Winning Most Promising Company at the Canadian New Media Awards
May 30, 2006 by Ken Bautista - It's official. Rocketfuel Productions [a joint venture between Hotrocket and Redengine] was named the Most Promising New Company of the Year at the 2006 Canadian New Media Awards. At a gala awards ceremony held at the Carlu in Toronto Monday night, we were one of 15 winners out of 43 national finalists to be presented a prestigious Pixel award. The ceremony was hosted by Alan Park (of CBC Royal Canadian Air Farce fame) live in front of an audience of over 500 industry members and guests from across the country.
Host Alan Park joked about the day's transit strike in T.O.
We were so honored and thrilled to be recognized by our peers with this award. It capped off an amazing two days in (blistering hot) Toronto that included an excellent BBQ reception hosted at the Canadian Film Centre on Bayview Drive, and a luncheon hosted by RBC (in their executive dining room), featuring the Honourable Bev Oda, Minister of Canadian Heritage, Kerry Munro, General Manager of Yahoo! Canada, and RBC Vice President Joanne Gordon. Kudos to the team at CNMA including Founder/Exec Producer Adam Froman, Tannis Wengel, and Jacquie Sands for delivering such a great experience.
BBQ at the Canadian Film Centre (Photo credit: Habitat Media Lab)
During this short time, I met many exceptionally creative and talented people from across the Canadian new media industry. The representation at this year's event absolutely shows that Canada's new media industry is alive and growing. I got to know many of our fellow finalists who I'm sure we'll encounter again soon! A special shout-out goes to our Vancouver pal Robert Scales at Raincity Studios, who also took home a Pixel in the Graduate of the Year category. It was great hanging with his rockstar marketing agent Megan Cole, who was sent to pick up the award in his absence (Rob's in China at the moment).
Me and Raincity Studios' Megan Cole with a pair of Pixel awards for the West.
Special thanks definitely need to go out to our supporters and project partners including the Royal Tyrrell Museum, the Banff New Media Institute, Telefilm Canada and the teams at both Hotrocket and Redengine, who all helped to kickstart Rocketfuel in some way. I can't forget the folks at the Digital Media Association of Alberta for nominating us in the first place. I think this recognition definitely means we're onto something special together and we're excited about what the next year has in store!
Check out all the 2006 winners and finalists here!
P.S. Did you know... the last recipients of this award have included QuickPlay Media (2005) and Ludicorp (2003), which went on to create (and sell) Flickr. That puts us into some good company! No pressure.