NAGIS: What Year One Looks Like

May 31

A New Games Industry Event

The North American Games Industry Summit is coming to Edmonton this June. NAGIS is a dedicated B2B event designed to bring developers, publishers, investors, and industry partners to Alberta — attached to Game Con Canada, which is now locked in through 2031 at the Edmonton Expo Centre.

It's a significant moment for the Alberta game industry. Edmonton already has 45 active studios and 32 games in active development, according to Edmonton Screen Industries Office. Studios like Caldera Interactive and Basement Bunker Labs are building here. The infrastructure exists. What's been missing is a venue to bring the business side of the industry home. NAGIS is that venue.

What NAGIS Actually Is

Marc Belisle and Chris Meilleur from Meibel Consulting — the Alberta-based event company behind Game Con Canada — have been working toward a dedicated B2B event since the show's earliest days. The model draws from Gamescom's business component in Germany, adapted for the North American market. The goal for year one: create a neutral playground where Canadian developers can meet international publishers, pitch their games, and do real business.

NAGIS runs June 18–19 at the Edmonton Expo Centre. Game Con Canada picks up immediately after, running June 19–21. NAGIS badge holders get full access to both events.

Xsolla, one of the leading games commerce companies globally, is the title sponsor. John Nguyen, Regional Vice President of Canada at Xsolla, described the company's read on Alberta plainly: the province is underserved relative to the talent that already exists here. BioWare, New World Interactive, BeamDog — Edmonton has produced games that have had global impact. NAGIS is part of bringing the industry conversation back to where some of it started.

What It Means for Indie Developers in Alberta

The most consistent theme across the entire conversation is accessibility. GDC in San Francisco costs thousands of dollars to attend. Gamescom in Germany is more. For indie studios in Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer, or Lethbridge, those trips are often out of reach.

NAGIS puts that opportunity in Western Canada's backyard. Edmonton Screen, the Alberta Ministry of Technology and Innovation, Saskatchewan Interactive, and ASUS ROG are sponsoring turnkey booth spaces — meaning smaller studios can show their games to publishers and VCs without funding a full convention presence themselves. As of the recording, 55 studios had confirmed booth spaces, with more expected before launch.

Ronnie Villanueva from Edmonton Screen put it plainly: for a studio trying to grow, NAGIS becomes a date on your calendar to work backwards from. You set milestones. You build toward it. And if a publisher walks past your booth and wants to know more, that's a conversation that wouldn't have happened without the event existing.

The Speaker Lineup and What Indie Devs Should Know

The programming at NAGIS is built around what indie developers actually need — not just inspiration, but operational knowledge. That came through clearly in the conversation with Marc and Chris.

Three confirmed highlights:

Brent Bushnell, son of Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, speaking on the future of gaming and his family's continued role in the industry.
BioWare founders reunion — original founders of the Edmonton studio discussing what they built, what they'd do differently, and what they see ahead.
Toni Dominich, a Hollywood talent agent whose client list includes a significant portion of the Marvel cast. She's running a dedicated panel alongside YDB from the Wu-Tang Clan — who just finished voice acting for SEGA's Shinobi — on the intersection of film and video games.
The Toni Dominich panel deserves its own mention. The practical angle is this: indie developers almost never have a path to working with recognizable talent because the standard agency route is prohibitively expensive. You meet your first agent, you hear a number like $150,000, and the conversation ends before it starts. What Dominich is bringing to NAGIS is a blueprint for a different approach — working with talent on points-based strategies instead of flat fees, navigating the system without getting steamrolled by it. Every attendee leaves with a digital handbook. If you're an indie dev who's ever thought about voice acting or narrative talent and immediately ruled it out on budget, this is the session to be in the room for.

Beyond those three headliners: speakers on breaking into the Chinese market, community engagement for mid-level studios, crowdfunding, legal representation, and accounting. The full Thursday programming is curated around the gaps that tend to hold indie developers back. As Marc put it — they have the event expertise, so they leaned on the advisory panel to identify what developers actually need to hear. That's the filter the whole lineup was built through.

Building an Esport Game Before Esports Was a Business

One of the more unexpected moments in the episode came when the esports conversation opened up a personal story from John Nguyen.

His studio, early in his career, was building a mech game. Not a mech game as a side project — a mech game designed from the ground up for competitive play, built around the Heavy Gear franchise lore of mech dueling. Customizable builds, team stables, competitive ladders. The whole architecture was oriented toward what we now call esports. And at the time, Bay Street was pouring money into esports companies following the successes in Asia, so the timing made a certain kind of sense. He took that team public and became a publisher in the process.

That backstory matters in the NAGIS context. John isn't an infrastructure executive who wandered into gaming. He's someone who built a competitive esports title before the category had a name, watched the industry evolve, and now runs the Canadian operation for one of the most consequential back-end companies in the global game business. The Mass Effect tattoo sleeve is real. The commitment to Alberta is real.

And just to round out the picture: he also runs a Jedi school with his wife and is bringing lightsabers to Game Con. Make of that what you will.

The B2B Infrastructure Behind NAGIS

MeetToMatch is the co-producer of NAGIS and the world's leading B2B matchmaking platform for the games industry. They facilitate structured one-on-one meetings between developers, publishers, and investors at events globally. At GDC, their lounge was next door to Xsolla's. At NAGIS, they're integrated from the ground up.

For developers who haven't traveled the international conference circuit, MeetToMatch removes the guesswork. You book meetings in advance. You show up prepared. The platform turns a conference floor into actual business conversations rather than hoping you bump into the right person. And the MeetToMatch B2B Lounge stays open throughout all of Game Con Canada — the business side doesn't end when NAGIS closes.

One Voice for the Advocacy Conversation Nobody Said Out Loud

Chris Meilleur made a point in the episode worth holding onto. Alberta has strong organizations — Digital Alberta, the Calgary Game Developer Association, Edmonton Game Camp, Scaffold, Edmonton Screen. They're all doing real work. But for the most part, they've been operating as independent pockets. The goal for NAGIS year one, beyond the event itself, is to create a vehicle that brings those organizations together as one voice.

That framing matters because of what's behind it. Ronnie Villanueva was direct about the stakes: Alberta hasn't had a provincial incentive program for the game industry in roughly six years. Other provinces have had programs in place for decades, with measurable outcomes for their industries. That gap is real, and it's been felt.

NAGIS doesn't fix that on its own. But it puts the industry in the same room, creates new visibility for what's already being built here, and — as Ronnie put it — gives communities something to come together around that can reopen the conversation with the province. He was careful about exactly how he said it. The point landed anyway.

The NorQuest Esports Shutdown

The episode doesn't sidestep recent news. NorQuest College shut down its esports program, including associated personnel departures. Cory addressed it directly: it's a setback. NorQuest was a genuine pillar of organized esports in Edmonton — a community hub, an academic pathway, and an early supporter of Game Con Canada back when the show was still proving itself in Calgary.

The consensus from the table: it hurts, but the esports community in Edmonton is resilient. Organizations like Overklocked Gaming and the Edmonton Fighting Game Community are continuing their work. Game Con Canada is moving forward with significant esports programming, including an ASUS ROG finals on the Sunday that is expected to be one of the larger Alberta esports tournaments since pre-COVID. The NorQuest closure doesn't change the direction. It does reinforce why events that bring these communities together consistently are worth protecting.

What Year One Success Looks Like

The episode closes with everyone at the virtual roundtable answering the same question: what does year one success look like for you?

Ronnie's answer was the one that landed. He came back to the idea of rising tides. These kinds of opportunities don't show up often. The fact that Game Con chose Edmonton over Calgary — and chose to stay — is a privilege worth taking seriously. Success for him looks like communities showing up, even just to attend, because that act of showing up is itself a contribution to something being built. He noted that he's entered tournaments at Game Con, lost, and it was still a good time. Business and pleasure overlap in this industry. Lean into it.

Chris framed it around delivery: doing the work at the caliber they've promised, taking ego out of the equation, making sure partners walk away knowing something real is being built. Year one is the foundation. Year two and three are when it takes shape.

John wanted to see Edmonton on the global conference map as a sustainable destination. Not just a one-time event, but a place that international partners put on their annual circuit. He talked about multi-million dollar deals being signed on the show floor as a long-term possibility — not hype, just a straight read of what a well-run B2B summit attached to Canada's largest gaming convention could become.

Marc kept it simple: execute on the B2B, make sure everyone's objectives are met, go to the industry night on Thursday, then spend the rest of the weekend playing games. That's the recipe. Do your homework. Then play.

Get Involved

The North American Games Industry Summit runs June 18–19 at the Edmonton Expo Centre. Game Con Canada runs June 19–21. Your NAGIS badge covers both events.

