “Voted on by over 2500 peers in the Women in Games Jobs network, we hope this will become an annual event.”

Ginger Graham, Global Diversity and Inclusion Manager, Electronic Arts commented that “EA is proud to sponsor the WIGJ Hall of Fame award for 2011.  We know that without the strength of the women in our industry, we would lack the necessary diversity of thought to be as innovative, creative and inspired as we have become. EA applauds the nominees and those who will be a part of the future of gaming.”

Nominees shortlisted for the inaugural Hall of Fame award in 2011 are:

• Dr. Linda Breitlauch, Professor of Games Design, Media Design University of Applies Sciences
• Frederique Doumic, CEO at OUAT Entertainment
• Louise Murray, Head of Fable Franchise at Lionhead Studios
• Siobhan Reddy, Studio Director at Media Molecule
• Fiona Sperry, Studio Director and VP, Criterion Games

Over 80 women have so far registered for this must attend event for women seeking to further their career or enter into the video games industry. Tickets are still available online.

“This year’s conference is focused on career development and will reveal some secrets of success from the very best speakers working in this creative industry” said David Smith, founder of Women in Games Jobs. “We hope both Fiona and Andrew will inspire those attending – helping us to recruit into and retain more women in this male dominated video games industry.”

Fiona Sperry’s insights will be shared in her talk “ How to drive on the wrong side of the road – a career in games development.” While Andrew Tilling, with over 20 years’ experience in helping people use creative thinking to expand their level of influence and make a real difference, will focus on “How to move your career forward – knowing what you want is often the first step to getting ahead, but what comes next?”

This is a must attend event for women seeking to further their career or enter into the video games industry. To register visit http://wigconference2011.eventbrite.com/ for your early bird discounted ticket.

Ginger Graham, Global Diversity and Inclusion Manager at EA’s Redwood Shores commented that “EA knows the importance of reaching and supporting top talent on a global scale. We are very proud to sponsor the Women in Games Jobs luncheon which will provide an intimate venue for collaboration, networking and sharing best practices.”

David Smith, Founder of Women in Games Jobs said, “we welcome Electronic Arts as sponsor of our lunch at Develop. EA is serious about making a difference to the gender imbalance that many feel exist in this industry and this sponsorship will help us to recruit into and retain more women in the video games industry.”

Up to 30 places still remain which are being offered to women in games on a first come, first served basis. This event is by ticket only requiring attendees to pre-register.

Are women getting what they want from video games? Although they are playing games in large numbers, few companies are trying to appeal to women, and most of those that do merely release pink controllers or stereotypically “girlie” games. Silicon Sisters wants to help change that, with the first “female owned and operated video game company,” operating out of Vancouver.  READ MORE