Thursday, October 29, 2009

CASO ELECTS 2010 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

TORONTO, ON, October 28, 2009 – Computer Animation Studios of Ontario Association (CASO) is pleased to announce the newly appointed members of the 2010 CASO Board of Directors.

As newly appointed President of CASO, Michael Carter brings over 16 years of business, creative and technical expertise to the Association. Having served as Acting President for the latter half of last year’s term, Michael will continue to provide vision and direction towards building a strong collaborative animation and visual effects community within the region.

Carter states, “It is my objective to work for the common good of all CASO members through personal, governmental and international alliances, to position Ontario as the best place to invest and produce animation and visual effects production in North America.”

For the upcoming 2010 year, CASO plans to continue work in the area of international marketing and government relations, further enhancing over 40 years of animation and visual effects production in Ontario. Our focus will be strengthening our region’s ties to all major domestic and international markets while providing future insight and planning for our sector through an Industrial Strategy. This Strategy will be the platform on which we develop digital animation and visual effects strategies to build our sector over the next 5 to 10 years. Member services such as The Visionary Lunches program, the Jump Start Breakfast series as well as the continuance of highly successful trade missions to Los Angeles and Kidscreen NY, will progress to bring Internationally and Domestically acclaimed talent, investment, job creation and production to Ontario.

CASO 2009 Board of Directors

President Michael Carter, President, Executive Producer, theskonkworks
Vice President/Secretary Wesley Lui, Co-Founder, Director of Operations, House of Cool
Past President Neil Williamson, Partner, CEO, Invisible Pictures

Directors
Mark Ainslie, Director of Creative Operations, Guru Studio
Marianne Culbert, Executive Producer, Media Tree Entertainment
Candice Day, Executive Producer, C.O.R.E Digital Pictures
Christa Tazzeo, Visual Effects Producer, Invisible Pictures
Sheldon Wiseman, President and CEO, Amberwood Entertainment
Jeff Young, Vice-President Finance, STARZ Animation Toronto

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

CASO Members receive a 15% discount off Early Bird Registration for History Makers 2010!

History Makers 2010 presents the latest ideas and trends which inspire the world's best programs and program creators. We take pride in producing original sessions featuring provocative thinkers and top program makers.

History Makers 2010 is truly international in its scope and delegate mix. With representation from over 16 countries including UK, France, Italy, Germany, USA and Canada, History Makers is the ideal place to meet the key Commissioning Editors and producers from around the world.

Our intimate atmosphere and 2:1 producer to broadcaster ratio makes it easy to gain access to the decision makers you want to meet with. Please visit our website for more information and schedule of events.

CASO members receive a 15% discount on Early Bird Registration! Click Here to get your 15% discount, registration until November 27th, 2009. History Makers takes place January 27th-29th, 2010 at the Grand Hyatt New York, New York City.

Baylea Mahoney - Marketing Communications Co-ordinator
Achilles Media Ltd. | Tel: 416-921-3171 x 239 | bmahoney@achillesmedia.com
nextMEDIA Toronto | November 30 - December 1, 2009. |www.nextmediaevents.com/toronto
The Canadian Innovation Exchange | December 2, 2009. |www.canadianinnovationexchange.com
History Makers 2010 | January 27-29, 2010. | www.historymakers2010.com

Monday, October 26, 2009

GameON:Finance 2009 – CASO members receive a 10% discount

On October 27th and 28th in downtown Toronto, industry experts will explore strategies surrounding funding opportunities including venture capital, angel investment, project financing, public and private equity. GameON: Finance offers great networking opportunities, exceptional value and unmatched industry insight into the world of video game financing and investment. Please enter coupon code: IOGOF2009

www.gameonfinance.com

Friday, October 2, 2009

CASO Fund Brazilian Trade Mission to Ottawa for Members

CASO would like to invite 4 studios to join them at the Brazilian Trade Mission at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. Members will get a chance to collaborate with Brazilian Studios to discuss co-production opportunities.

Please contact Christa Tazzeo to join us, christa@casont.ca

Each member will receive $700 to pay for airfare, 1 night hotel accommodations, per Diem and taxis to and from the airport.

Date of Trade mission is Tues. Oct. 13 @ 1:00.

This is CASO's first attempt at International Sales from a non-North American perspective. We have a good mix of industry representatives and the number of Brazilian companies participating is amazing. The line up is as follows:

Tanya Kelen - Independent Executive Producer who help trial blaze the Animation Co-Production interest between Brazil and Canada.

Brian Simpson - Well established Series and VFX Animation production Studio, outside of the GTA limits.

Wes Liu - House of Cool co-founder with a medium sized commercial, feature film and series animation studio.

Jonathan Wiseman - A large Ottawa based Animation and Producing company with a long history of developing and selling animated productions.

David Steinberg - Head of STARZ Animation Toronto, one of the largest CGI Animation Facilities in the country.

Monica Szenteszky - Part of the OMDC Tax Credits Department.

Michael Carter - CASO VP & Moderator.


For the Panel discussion, which I would characterize as 1hour of Panel members talking and then 30Min's of Q&A, the need here is to provide a solid foundation to our Brazilian counterparts on the business, production and technical skill that Ontario and Canadian companies such as ourselves, provide in Co-Production and Co-Venture opportunities. Then, after a 20-30min break, we would have a breakout session, in which each panel member will take a table of 4-5 Brazilian companies and talk for about 20Min's. In about 1-1.5hrs, we'll try to rotate the tables every 20Min's so everyone has some exposure.

Basically, this is really a "nuts & bolts" discussion on how and why animation production in Ontario and Canada is so successful and how that might be translated to Brazil to further enhance their industry, while benefiting our future growth strategy.