Cory Sellar (00:15)
I'm Cory "Sellarcast" Sellar, and this is Good Game Edmonton. On this episode, we're talking about the North American Games Industry Summit and what it means for this city, for Alberta, indie developers, builders, and the community that's been doing the work. I've got four movers and shakers here at the GGE table who are making this happen.
I got Marc and Chris from Meibel Consulting, the Alberta-based event company behind Game Con Canada, and co-producer of this new Games Summit. I got Ronnie from Edmonton Screen, where the intersection of games, screen industries, and the creative economy is the whole job. I also got John from Xsolla the title sponsor of NAGIS and one of the most consequential infrastructure companies in the global game business.
Guys welcome to the show. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm really excited to dive into this really exciting new conversation about this new event on the Edmonton stage here.
Chris Meilleur (01:19)
Thanks for having us.
Ronnie Villanueva (01:19)
Awesome.
John Nguyen (01:20)
Thanks for having
Ronnie Villanueva (01:20)
Thank you.
Marc Belisle (01:20)
Absolutely.
John Nguyen (01:20)
us.
Cory Sellar (01:21)
Beautiful, beautiful. I'm going to start off with you, Marc and Chris here. Obviously, it's no secret you guys have helped build Game Con Canada into, I would say, probably the largest gaming expo in the country. Not to mention, business event of the year, by the way. So congrats on that. And now you're launching NAGIS to pair with it. For anyone hearing about this for the very first time.
Marc Belisle (01:39)
Thank
Cory Sellar (01:46)
What is the North American Games Industry Summit and what exactly is the gap that in the industry that this is trying to fill?
Chris Meilleur (01:56)
Go ahead, Marc. Take it away.
Marc Belisle (01:57)
Sure. All right, so North American Games Industry Summit powered by Xsolla
is effectively something that we've been working on in the background for the last year or so. So the decision was always to activate a B2B event that's gonna be tied into Game Con. We were just waiting for, essentially Chris and I were waiting for the size and scale of Game Con to be big enough so that we could attach a B2B in order that we could inject the production that we have, the partners we've worked with, the tech partners that we have, the 200 plus.
Cory Sellar (02:02)
Ayo.
Marc Belisle (02:32)
studios that we've been working with for the last four years, for Canadian developers. And this is now our first B2B focused event where the primary focus is to have a neutral playground for people to come to Canada, do some business, meet all the amazing developers we have, introduce them to the international publishers we've been able to acquire, and then move forward on. And essentially this is year one, right? So this is the first, these are the objectives for year one. And then we
want to grow it into a two-day summit into Game Con Canada and I mean we're not reinventing the wheel here we're basing this off a very successful business model from Gamescom Germany. Now are we ever going to be as big as Gamescom Germany? No because they have like 58 football fields of halls that they can fill and we're just never going to get there but we do have the infrastructure, the developers, a gorgeous venue to be able to do this in Edmonton, Alberta and fun fact for anyone that doesn't know
We have now signed with the City of Edmonton for an additional five years. So we're here till 2031. So another great reason launch this this year and grow it alongside our partners.
Cory Sellar (03:37)
Bravo, bravo. Congrats on that five-year extension. That's huge news. Yeah, Chris, anything to add on to Marc's remarks?
Marc Belisle (03:41)
Thank you.
Chris Meilleur (03:47)
Well, I mean, there's so much and I'm sure we're going to get into a lot of this stuff as we get going here. you know, the other big part for us, I think, was making sure that we were doing something that we could measure from a business standpoint and really make a difference for some of the indie developers and some of these people coming in that want to do business in Alberta. And so the pitch sessions is something that we're going to be focusing really heavy on for this as well. And that's where I think we.
Cory Sellar (03:51)
yeah, absolutely.
Chris Meilleur (04:12)
Marc is talking about the whole Gamescom Germany model is that we're going to have a dedicated pitch sessions with publishers to try to get some of these games picked up and to try to do something here in Alberta that's moving the needle. I think that within what we're doing with our partners that we have, Xola and we'll probably mention in touch on a bunch in this call, but you know, there's, we got reached out to by quite a few people. Geopolitically, there's a lot of crazy stuff happening right now.
And a lot of our partners out of the United States wanted us to do something because they need a neutral place to do business, right? That's welcoming, that's inviting. And we just happened to be putting on the largest gaming convention in Canada. So it kind of made sense for some of our other partners that had reached out. Because admittedly, Marc was saying, we've been working on this for a year. We actually have been working on this since day one. We launched a miniature version of this in our year one show.
Marc Belisle (05:03)
But,
true.
Chris Meilleur (05:05)
like very miniature, right? And Fedor, who is our producing partner from MeetToMatch, we started talking about this with him. So that was like, God, five years ago? Six years ago even? Yeah, it's been that long, five years that we've been talking about this, but we learned really quickly in year one that we needed to hyper-focus on one project, right? And then get the business people here and then switch it over. So yeah, that's basically it.
Marc Belisle (05:13)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Ronnie Villanueva (05:17)
Thank
Cory Sellar (05:29)
Well, no, well, I definitely want to hear a little bit more about MeetToMatch. Obviously, I was definitely trying to get Fedor on the show here for this particular recording, but obviously with...
time difference and everything, didn't quite work out scheduling wise with everybody here, but nevertheless, I did want to make sure we set aside some time in a bit here to learn a little bit more about MeetToMatch and their involvement and what exactly that means, particularly for this business event as well as its future. Obviously, kind of leading into my next question, you know, this is obviously...
not a one-off by any means, especially with that renewed five-year commitment for GCC. I do have to ask both of you, because I'm curious, is this Alberta's or even...
Western Canada's version of say, Migs, you know, we talk not necessarily games, calm level, but you know, maybe again, I've never been to make so correct me if I'm wrong. But, you know, is this sort of that our own version of that in some ways like long term or what's how would we how would how would it match up, so to speak?
Chris Meilleur (06:39)
I mean,
so one thing for Marc and myself is we're never, none of the events that we run or own are like any other event that exists. So that's the first and foremost. We put our spin on it and we make it our own and we target and highlight things that we think are important. know, you got shows like XP Games Summit and Migs and those ones are awesome and they're great for Canada. Our intention is not to be like them. Is there gonna be a little bit of overlap in some of the way
it's built from a B2B perspective, of course, there's going to be a little bit like in terms of panel, know, fireside discussions, things like that. But we're we already have a roadmap that we're going to grow this into. it includes a lot of things that none of the other events are doing and not in a competition sense in that we're trying to create something unique here. And Canada is obviously important. Alberta is a huge focus. Canada is a huge focus. But
I mean, it's in the name. This is the North American Games Industry Summit. is for North America. So, yeah, I don't know if that really answers the question, but...
Cory Sellar (07:36)
Yep.
No, no, that totally makes sense. Obviously being a bit biased, it's fantastic and honestly just huge for the province of Alberta and Edmonton in particular, obviously really continuing to put it on the map in terms of gaming as a whole to hopefully bring in more investment in other ways, of course, as well, and ways to just support, I think, the broader community, the indie community as well in terms of investment.
and growth and just continuing to see that sustainable pipeline in so many different ways, starting with this major activation that's really bringing community and industry together. So I think that's super huge and really exciting to see and learn a little bit more as we go in this aspect of the show here.
Kind of moving over to another aspect of this as Marc alluded to briefly like any good event you need a committed and dedicated title sponsor to help make this happen. Telus of course powers Game Con and Xsolla is powering NAGIS John, please let's for those who don't know give me the 411 on Xsolla As well as a little bit about your journey leading up
to this particular point.
John Nguyen (08:50)
Okay, so Xsolla is like you said, one of the largest consequential companies. Actually, that's pretty flattering to us. We are a games commerce company. So what does that mean? We have all the solutions, all the tools, all the things for developers to launch, grow and win at their game. So basically in the vein of
direct to consumer. This is the new trend. It is the future of the games industry. We're not the only one saying it. It is actually palpable. And so we are uniquely positioned to have all these solutions that are necessary for, you know, small indie guys up to like giant AAA companies to launch their games and sell them directly to consumers at scale. So that's basically what we do in that it's a giant iceberg. I get it.
We're not going to eat up the two hours here to do a deep dive into our solutions. That could be whole series actually. That could be an entire whole series. But myself, I've been with the company about five years now. My background is indie developer. I've been a serial entrepreneur. Started up several companies in the gaming space.
Chris Meilleur (09:46)
Hehehehe
Cory Sellar (09:47)
That
can be another episode. I'm game. I'm game. No pun intended there.
John Nguyen (10:08)
and indie at core, right? So like one of my first forays into the industry, turned a team of five modders into 40 full-time studios and then took that public and became a publisher. So, so that's pretty much what it is. My interactions with Chris and Marc started at the beginning of my career at Xsolla as RVP of Canada.
Marc Belisle (10:21)
Yeah, man.
John Nguyen (10:29)
So, you know we we had this conversation they were starting up Game Con Canada and it seemed like a fantastic idea at the time. I'm a big fan of Alberta and games myself I play for example Insurgency shout out to those guys to the New World guys I'm also a bioware fan like I have a Mass Effect sleeve. So there you go. Shout out to Edmonton
Marc Belisle (10:42)
You
Yeah
Cory Sellar (10:46)
Love it. Ayo.
Chris Meilleur (10:47)
⁓ there we go.
Ronnie Villanueva (10:50)
That's a pretty solid commitment John, had no idea it was the whole arm. What? What?
John Nguyen (10:54)
It's the whole arm.
Just to prove you, it's the whole arm, right? And seven and all. So it's the whole arm. And so, you know, when we got in touch, they were planning, honestly, something crazy, and I thought it was crazy. I thought it was crazy. I thought it was crazy. I was like, sure, like, you know. So let's...
Chris Meilleur (11:15)
John, everyone
thought we were crazy. First and foremost, you're not alone.
Marc Belisle (11:16)
Yeah, you're not alone.
John Nguyen (11:18)
I
thought you were crazy, so that's saying something. ⁓
Chris Meilleur (11:21)
