X-Summit announces first wave of speakers for cross-media convergence conference

TORONTO - Interactive Ontario has announced the first wave of speakers for its cross-media convergence conference X-Summit. Taking place November 6 and 7 in Toronto, X-Summit attendees will have the chance to learn from the speakers listed below and others during keynotes, presentations, panels, roundtables, workshops and one-on-one meetings.

This year’s speakers include:

Vince Gerardis - Executive Producer, Game Of Thrones (In addition to helming the immensely popular HBO series Game Of Thrones, Gerardis is the founder of GROK! Studio, the first A-list Hollywood fan funded studio). 

Evan DeHaven - President & Executive Creative Director, Ignition Interactive. (Ignition has handled successful, highly talked about interactive campaigns for Prometheus, The Hunger Games, Resident Evil and many more.)

Kirsty Hunter - Managing Director, The Project Factory UK. (Hunter’s multi-platform credits include History Detectives (PBS) and Britain From Above (BBC). Her projects have received a Digital Emmy, RTD, Digital Broadcast, History Maker and IVCA awards).

Orrin Shivley - Director of Art & Design, Disney Online Studios. (Shivley has been a member of the Disney team for over 20 years. He currently manages creative staff and acts as Art Director for MMO (massively multi-player online) games and other initiatives).

The two-day business intelligence conference focuses on cross-media convergence, enabling content producers to better tell their stories seamlessly across multiple platforms. X-Summit is designed to create a dialogue between content creators in film, TV, video games, interactive online storytelling and other forms of media in order to facilitate new partnerships, knowledge and projects.

Interactive Ontario (IO) is a member-driven not-for-profit industry trade organization committed to the growth of the Ontario interactive digital content industry.