Students Present – What’s Next?

by Doug

The “interactive real-life gaming” student project came to a successful close on Friday, 16th April with the final presentations by the Fanshawe students involved in this exciting program. Early in the semester, the students were given an opportunity to work on real life challenges as part of their Multi Media Design and Production program. In this case the task was to determine whether or not the idea that digital gaming could be used to influence the “connected market” to get involved in the outdoors. The students, working closely with their professors, formed teams and were empowered to create concepts using digital gaming technology that they felt would have an appeal to the target market. Many of the ideas went from a conceptual plan to alpha stage and in some cases, a beta model. A competition was established to help create excitement, fun and a rewarding experience for the students.

Collectively the students were able to demonstrate and validate the idea that gaming could be a useful social media tool to help influence change and help drive a new economy for rural Ontario. More importantly they reinforced the belief that our youth, once empowered, can be the voice of our future; they just need an opportunity to be heard. The professionalism and quality of the presentations impressed many of the celebrities, government and industry representatives who were present to hear their pitch. Some expressed strong interest in possibly hiring a few of the students involved….a great story for Fanshawe, a great story for London and an even better story for the students.

So what is next? TecVana plans to lobby hard and fast with the government to get the needed funds to launch the TecVana program. Gaming is but one of many social media components of the program but an important strategy to reach the gamers within our market. If funds are made available, we would be in a position to proceed with interviewing and making an offer to some of the Fanshawe students involved in this competition to help work on taking a few of the alpha or beta proposals or develop new concepts that can be taken to the next level in order to get to a prototype stage where market testing and fine tuning will be possible. This would then be integrated into the overall strategy to use the power of social media, the power of interactive digital technology and the power of marketing to engage our youth market and get them actively involved in non-urban outdoor activities.