I think high off your
ass is what we heard most often. not you, other people.
John Nguyen (11:25)
I did not say that, I said you were crazy. I
Cory Sellar (11:28)
No, just the general consensus.
Marc Belisle (11:28)
Yes.
John Nguyen (11:31)
thought you guys were crazy, but you know, crazy enough to actually pull it off maybe. So let's go. And the first time I visited Game Con Canada was in Calgary and I was blown away. Like I was thinking, yeah, yeah, let's see what these guys can put their money where their mouths are. And...
First year was in Calgary. We went to Calgary. I checked it out and I was like, okay, these guys are going somewheres. Skip the next year, came back into the one in Edmonton, checked it out. And it's like, okay, so this has significantly grown since last time I've been to the show. And there's always been that, you know, that B2B want, that want to have that component added to it. There was like...
some germinating embryos of that in previous editions of Game Con Canada. Overall, we still made it out really, really cool. We see some really fantastic growth like that. That dormancy is starting to wake up, right? And it's putting Alberta on the map, on the landscape, right? And my purview is national, you know, it's good to see something on the Western side of the country, not necessarily the Western side of the country.
And to see this grow out, right? Because there is that talent there. There's BioWare, there's New World, there's like BeamDog, all these other guys that have built up a game industry despite the political climate in that province. And so, you know, it's impressive to see. And so, you know, when seriously NAGIS came to us and landed on my desk, the CMO was already pointing at it. So, our CMO.
Marc Belisle (12:51)
Yes.
John Nguyen (13:03)
And we're like, okay, so let's commit, let's do it. Let's blow it out of water. You know, it's almost like a perfect storm kind of environment given from my perspective, the Canadian perspective of other shows and the participation of Canadians in international shows. So let's bring it home. Let's do something at home and see where it goes.
So I'm jazz. I'm actually jazz.
Cory Sellar (13:27)
love it.
No, I love that. I love that. I guess just from I guess it's kind of a two parter because you're bringing your personal passion physically, like literally on your skin physically, as well as from a company standpoint with Xsolla, What is it about? You know, but I would say particularly the Alberta market.
to invest in for this event, obviously other areas that, know, Xsolla has been involved with, we've seen programming with the accelerator program, with scaffold Institute, as well as obviously this being the next big thing, I would say in the Alberta market. So I guess what's why, why Alberta and why now particularly?
John Nguyen (14:10)
Why now? Well, here's... From our perspective, from our perspective, there... there... We have a philosophy of bringing opportunities to game developers. And, you know, some parts of this country have very robust infrastructure and opportunities already, and Alberta seems to be very underserved and dormant. Despite the talent that exists.
And the history that exists in Alberta. And so we are always looking for opportunities of where we can deploy resources and opportunities. And this seems like a good fit. Scaffold was a really good fit at the time. We have our own accelerator. They had their own accelerator. Seems like it was a good fit. We are very business-minded as well as a company. And so bringing knowledge of
game business to the masses and to the industry at large is entirely beneficial to all. And we know Fedor, we work with Fedor and MeetToMatch at scale and in a global sense as well. So when he was open to be a part of NAGIS to this scale.
We knew we had to be there and we knew that we can bring a lot of opportunities to Alberta but also to Western Canada in general and to Canada at large and even North America at large. So this destination that's being built up not only impacts locally and the City of Edmonton but also impacts the whole northwestern region of the continent.
Cory Sellar (15:46)
No, 100%. Well, speaking of local, Ronnie, Edmonton Screen. Thank you for waiting patiently. I know my brunch buddy, everybody. Good times, good times. I don't know how he still manages to keep answering my messages. So this is great. Thank you for being on. I know we've talked about it. We've talked about you coming on the show and super excited to have you on as well here.
Ronnie Villanueva (16:01)
You make it easy, Cory. You make it easy.
Cory Sellar (16:08)
Ronnie, so for those who don't know, obviously, Edmonton Screen supports the region's creative economy through strategic investment, programming, industry connections.
And of course, according to the newly refreshed Edmonton Screen website, locally there is about 45 active studios and 32 games currently in development with obviously plenty of studios making noise like Caldera Interactive, Basement Bunker Labs. What does this, what is having this event?
this game new game summit actually do for indie developers as well as the broader regional digital media and tech scene from your standpoint being at Edmonton Screen.
Ronnie Villanueva (16:54)
There's really two things that stand out when it comes to NAGIS and also Game Con Canada. ⁓ But with NAGIS in particular, it puts a spotlight on what's happening in the region, not just Edmonton, but Western Canada. to be frank, it makes the event accessible to more than just Western Canada. So as Marc and Chris were saying, it's a North American event. It's meant to be a North American industry event.
Cory Sellar (17:01)
first.
Ronnie Villanueva (17:21)
That spotlight that's shown on Edmonton gives studios something to look forward to. It's almost like there's now a summit that they can work towards and that allows them to come together to celebrate the industry and the work that they've done. So I think that's the first thing is just the fact that Edmonton is in discussions. There's a long history of video games and studios here.
dating back to the 90s. But when it comes to what's happening in the present day, NAGIS is one of the biggest news pieces and one of the greatest things that can happen for the local communities and the sector here. The second point would be it's simply more accessible. And this is one of the challenges for smaller indie studios is it can be expensive to travel to Germany for Gamescom. It can be expensive to travel to San Francisco for GDC.
Even traveling to other parts of Canada. So for Western Canada, I think the accessibility for the event is huge. And the fact that it's in Edmonton again makes it so much more attractive and easier to attend as a smaller indie studio is trying to put the resources together to grow. So yeah, I think that's really what it comes down to is there's now a spotlight on the Edmonton communities here.
And not just for video games. This also extends beyond video games. You mentioned Basement bunker labs. So there are more on the VR side of things. So I think the fact that it's happening here isn't just a benefit to the locals, but also to the folks in Calgary, folks in Red Deer, Lethbridge. Everyone spread throughout the province has something that they can say is now close to home.
So yeah, those are the two points that I think really, if I was in a position as an entrepreneur trying to grow my studio, it's a no-brainer to make the trip to Edmonton from Western Canada. So yeah, I think those are the two things that really stand out and how that helps the communities here.
Chris Meilleur (19:22)
Yeah, I'm going add to that, Ronnie, because one of the things, obviously, we've got a lot of objectives that we're doing with North America and Alberta and Western Canada and Canada. But there's a lot of really great things in this province. We're just going to talk about Alberta for a second. You've got Digital Alberta. You've got the Calgary Game Developer Association. You've got the Edmonton Game Camp. There's Scaffold, Calgary Economics, Edmonton Screen. And all of these guys all have guys smarter than myself and Marc.
that are in those organizations and they're all doing amazing things. But I think in Alberta, to now, everyone has been operating as these independent pockets. So for us, it's going to be, we're trying to create this vehicle where we all get to come together and work together as one voice, right? So I think if we can accomplish that this year, that'll be our, that's our goal for year one. You know, cause there's just a lot of really.
really really great talent and really smart minds existing in this province in the gaming industry. So, yeah.
Ronnie Villanueva (20:18)
Chris makes a really good point because even though we have strong communities here in Alberta, the private industry is not as large as many other regions of North America. So it's an Edmonton-based event, but it truly is going to have an impact provincially. And as things grow, it may have an impact nationally, internationally. It's really...
exciting to see what will happen over the next few years, let alone the next few months for the first event. But yeah, the impact will go far beyond Edmonton. And that's really important for the rest of our organizations, industry associations, even the post-secondary schools in Alberta. We're all going to have a new opportunity to impact one another in the interactive digital media space.
So Chris is right, it's really not just for Edmonton, but we're very fortunate that we're here for five more years.
Cory Sellar (21:17)
That's huge. Yeah.
No, 100 % and great, great points all around. I'd say one voice. I love that. And you talk about like post-secondary that's huge because obviously we we've had Mike McCready on from NAIT, who's also on the Digital Alberta board as well. He's got past experience with with the VR space and continues to dive deeper into into areas like AI and different things like that. So, yeah, definitely a lot of connection for post-secondary to really create that that pipeline.
that funnel right from from students getting into industry and seeing these opportunities whether it's showing off your game from a game jam or you're actually building a studio and being able to showcase it at an event like Game Con or NAGIS or even just local events like you know we can talk about it in a bit but I guess I'm curious like we see other events coming up that try to be an annual thing or monthly meetups and things like that you know
Marc, Chris, even you talk about these events that you put on, they're unique. They have your spin on it to make it unique so it stands out and it's impactful. When you look at the other events happening throughout the calendar year in Edmonton or in the region,
is there a sense where beyond those particular dates, is there...
more connection to be had with locally run events that maybe are struggling with funding to stay sustainable and things like that. Obviously it's kind of an early bird question before NAGIS and everything, but I am curious because obviously like any announcement, there's always a little bit of mixed reviews in terms of how it stacks up against other events. Timing wise, not quality, I want to stress that, just timing. But I am curious.
Marc Belisle (22:48)
We... Yeah?
Cory Sellar (23:10)
like is there a bit of a quick insider scoop and if there's anything to further support the local ecosystem in terms of other activations that intersect and lead into NAGIS or are a post event continuation. I know that was a loaded question so bear with me.
Chris Meilleur (23:27)
No, no, it's all good. First
and foremost, we're not about competing against any other event, right? ⁓ And the local events, like Game Con Canada for sure, and hopefully the North American Game Industry Summit will be an incubator event for other, it should create more things and more meetups and get the community more involved with each other. All of those meetups that they're doing, they have to happen. They're local, they're in everyone's backyards.
Cory Sellar (23:32)
Of course, of
Chris Meilleur (23:54)
and it keeps that communication going. We're just trying to be a vehicle to bring everybody together once a year to be together and to have like one voice. But I think what our event will do is it will actually create more of these potential events and more meetups and more side things happening. And the more that that happens, the better it is for us and the better it is for the gaming industry. And at the end of the day, regardless of what people may think that don't know about who we are and what we're doing,
We're a small company, we're not a big Goliath company, like we're not. And for us, this is about like a rising tide raises all ships sort of situation, right?
Marc Belisle (24:29)
And I mean, well Chris is saying with the...
The NAGIS angle is absolutely accurate and I can definitely speak to what we've done on the B2C side with Game Con Canada. So we work with multiple events that have gaming shows that are happening and we do promotional swaps and ticket swaps and so that's what we know this is going to happen because it's already been a proven success model for us, you know, when we're working with all these different events because we want to make sure that, you know, everyone in the community is successful so that this whole thing grows together, right? So I mean, so I know
this is going to happen with NAGIS because it's been a wonderful experience with Game Con Canada doing so.
Chris Meilleur (25:04)
Yeah, and timing. Timing, we've, nothing, the timing is because of Game Con Canada. There could have, there could have been better times to do the North American Game Industry Summit, but in order for this to work the way our partners want it to work, the way we hope it works, it's going to have to be attached to a major B2C event. And, and for us, that's, that's our event. own it and it happens to be the largest in Canada. So that's, you know, like there's a couple of things that are super close and we're like, Ooh, that sucks that they're that close, but.
Cory Sellar (25:30)
Yeah.
Chris Meilleur (25:31)
We,
But at the end of the day, um, I like when we, yeah, it's not, it's not intentional and it's not malicious. Um, but it's funny you say that because we have had people, even with Game Con Canada, we've had people reach out, uh, and we had people reach out yesterday regarding NAGIS and regarding the timing and it's, there's never a good time. And it doesn't matter what date we would have picked, somebody would have had a problem with it and it would have been too close to something. So at the end of the day, all that Marc and myself can do.
Cory Sellar (25:32)
It's not intentional. It's... Yeah.
Marc Belisle (25:49)
No.
Chris Meilleur (25:55)
and our partners, is we can put our head down, do the best job that we can, support the best way that we can, extend those olive branches, and just do the job, you know?
Cory Sellar (26:04)
Absolutely. No, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, going back to Edmonton Screen, Ronnie, like, obviously, this is this is huge for Edmonton. think this is huge within the Edmonton Screen portfolio, especially for yourself working hand in hand, obviously, with Explore Edmonton as NAGIS with Marc and Chris working with them as well.
Obviously we haven't had a chance to really dive into your journey a little bit in terms of leading up to this point and coming across this particular group that's on this episode. So for those who don't know, obviously we've talked in the past, but tell me a little bit about your journey thus far Ronnie and how you got to this particular point at Edmonton Screen and your involvement with this particular event coming up this calendar year.
Ronnie Villanueva (26:48)
So for me, it actually was a very unconventional journey, but there was a common thread around the creative economy. And I think this is a term that's not so commonly understood, but the creative economy is one of the most, it's so unique when compared to other sectors, right? It's not a traditional type of sector where we're gathering natural resources.
processing them and then generating revenue and exporting products. So the creative economy functions so differently that I just want to clarify it first. So it really just comes down to people, right? The creative economy has an impact because it's about people creating intellectual property. They're creating content, they're creating movies, they're creating video games, they're creating interactive experiences.
And this is both an economic and a cultural factor, right? There's two things at play here. So when people come together and they create great experiences, this includes the fine arts, but for our purposes, this goes all the way into the digital realm. So we start to look at film and TV as it's evolved, and that's part of the creative economy. We look at...
animation, visual effects, video games, XR, we consider that as part of the creative economy. the common thread is that it's people coming together and using their creative ideas to create a product that people then enjoy. Right. So it's very different from a natural resource angle. So my journey actually started as a creative. So I went from the fine arts, dance in particular,
into film and then from that I got into content creation and that led me into the tech side of things because I became very passionate about the tech and the tools that are used to create content. Computers and technology was merged into that very passionately as I pursued my career and it eventually led me to Edmonton Screen. So with Edmonton Screen, it all became
clear to me that my common threads in the creative economy was to empower other people. And this came down to partnerships, providing creative opportunities, connecting people and creating new opportunities that may have been missed or otherwise unknown. And that's what really made things exciting for me when I joined Edmonton Screen last year. Chris and Marc and John, John I've met more recently.
And then with Chris and Marc, I was also one of those guys a few years back that said, what is Game Con Canada? Because this looks unlike anything I've ever seen in Alberta. I just didn't know what to think at first. So anyways, that's kind of where my passion for creatives and supporting entrepreneurs came from is because I myself
Cory Sellar (29:22)
Hahaha!
Ronnie Villanueva (29:41)
I have my creative and artistic side. I've been a business owner and I've also worked previously I was with Memory Express doing business development management and I had a brief time with vrCAVE as well before joining Edmonton screen. So the perspective and the experiences that I've had, it's been really a common thread of creative economy and technology. So when I hear things like
Game Con Canada before it even happened, there's the part of me that's an immediate cheerleader. I say, yes, this is amazing. And then there's the realities that also need to be addressed of will this happen? Can this happen? How will it be executed? So, mm-hmm.
Marc Belisle (30:21)
I'm gonna tell a personal story about Ronnie. So Ronnie actually,
Cory Sellar (30:23)
Yes, please.
Marc Belisle (30:24)
Ronnie actually decided to take it amongst himself because it's like, okay, these guys are doing Game Con Canada, it's the first year. I'm gonna travel and see one of their food and beverage shows and see if these guys know what they're doing. And then when he came in after the show, he's like, yeah, okay, you guys know how to run an event. I'm like, thank you, I appreciate it.
Chris Meilleur (30:33)
Yeah.
Cory Sellar (30:38)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Ronnie Villanueva (30:38)
Yeah.
Chris Meilleur (30:41)
We appreciate it.
Cory Sellar (30:43)
You
Chris Meilleur (30:44)
We always joke around because people know the events, but they don't know our company. So everyone assumes that every project we're on is the first thing that we've done. It's like, have been doing this. I've personally been doing this for 25 years. Our company's been going for 13 years. it's one of those things where it's like, yeah, yeah, everyone knows Smirnoff, but no one knows Wirtz Beverage Company, which is the company behind it. That's very much like what our business is like. Everyone's like, Meibel who? May what?
John Nguyen (31:09)
Yeah,
you're too white-labeled. That's your problem.
Chris Meilleur (31:11)
Yeah,
100%. And I got to stop for a second. Let's rewind a little bit. So dance? What kind of dance? What are you doing?
Marc Belisle (31:20)
yeah,
Rodney's legit.
Ronnie Villanueva (31:22)
Yeah, Brett Gatsley.
Chris Meilleur (31:23)
Yeah? Crazy. We
had a killer after party this year. You're gonna have to cut a rug.
Marc Belisle (31:29)
Hahaha!
Ronnie Villanueva (31:30)
Yeah,
yeah, it was was was good. It was a great experience. So yeah, I was it was break dancing. This was 2000s. So
Chris Meilleur (31:37)
Very cool.
John Nguyen (31:39)
on stage
with your lineup there.
Chris Meilleur (31:41)
⁓ God.
Ronnie Villanueva (31:42)
Haha, yeah.
Chris Meilleur (31:43)
We got,
Marc Belisle (31:43)
And now live from the
Mega Stage, Edmonton screens very own Ronnie! ⁓
Ronnie Villanueva (31:47)
I don't really want to break any bones anymore, but you know
Chris Meilleur (31:48)
We got, we.
Ronnie Villanueva (31:52)
if the music's right
Chris Meilleur (31:52)
You might have to show off. I'm gonna
Cory Sellar (31:52)
Five minutes tops.
Chris Meilleur (31:54)
let YBD know that you do that. You're gonna have to do something like...
Cory Sellar (31:57)
Ha
John Nguyen (31:58)
Yuri has the Ronin-
Ronnie Villanueva (31:58)
Put me in a music video.
John Nguyen (31:59)
Yuri has the Ronin bun.
Marc Belisle (32:01)
Hahaha!
Chris Meilleur (32:02)
Yeah, there you go.
Cory Sellar (32:03)
He's ready. He's been ready this last year, Marc.
Chris Meilleur (32:07)
Love it. ⁓
John Nguyen (32:07)
You've been training.
Cory Sellar (32:08)
Yeah.
God, I love that. Awesome. Well, no, really excited to see Edmonton Screen's involvement, Ronnie, obviously.
Chris Meilleur (32:11)
Good stuff.
Cory Sellar (32:16)
Coming back to the event as a whole, obviously we talk about that overlap with it connecting into Game Con Canada, obviously. NAGIS runs June 18th to 19th. Game Con picks up on the 19th of June through to the 21st. And of course, with NAGIS ticket holders, if I'm not mistaken, they get full access to GCC, which is ⁓ huge. That's awesome.
Chris Meilleur (32:39)
Wide open.
Marc Belisle (32:40)
Correct.
Cory Sellar (32:41)
I'm curious now, like, because obviously you talk about kind of some business components were visible at GCC. So now we got a dedicated event. So how do we see the business side and the consumer side jiving together? You know, what are some of the mechanisms that are connecting the two?
Chris Meilleur (33:04)
I mean, I think this is something that everyone's gonna have an opinion on. For me, I know that if they're sticking around, you're gonna get to see the consumer's response to what's going on. I think that's a really important part. Anybody that's serious in their craft, an artist, a musician, a DJ, you like to see how people respond. And not only that, I think it's gonna, the North American game industry for us is gonna put some eyes on our show.
that might not have come to our show for a few more years to see what we're doing. And hopefully we impress them as much as we've impressed some of the other stakeholders that we're working with. So I mean, I think that's what people can expect. It's like to have a really great B2B event, highly curated, and at some point we should talk about some of the crazy stuff we're doing for this, because there's a lot of cool things for NAGIS that we're doing. But then to flow that over into Game Con, and we're going to leave
the MeetToMatch B2B Lounge will be open throughout all of Game Con. So that's something that we haven't really started advertising yet, but it is a part of this whole thing because Marc and myself have spent the world traveling to doing events and other people's events. And honestly, I think the best B2B business happens when you're having fun. And like, I know there's going to be other meetings that are going to happen. And it's just going to, hey, let's get to that lounge away from all these people. And it's going to turn into something. And that's what I think people can expect.
Marc Belisle (34:09)
Yep.
Cory Sellar (34:19)
John, from your perspective with Xsolla publisher point of view, investor point of view, what's the value with this particular one? It sounds like an obvious question, but what's the value of having thousands upon thousands of consumers right next door for GCC, but while you're...
while deals are going to be had at this new B2B function this June and just having Xsolla's involvement. What's the value? What are you hoping to see come the inaugural NAGIS event this year?
John Nguyen (34:53)
Well, it's like you said, it's kind of obvious, right? So at Xsolla, our clients, our partners are typically, are almost exclusively video game developers. And so what we do as a business is we facilitate that connection with their player base in terms of commerce, in terms of, you know, community management.
touch points, etc. And so what better way than to see it live on the ground, see these touch points. And not only that, I said we were a giant iceberg of a company. We also have our influencer teams, we also have an influencer platform, we have content creators, and every single touch point that a game developer might need or want.
we have some kind of finger in it and so you know at this edition because of the high level of celebrities, esports events, live stream events, etc. We are sending some of those representatives from those teams who normally don't travel. So right. Outside of TwitchCon they don't go to anything really. So they're coming to this and they're excited.
Cory Sellar (35:49)
Right. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
John Nguyen (35:58)
they're genuinely excited that they get to leave their office and get on an airplane. So they're coming to see this. Other touch points is it's a giant gathering and that's what we like, that jives with our DNA. It's a gathering point, it brings opportunity to a region that can have massive amounts of impact.
I alluded earlier to a perfect storm and the timing is good, the space is good, there's history here. It's not like, you know, middle of nowhere. It's actually, you know, there's some history and tie-ins to the industry at large that has impacted the world, like it or not. Edmonton has produced games that have impacted the world. And so bringing that nostalgia, that mystique to a place that people would...
Marc Belisle (36:43)
Yes.
John Nguyen (36:49)
people in the industry would otherwise not visit, right? It is huge. And it's the impacts of this, these meetings, these backroom talks, these, you know, a publisher talking to an indie guy and having a lineup of people waiting to play their games or their demos or whatever, right? It's firsthand experience that would facilitate or even, you know, lubricate a deal. So great stuff, right?
And it's things that you don't see. Somebody mentioned Gamescom, Germany, earlier. because of the square, which is basically the size of a city, by the way, right? Right? A lot of the business components are literally across the compound, right? It's in a different hall, like...
Chris Meilleur (37:24)
Mm-hmm.
Marc Belisle (37:25)
Yeah.
Cory Sellar (37:25)
Jesus.
A overwhelming.
John Nguyen (37:37)
It takes an hour to get from that area to the consumer side, right? Concerning the sea of people that's in between the groups. And so you don't get to see that. Here you have that proximity. And because it doves tails, like the business side kind of shuts down at one point and then doves tails into the consumer side, right? It gives that opportunity for all the business guys to hang out there. And truth be told, like all the business guys, they're not just strictly business guys. They are nerds.
Marc Belisle (38:04)
⁓
John Nguyen (38:05)
They are nerds
Cory Sellar (38:06)
Yes, yes.
Marc Belisle (38:07)
Yes
John Nguyen (38:08)
and
and you're gonna tell me that I'm gonna fly out to Edmonton for a couple meetings and fly out? Hell no. I'm going to stay here and I'm going to walk the floor. I'm going to play a magic tournament or two. I'm going I'm gonna bring my warhammer army Right? I run I run I run a Jedi school with my wife, so I'm bringing lightsabers
Marc Belisle (38:13)
You
Hahaha!
Chris Meilleur (38:19)
Mwahahahaha
Marc Belisle (38:23)
What?
Cory Sellar (38:25)
Music to somebody's heels.
Chris Meilleur (38:25)
Hey!
Marc Belisle (38:30)
What the...
Ronnie Villanueva (38:31)
You
Chris Meilleur (38:31)
We've got so many,
so many surprises for just you, John. I promise you, you're gonna get excited. there it is. There he goes. That's why we all get along so well.
Ronnie Villanueva (38:35)
You
Marc Belisle (38:35)
Yes! ⁓
John Nguyen (38:39)
Great. So I'm.
Ronnie Villanueva (38:40)
Is he really a Jedi? I
Cory Sellar (38:41)
Where's my mul light
Ronnie Villanueva (38:42)
don't
Cory Sellar (38:42)
saber?
Ronnie Villanueva (38:42)
know. I don't know.
Marc Belisle (38:43)
Hahaha!
John Nguyen (38:46)
So, you know, for sure I'm going to like stick around. And everybody I know in the industry is a giant nerd. So why wouldn't they stick around?
Marc Belisle (38:51)
Mm-hmm.
Cory Sellar (38:56)
True, true. I feel like there's some swag there, swag idea of I'm a nerd. So I'd wear that proudly.
John Nguyen (39:02)
Unless you're some kind of MBA
that's off doing golf.
Cory Sellar (39:05)
We don't talk to those guys as much. ⁓ Someone just said challenge accepted, feel. Somewhere out there.
Marc Belisle (39:07)
Ha ha!
I dare even the golfers to have a good time at our show. That's for sure.
John Nguyen (39:17)
that guys video games
Marc Belisle (39:17)
Yeah.
Chris Meilleur (39:17)
⁓ huh.
John Nguyen (39:18)
video games, celebrities like why and tabletop like why why would why would you
Chris Meilleur (39:24)
Why would you go down? Yeah, that's one of the reasons I think why everybody that we work with especially present group included why everyone gets along and works so well together because we also have a lot in common. We love the same stuff, you know what mean? And we're passionate about it. I have met very few people in the gaming industry that are like Solace corporate monsters, they love what they're doing and they love the industry they're in like there's a real passion for it. So
John Nguyen (39:49)
I don't know Chris, those guys exist.
Chris Meilleur (39:51)
I'm sure they do. I just haven't dealt with them yet. As soon as I get on a call with those guys, I'm next.
Marc Belisle (39:51)
Hahaha!
Ronnie Villanueva (39:53)
Thanks
Cory Sellar (39:57)
Good times, good times. Well, you guys talk about passion, you talk about some crazy stuff happening. So obviously, you know, NAGIS is not just produced by you guys, obviously, there's also MeetToMatch. But before we dive into that, just to kind of get a broader scope of
Marc Belisle (39:56)
Yeah.
Cory Sellar (40:14)
what to expect going into this and kind of feeding into GCC. Chris, Marc, tell us a little bit about what are some of the big things that folks can expect that you're really shaking things up for this year, especially with the inaugural NAGIS event. Definitely want to hear some of that crazy stuff. So lay it on us. What's happening?
Chris Meilleur (40:33)
Well, we'll split this down the middle, Marc. So I'll talk about a couple
things. So our first speaker, we were obviously really excited. We have this powerhouse team that helped us put together this show from the back end, our advisory panel, which anyone can go on our site and check them out. They're all huge in the industry. But we got a connection with Brent Bushnell and the son of Nolan Bushnell, who is the inventor of Atari.
We were fortunate enough to be able to reach out and bring him in to come and talk about the future of gaming, his journey. And for people that don't know him, he's still quite involved in the gaming and with his son and their family. They're still very heavily like, Brent, you know, he owns a whole bunch of stuff up in California. And yeah, so we were really excited to have like somebody like that to come for year one to speak. And there are so many.
great people to talk about. I'm gonna just do this one. I'm kind of jumping ahead a little bit because this one's for John. This one is for you, buddy. ⁓ We have the BioWare reunion happening with the original founders. That's happening for North American Game Industry Summit. So we're very, very excited about that. We think that's gonna be an amazing topic. They're gonna be talking about their secret sauce, what they would do differently today. It's gonna be a fascinating.
Marc Belisle (41:29)
Yep.
Yeah.
Chris Meilleur (41:47)
panel and I'll let you handle the rest mark. Those are only two I wanted.
Cory Sellar (41:51)
Where do you go from there?
Marc Belisle (41:53)
Well, mean the funny thing is because you know Chris usually talks about this segment here, but it's something that's gonna be really cool too. So we have a amazing Hollywood agent. name is Toni Dominich and she represents
John Nguyen (41:54)
Where do you go from there?
Marc Belisle (42:08)
like 90 % of the Marvel cast, right? Like you're talking Harrison Ford, Chris Pratt, Tom like it just everyone, right? When we got our client list, it was like, okay, you work with everyone. That's awesome. So what she's doing is she's doing a dedicated panel and working with YDB, right? From the Wu-Tang Clan, because he just finished doing voice acting for SEGA's Shinobi, right? So they're going to be talking about the intersection between movies and video games. Actually, I
believe Luke Azevedo, who is the CEO of Edmonton Screen, be joining that. There'll be some folks from Xsolla on that one as well. But that will be a really interesting topic to behold because as we, recently, right, with Alberta's film industry was getting, you know, these video game movies being shot in our province, right? I think that is going to be a wonderful topic. And the tips and tricks that Toni's going to be bringing up is that like, hey, you don't have to break the bank to work with a Hollywood celebrity.
There are actors that she works with that are willing to do voice acting or character narrative or whatever it is for point-based strategies. Instead of just getting steamrolled by, you can meet your first third-party agent and it's like, it's going to be $150,000. And that goes to the agent that's closer. And they own their percentage and their percentage. And before you know it, you've just completely priced yourself out of any chance of getting this kind of talent. And she's quite literally providing a handbook
to do these kind of things, right? So it's gonna be cool.
Chris Meilleur (43:33)
Yeah, she's she's everyone will be
able to leave scanning a digital handbook on how to not get steamrolled by agents and how to properly approach them, which is going to be huge from a marketing standpoint because how many indie devs, you know, the marketing part is usually the tougher part for them. So to bypass just the initial marketing and go straight to how do I work with Hollywood talent? It's it's not generally something that they're familiar with. So, yeah, it'd be very, very interesting. Any any.
and indie devs are listening to this, you're to want to be there for that one and you're going to want to get this handbook.
John Nguyen (44:05)
Take notes, guys.
Marc Belisle (44:05)
Whoa.
And I mean,
we've got two presenters coming from China, right? That are going to be talking about how to get your game discovered in a massive, massive market, right? So I mean, there's this, have marketing agencies are going to be talking how to take your mid-level studio and the tips and tricks that they've learned over their massive career on how to engage and keep your community, right? Like there are every single thing that has happened. We have legal representation. We have
You know, if you need anything for law, we have accountants showing up. it's essentially we're trying to curate the kind of topics that
our advisory panel, right? Like that's just, said it before, we are in this particular industry, like we're great at running events. We know what we're doing there, right? But in certain things, we have to rely on the experts that are guiding us and essentially counseling us on what we need to see. And this is why the speakers that have been chosen are directly impacting and advising on the stuff that we believe these developers need to know in order to be as successful as possible. I mean, we even have a crowdfunding expert coming, like if you're going that route, right?
So I mean, it's yeah, it's gonna be a fantastic entire day. Like that's all of Thursday is curated speaker sessions like we've obviously Mentioned the big ones the big three that be on the mega stage but throughout that entire day is going to be an entire You know, it's gonna be an entire day of stuff that we believe these independent developers are gonna want to learn
Cory Sellar (45:27)
Love that. that's a chills. Chills. ⁓ Food. Yeah.
Chris Meilleur (45:30)
Food, food, we gotta talk about food you guys. We started
Marc Belisle (45:32)
And the food.
Chris Meilleur (45:33)
talking about food, let's continue talking about food.
Marc Belisle (45:35)
We got corn dogs. mini donuts.
We got, no, I'm just, it's way cooler than that actually. I'll let Chris, foodie, so. Yes, well. ⁓
Cory Sellar (45:40)
We brunch. No, I'm kidding.
Chris Meilleur (45:42)
Well, yes, we do. well, that's
John Nguyen (45:42)
Michelin
Chris Meilleur (45:45)
just it, right? Like, so part of what these events, everything we do from the production to the F &B, everything has to be at a level that we feel this industry is, you know, deserving of from the low level guys that are just getting started or all up to the larger companies working with the bigger stakeholders. And we have celebrity chef Shane Chartrand from Top Chef Canada.
will be there and he'll be doing the grab and go breakfast, the grab and go lunch and for any VIP ticket holders, there'll be a three course meal that he'll be hosting. It is like everybody gets to have his food and it's going to be, he's an Indigenous chef, which is really awesome. And the whole menu is going to be an Indigenous themed. So it'll also be an experience that a lot of people haven't had before at a level people haven't experienced. we're really, really excited about, you know,
Marc Belisle (46:22)
Yeah.
Chris Meilleur (46:31)
the speakers, the sponsors, the food, it's just everything is going to be elevated.
Marc Belisle (46:36)
I guess one thing we haven't talked about.
John Nguyen (46:36)
Cory is already salivating.
Cory Sellar (46:39)
I'm
so hungry now.
Ronnie Villanueva (46:41)
you
Marc Belisle (46:43)
I guess one thing we should talk about too, which will be a really wonderful spectacle is that in the Mega Stage Hall, right, which is where a lot of these C-suite presentations are be happening. And it looks like there's gonna be even more, but currently, like, and these are just the developers that we've been able to provide a booth for. There will be developers that won't be showcasing on the showroom floor. They're just attending, right, because this is obviously a B2B event. But right now on the showroom floor, we have 55 video game studios and turnkey booth spaces.
Ready to Rock that are sponsored from Edmonton Screen, that is sponsored from the Alberta Ministry of Technology and Innovation, sponsored by Saskatchewan Interactive, sponsored by ASUS ROG. Like these are really big power plays. And the thing is, we've done these kinds of programs in the past for B2C and it's been wonderful, right? Because they get their games in front of our audience, to which we are Canada's largest gaming convention. But now with the introduction of NAGIS, now we're providing a vehicle for these guys to get their games in front of
VCs
and publishers to which has not happened before. And like I said, that's just what we have currently. We know there's going to be more before the launch date, especially with the turnkeys, right? We know there's going to be obviously more than 55 developers, way more. But as far as like boots on the ground, like turnkey boot space is ready, it's going to be an entire hall full of games to play, which is going to be really, really awesome.
Ronnie Villanueva (48:04)
saying is exactly what I was referring to earlier about accessibility. Like all of these indie studios in the region have access to sponsored spaces and we're just not seeing that at a lot of other events that are happening. So there's so much more accessibility and opportunities for these studios to get involved. it's like, if I was an indie studio, it now becomes a date on my calendar to work towards.
There's milestones that you can work backwards on and say, okay, we need to get our studio together. We need to get everything working in line with these milestones so that we can present at NAGIS now and Game Con Canada. But NAGIS in particular is exciting because it brings the industry together and not just the consumers. So now you're getting both. You're getting that, you can get player feedback. You can get some user testing going.
And maybe even a publisher will walk by your booth and say, hey, this is something we want to look into a bit more. So yeah.
Marc Belisle (49:04)
Absolutely.
Cory Sellar (49:05)
There we go.
John Nguyen (49:05)
Publisher Press.
Marc Belisle (49:07)
Yep,
absolutely.
Chris Meilleur (49:08)
Well,
and everyone's going to get to communicate and talk. The meetings and the conversations that are going to happen and the advice people are going to get, both of these guys on the call, Ronnie and John, their things probably going get filled up right away. And it should, because the developers and the people that are coming, they need to hear from these types of people that can give them advice, steer them in the right direction, give them unbiased advice on how to move forward.
And that's gonna be a big part of what this is, right? It's getting down there. Don't be afraid. Get in there, ask the questions. Book a meeting.
John Nguyen (49:39)
I don't Much.
Marc Belisle (49:42)
Ha ha ha
Chris Meilleur (49:42)
heart.
Ronnie Villanueva (49:42)
He just
Cory Sellar (49:43)
Yeah,
Ronnie Villanueva (49:43)
swings you with the lightsaber. That's all.
Marc Belisle (49:43)
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Chris Meilleur (49:43)
yeah, it's the light. It's the lightsaber.
Cory Sellar (49:48)
might be convinced to duel him in a lightsaber battle, but otherwise, you're good.
Chris Meilleur (49:52)
There you go. Now I'm good.
Ronnie Villanueva (49:55)
You
Cory Sellar (49:56)
I don't have one so I can't fight, but I'll try to use the force, it's never worked, but...
Marc Belisle (50:02)
Well, our two options on the call is either fight John with a lightsaber battle or have a dance off with Ronnie, both of which I'm prepared to try. So I'm ready to go.
Cory Sellar (50:09)
I am not.
Chris Meilleur (50:09)
Yeah.
John Nguyen (50:10)
do a
dance off with lightsabers? Ooh.
Ronnie Villanueva (50:12)
with the lightsaber,
yeah, that's on the mega stage. yeah.
Cory Sellar (50:14)
Oh, ta-da! Okay. Feels like the scene from Phantom Menace now. Epic music. We need epic music. Okay.
John Nguyen (50:16)
On to Mega
Stage.
Marc Belisle (50:21)
Yeah
HAHAHAHA!
Cory Sellar (50:25)
Am I going to get dinged for copyright? No. Well, speaking of setting meetings, matchmaking, that kind of thing, MeetToMatch is a co-producer of NAGIS. Also, if I'm not mistaken, the world's leading B2B matchmaking platform for the games industry. They help facilitate structured one-to-one meetings between developers, publishers, and investors at events world
Marc Belisle (50:26)
scene.
Chris Meilleur (50:28)
Crap.
Cory Sellar (50:52)
wide. Chris, Marc, start with you. Obviously walk me through what is what's the MeetToMatch lounge looking like in practice and sort of how they came to be at the table for this new B2B event that you're putting on here in Alberta's capital. No, no.
Chris Meilleur (51:10)
⁓ Well,
hey, someone else is in the call. It's, like I said, it started when we first launched Game Con Canada. So like it's any big event that we've ever been to, that we've ever been a part of, business happens organically, whether you have a B2B event or not. So that's what got that conversation started was with, to have something so that there could be something to kind of foster that a little bit.
Marc Belisle (51:13)
Hahaha!
Cory Sellar (51:13)
What?
Chris Meilleur (51:35)
And the relationship has just been there ever since and we're always talking and bouncing ideas and MeetToMatch. I mean, they work with all the gaming companies. They're in it for everyone's success. They're working their butts off to make sure that everyone's successful. I mean, our mission is essentially their mission, right? And I think that was one of the things is that we're, know, Marc and myself have proven to be putting on shows where we are trying to provide free booths for the Indies and we're trying to care about the right things.
but also bring in the anchors that draw in the crowds. And I think, I'm obviously speaking for MeetToMatch and Fedor, but I think that that was kind of the connection there. And we get really excited about what we do. Sometimes it can be contagious. And like I said, the people that are on this call and the most people we work with, they're fans, right? So all of a sudden the ideas start flowing and what's possible. And that's really how MeetToMatch came about, being a part of this.
And then of course, selfishly for Marc and myself, mean, everyone on this call has more contacts in this industry than we do. We're getting there, but Fedor is just connected globally at a different level because he does all the events. And he's heard about some of the things that we're trying to do. And he's like, I know the right people we need to talk to you to make those things happen. That will be good for this industry. So, yeah.
Marc Belisle (52:35)
Yeah.
John Nguyen (52:46)
From my perspective, MeetToMatch is the standard. It's not just leading, it's the standard. It's the standard for anything business conference in the games industry has quickly become that way. And they have built a very long standing relationship with Xsolla At GDC, they were basically sharing the same kind of clubhouse space that we were.
Chris Meilleur (52:50)
Yeah.
John Nguyen (53:09)
we were hosting at GDC. The MeetToMatch at lounge was literally the building next door. So, you know, we have this relationship over time and drawing a platform that has quickly become the standard of meeting people to a show like NAGIS brings an incredible amount of credibility in the games industry.
And so, you know, people people perk up their ears when they're saying, look the b2b meetings are being supported by MeetToMatch at NAGIS I was like, okay. Right? It actually changes the tune quite a bit. The other piece of this is for developers who are there and who have maybe have not traveled as much as some of the the executives of the the games industry.
Being on MeetToMatch and taking the time to create your profile MeetToMatch pays dividends because that's how people meet you, that's how people get to know you, and that's how you set up your calendar to maximize your time while you're on the show floor and that you're not just talking to Joe Public, although that's important, but you know you're not wasting your time just meeting randos with no clear plan forward.
In order to maximize your time, need to have a properly done up portfolio. And I will tell you from experience that there are scouts who are actively looking at the featured games. So, people who can't land a meeting with a publisher, maybe you should set up your meet and match before the meetings. And you should probably check it periodically to get meetings and also request meetings. Because people who are on that platform are there to meet people.
Chris Meilleur (54:49)
That's right.
John Nguyen (54:49)
They're
there to meet people. So, like, you miss 100 % of the shots you don't take. So, definitely take your shots. And do it early. Do it at least two, three weeks before the show opens. Right? And make sure to fill that calendar up before you show up.
Chris Meilleur (55:03)
Yeah, fill that calendar up.
John Nguyen (55:08)
Okay.
Ronnie Villanueva (55:08)
Yeah.
Yeah. I can't agree more on like the whole networking opportunities through MeetToMatch. If you're using it two to three weeks in advance, that's kind of the standard. there's, without MeetToMatch, it's hard to meet the right people. It's hard to connect with the right people. And when an event of this scale doesn't have MeetToMatch, for me personally, it's...
I feel a little sad. It just doesn't feel right.
John Nguyen (55:33)
It
Cory Sellar (55:34)
Yeah.
John Nguyen (55:36)
doesn't work, right? And Ronnie, know,
Ronnie Villanueva (55:37)
Mm-hmm.
John Nguyen (55:38)
Lowkey, we've met each other at different conferences and different shows, Lowkey showed you my calendar off my phone, and you pretty much have an aneurysm.
Ronnie Villanueva (55:46)
Yeah, yeah, it's effectively a month's worth of work compressed into two days. That calendar is, yeah.
Cory Sellar (55:47)
Ha ha ha.
John Nguyen (55:52)
Yep. Yep.
Cory Sellar (55:53)
Wow.
John Nguyen (55:54)
It's actually my quarter's worth.
Ronnie Villanueva (55:56)
There you go. There you go. Yeah
Marc Belisle (55:57)
Yeah.
John Nguyen (55:59)
If you count
the preparation, the meetings itself, and then the follow-ups, it's basically compressing a quarter's worth of work.
Ronnie Villanueva (56:08)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So that's like the, I share the same opinion as John, MeetToMatch brings a level of credibility to NAGIS and to events in general that if they weren't part of the event, I have less of an incentive to attempt. Like it's that impactful.
John Nguyen (56:29)
It's become that. It's literally become that. And actually, you know, that's one of the pivotal things that got us to sponsor NAGIS. It was like, Meet 2 Match involved. Okay.
Marc Belisle (56:41)
We should also say this too, no matter what level of ticket, whether you're student, industry, VIP, everyone gets access to MeetToMatch at NAGIS Yeah, it's just included. You got it.
Chris Meilleur (56:49)
Yeah, there's no additional cost. You get the full meal deal with that. It's important.
it's speaking to exactly what John and Ronnie are saying. That's why we did that. It's important that you have full access to it so that you utilize all the features and get those things happening. We're going to be doing things to help push those, you know, we've got like a, I don't know if you call it speed dating, but we've got some fun little side activations to get people talking and connecting. But yeah, MeetToMatch is where it's at.
Cory Sellar (56:55)
Yeah.
Now, for those that are maybe not necessarily developers or part of studios that are going to NAGIS is that this is still applicable to them, whether they're, you if they're not related to a studio or building a game or an investor, but they're still showing up, MeetToMatch can still serve a purpose for them, yes? Or is it more so catered to obviously those primary...
John Nguyen (57:39)
Are
you there for business?
Marc Belisle (57:41)
Yeah, that's, Well said.
Chris Meilleur (57:41)
Yeah, yeah, like if, yeah, I was gonna
Cory Sellar (57:42)
That's fair. That's fair.
Chris Meilleur (57:44)
say, because we got tech partners that are coming, right? But it's definitely not gonna be for, you your hardcore gamer that was like, just really dying to talk to a developer that they've been following. It's not so much for that. That's Game Con Canada. That's where they can run into them on the floor and then bullshit there. But yeah, it's primarily meant for the people that are there. And if you're doing business, like John said, it's for business.
Cory Sellar (57:46)
Right. No, yeah. Yeah.
No, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Marc Belisle (57:59)
Yeah.
Cory Sellar (58:06)
For sure. Right. Yeah.
John Nguyen (58:07)
Yeah,
if you're there to build strategic relationships, if you're there to sell something, if you're there to get a gig or get contracts or whatever, if you're there to do business, period, any kind of business, right? You don't have to be a giant corporation. don't have to be an MPO. Like you can be an MPO, you can be a government agency. You can be
Whoever, right? As long as you want to meet people for a business purpose, you should be on MeetToMatch, full stop.
Chris Meilleur (58:40)
Case in point, Marc and myself, GDC five years ago on the MeetToMatch platform, event promoters. There to talk about an event that we wanted to put on in Canada that involved all those people.
Marc Belisle (58:40)
Yep.
John Nguyen (58:50)
Yeah, full stop. And then you take a meeting, you put right in your little pitch. like, hey, I'd like to meet you because I want to talk to you about X, Y, Z, send them your requests and they can say yes or no.
Cory Sellar (58:51)
Love it. Yeah.
Chris Meilleur (58:52)
You know, yep.
Marc Belisle (59:05)
Yeah.
Cory Sellar (59:06)
100 % awesome. Okay. Well, no, no, that I love that. Thank you for, for, that context. That's, that's helpful. I was going to ask one question, but I'm not, I'm not, I'm going to avoid it. ⁓ but I, I'm curious. When you look at post event, NAGIS to kind of see the,
reaction and the takeaways and basically just how everyone thought about it and just the stakeholders involved. Ronnie, I'm looking at you for this, kind of zooming out and looking at this from an industry standpoint, from a community standpoint in Edmonton. Hopefully, NAGIS and the players that be can maybe continue to perhaps fuel that
extra proof point towards back to policy conversations, I think, to help the industry. we see this? And Chris, Marc, feel free if you want to jump in as well. know, Ronnie, from your standpoint with Edmonton Screen, do we see this being a very pivotal moment in Edmonton's community when it comes to game development to make the case that, you know,
policy conversations can continue to be had with say the province to continue to support the industry as a whole so that these types of events are just complementing the overall thriving industry here.
Chris Meilleur (1:00:22)
Are you hinting at the tax credit?
Marc Belisle (1:00:24)
Yeah, just say it, bro.
Chris Meilleur (1:00:28)
Yeah.
Cory Sellar (1:00:28)
I feel like I could
be a politician, because I feel...
Marc Belisle (1:00:31)
I mean, it rhymes with Max Debit and I'm just gonna leave it there and then your opinion's on it.
Chris Meilleur (1:00:34)
haha
Ronnie Villanueva (1:00:36)
It's a brilliant question, Cory. And I think
Cory Sellar (1:00:36)
Yes.
I phrased it well. Did I?
Ronnie Villanueva (1:00:40)
we touched on this in the idea of there's a perfect storm opportunity here with NAGIS. And from, say, an advocacy perspective, yes, NAGIS does have a huge impact for our communities, for our sector, for the private sector as well. So after an event like NAGIS happens, of course, there's going to be excitement and more
interest in what will happen next, what will happen afterwards. For this perfect storm, it's just another element to add to that storm, right? So when it comes to advocacy efforts, this puts our communities in a position where we get to come together again, and we get to talk about what are we all doing and what can we do together to put more attention on what's happening in Alberta.
Because yes, in other provinces, there's incentives in place that have been around for decades. And it's had a huge positive outcome for the industry. And Elfin in the room, we haven't seen it in Alberta. We haven't seen a provincial incentive in Alberta for quite some time now. It's been about six years, almost exactly now. So yes, what this allows us to do is it gets the conversations ignited again.
During a period where there hasn't been much activity, not from an industry perspective, but from an advocacy perspective, we want to be able to get, get together and bring a united voice back to the table. And I think with an event like NAGIS it's, it's already been an impetus. It's already catalyzed these conversations to figure out what can we do to, support the greater industry here. So, yes, to, to be very direct.
NAGIS has allowed us to re-examine what we're doing from an advocacy standpoint and what should we be doing next. ⁓ There will be news about that in the future. There's always chats going on with who's doing what and where can we shine the spotlight next. To be honest, NAGIS helped put the spotlight back on Alberta. So the fact that MeetToMatch and Xsolla
Cory Sellar (1:02:25)
Mm-hmm.
Ronnie Villanueva (1:02:45)
and other associations are coming together to support it. It's a starting point.
Cory Sellar (1:02:49)
No.
Love it. Thank you. Thanks for indulging me. I really appreciate that. As we I want to switch gears for a sec to sort of the other component of this show. And I think what has been purely visible at Game Con Canada for the last few years and really excited to see with the extension esports has always had a presence, I would say, at Game Con. It's you know, it's baked into the programming. You see competitive play.
happening you also have casual play of setups that people can just sort of play some friendly friendly competition there's been other you know I think booth setups for things like Red Bull if I'm not mistaken or maybe I'm thinking of a different event but nevertheless a lot of different stakeholders and and players to be had but not to mention esports programs and groups as exhibitors as well and the obvious one being this show exists
Like I said at the intersection of esports and game development along with other sectors. So with this new business level summit, I'm curious, is there a lane for esports for say, you know, organizations, competitive teams, programs, entrepreneurial endeavors to build companies in the space or is that more so reserved for the for the game con side? I'm curious about that.
Chris Meilleur (1:04:07)
I think the answer is yes to all of that, for sure. The focus isn't directly on esports from the NAGIS side at the moment. esports is obviously, it's a tough conversation, not just here in Alberta, but in Canada. It's doing well in Asia, it does not quite as good in the United States. Then in Canada, seem like it just, I think it has a lot to do with population base, but...
It's part of the gaming industry. When you see people, some of the coolest moments that have happened at Game Con Canada have been watching people watch the esports tournaments off the mega stage and some of the things that have happened. And seeing people who don't watch esports get sucked in and all of a sudden they're sitting there watching and enjoying it. It's cool to watch that, right? So, yeah, don't know, Marc. I don't know, what's your standpoint?
Cory Sellar (1:04:55)
Yeah.
Marc Belisle (1:05:01)
Well, mean for I think every any category especially if it's something that is wanted and something that needs to grow We'll treat it At NAGIS like we do at Game Con Canada, right? So if you have people and that are into esport business organizations that want to find partners to grow that particular field then we have no problems going out and seeking those types of
know, business folks to make sure that happens. You know, it's no different than when we started in Game Con Canada and the first year John was there, right? And everyone was like, where's all your tabletop role playing games? We need more tabletop role, like that was like on our website for like a month. We're like, holy cow. And then fast forward to today, we have a 3000 square foot TTRPG castle we're building and we have Jenny D showing up and we have Deborah and Wool doing games. And it's just like, so we treat that like anything else. So if there's an esport want and desire to add additional
programming and for us to focus on getting the appropriate people in the building, then we'll do so.
Chris Meilleur (1:06:00)
Yeah, and there's games being created that are being designed for esports, specifically for competitive play, right?
Cory Sellar (1:06:04)
Right. Yeah.
Marc Belisle (1:06:04)
Absolutely.
John Nguyen (1:06:06)
I have a personal story about that. So my studio, when I started out in the games industry, was building a mech game. And this mech game was esports oriented, very focused into this sub lore of the Heavy Gear franchise about mech dueling. So, right? It was literally designed for that. It was designed to have
Marc Belisle (1:06:27)
Nice.
Chris Meilleur (1:06:28)
So
cool.
John Nguyen (1:06:33)
like the crowds going crazy in the stands, customizations, you were able to build stables with your team and compete in ladders, et cetera. It was designed around esports. The whole thing was designed around esports. And it kind of helped at the time that people were dumping, like Bay Street was dumping a ton of money
esports.
seeing the successes in Asia. And so you see the rise of like all these esports companies, that were building ecosystems around games. Fast forward to today, it remains relevant and it remains a way for game developers to get their games in front of a wider, larger audience, especially if their games are designed to be played with multiple people with a competitive edge.
And so not just streaming casually, but like competitively games that are designed in that manner have an esport angle to their go-to-market strategy. so having this integrated at Game Con Canada brings that opportunity to the developers that are working on those such titles.
Chris Meilleur (1:07:43)
I want to have another conversation with you off camera about that because I had no idea John and that's really cool because I'm like that's what really got me into gaming was the battle mech side of things and like a movie way I don't know if this had any influence on you like it did for me but do you remember Robojocks? Yes Robojocks man that's what you made me think of when you were saying that and I was like man ⁓ man that like my dream is to be able to buy some crazy pod that looks like a cockpit it arrives at my house
John Nguyen (1:07:58)
Robojocks? Robojocks?
Marc Belisle (1:07:59)
Boom!
John Nguyen (1:08:03)
Right, like Robojocks?
Chris Meilleur (1:08:11)
and I can build my robot and fight people all over the world and in an arena and battle and compete. That's just like my dream right
Cory Sellar (1:08:17)
I do want to mention one thing on the esports front before I forget about
As far as local esports is concerned, obviously up until last week, we had the Norquest Esports program, I would say arguably as a true pillar of esports in Edmonton for the last few years, I would say. Sadly, the college announced it'll be shutting down the program. And of course, that also included a couple of personnel departures as well.
Personally, just on a personal note, will say this feels like a real setback for the community.
real setback, honestly, I'm trying really hard not to swear. But I'm curious though, because Marc, Chris kind of alluded to like, if there if there's a need people to reach out and drum up the excitement to be like, hey, we need this we need something. In terms of local esports, and I'd love to get your thoughts, Ronnie, because obviously kind of being boots on the ground as well, from Edmonton Screen's perspective,
Does this change kind of the local angle for esports being present at something like Game Con or you know eventually in some shape or molded form at NAGIS as you continue to really be that that epic center of of games and to bring all walks of life to from both locally and you know I'd say from an international scale
Yeah.
Chris Meilleur (1:09:37)
Game, I'll talk about Game Con. So from Game Con Canada side, it's not going to affect anything. It obviously sucks and it is a big hit. I think it affects Edmonton like throughout the year versus just at our event. ⁓ We have a lot of esports happening at our event. We're still pushing it hard. We're still working with other Alberta institutions on the esports side of things. It was just more of a personal shot for us because some of those personnel changes you're talking about and like NorQuest College was amazing to work with.
Cory Sellar (1:09:40)
for sure.
Marc Belisle (1:09:44)
Yeah.
Cory Sellar (1:09:50)
Right.
Chris Meilleur (1:10:06)
you know, Carlo, Jackie.
Marc Belisle (1:10:06)
And year one,
2023, like they came down to Calgary the first time before we were even proven, right? So yeah, so it was definitely personal.
Cory Sellar (1:10:12)
wow, okay.
Chris Meilleur (1:10:14)
Yeah, like so, yeah,
they're a big part of what's happening. I think that we are going to see a lot more small little things open up in town because there's a lot of esports people there that need a place to go and to do this kind of thing. So I think that we might see stuff like that just kind of organically pop up, but it doesn't stop us from pushing any harder with the esports and making sure that our doors are open to esports and for those players.
the communities to have an event that they see as a quality event to come and play and be seen at. We're always going to be that. So that's just at least from the Game Con campus side of things anyways.
Ronnie Villanueva (1:10:49)
Yeah, think it's obviously it's sad news. I was heavily involved with NorQuest Esports before it was branded as NorQuest Esports. So this would have been even in the COVID era. So this predates Edmonton Screen's involvement in supporting Esports. But what was built there effectively turned into a community hub and allowed their venue and their space to be used by different organizations.
So in addition to that, we've lost the academic esports efforts that were being grown out of NorQuest Esports. What this does though for the rest of the community and for the industry is everyone is talking about it because it's so current, right? It just happened a few days ago. So everyone's reorganizing and trying to figure out what can they do next. So fortunately we have
We have companies like Overklocked Gaming and they've been a staple in the Edmonton region for years now. So there is a lot of support that's being built around the esports space with communities like the EFGC Edmonton fighting game community and their plans are moving and shifting around. So we'll still see these communities. We just have to figure out what's next, right? Like, what are we going to do about this?
Cory Sellar (1:12:04)
Yeah. Yeah.
Ronnie Villanueva (1:12:04)
And this happens, right?
There's always cycles, things, there's an ebb and flow to things. And right now the current esports landscape is heavy on the academic esports rather than on the larger esports industry, the global esports industry. And I think that was the place where NorQuest fit very well, is supporting the transition or the growth where academic esports becomes a starting point, which then allows people and
players to decide is the esports competitive scene and professional scene, is that the path that they want to go down? So personally, it makes me sad because I'm an ex-competitive Street Fighter player and I've seen that whole journey as a player who's a complete noob and taking it all the way to the pro level. this is the sort of thing that's a setback, but...
there's resilience and a desire, I think, for these communities to continue. So it's a matter of how do we do it sustainably, though. That's absolutely right. So it is sad to hear that NorQuest Esports is no longer active. I completely understand what needed to happen there. So for the communities, it's just a matter of figuring out what can we do next.
Cory Sellar (1:13:02)
sustainability.
Ronnie Villanueva (1:13:22)
We take the changes as they come and we work together to figure out what's next. I know Game Con Canada has been a big supporter of esports in the past with multiple tournaments happening, small all the way up to large scale events. So it's just a matter of everyone getting together and figuring out how to navigate these changes.
Cory Sellar (1:13:44)
100%.
Chris Meilleur (1:13:44)
Yeah, I can tell
you that we've had a lot of people reach out to us because we actually have the ASUS ROG finals happening at Game Con this year on the Sunday. They've actually taken over our mega stage for the entire day for a really massive tournament that hasn't happened since pre-COVID. It's going to be huge. Probably one of the bigger ones has happened in Alberta. because this is a lot of people from those have already reached out to be like, we still want to be there. We still want to help. We still want to get involved. We still want to help make sure that this thing happens and properly. So.
Marc Belisle (1:13:55)
Mm.
Cory Sellar (1:14:10)
Yeah.
Chris Meilleur (1:14:11)
You know, I think esports continues is just what Ronnie said. It's just what's next. It's going to happen. Something's going to happen. And where's it going to go?
Cory Sellar (1:14:15)
Yeah, for sure.
Awesome. Okay, well, yeah, as we wrap things up, I do want to go around the the virtual table as it were. I know we kind of alluded to a few few things early on at the start near the start of the show. But just to kind of
re-emphasize everything in terms of year one for NAGIS. What does success look like for each of you and your respected
companies that you're representing and also just personal note too. Like, you know, this is this is new. We like new things. ⁓ shiny. No, but you know, getting getting to something new and exciting for the community and some big names coming out to Edmonton for this,
numbers aside but obviously numbers are important for reporting purposes but nevertheless what are you wanting people to walk away saying about it what do want regardless of where they're from whether it's here Alberta Canada elsewhere yeah let's kick it off i'm gonna start with Ronnie on this one
Ronnie Villanueva (1:15:22)
I think the important thing is just to get involved. Communities, these kind of opportunities don't show up often. So things like NAGIS, the fact that Game Con chose Edmonton over Calgary is kind of a big deal. It is a privilege to have these opportunities. So I think for communities, whether you're an indie studio, a double-A studio, if you're into esports,
Cory Sellar (1:15:35)
Thank you.
Ronnie Villanueva (1:15:50)
It is clearly something unique and the least that we can do is to take advantage of the opportunities. that's how you choose to do it up to you. just, highly encourage people to take a look at what's happening at NAGIS and if it fits what you're trying to accomplish, get involved in some way, even if it's simply attending. Game Con Canada, it's really about the consumers and the celebration of games.
whether like it's quite literally every form of game, not just video games. So I think these are rare opportunities that just don't happen often. And you'd think they'd be in another larger city, but that's really the thing that I want to emphasize the most is get involved in the way that make the most sense for you, whether it's for your company or for you just personally. Cause that's enough of a show of support.
And it helps grow everyone. It's that rising tides concept lifts all boats. So get involved and really explore what's possible and have fun. Like the reality is I've popped off in tournaments. I've entered at Game Con and I've lost and won. And it's just, it's a fun time, right? There's business and pleasure that happens. And I hope that continues regardless of what is your reason for attending.
Cory Sellar (1:16:47)
Mm.
Ronnie Villanueva (1:17:09)
So if you're in the region, awesome. And if you're not, you should check it out and enjoy the business and the pleasure because there's quite a bit of overlap when it comes to these creative economies, the video game industry in particular. So yeah, get involved.
John Nguyen (1:17:10)
I-I-I-
I wonder what
you look like when you crash out.
Marc Belisle (1:17:30)
Hahaha
Cory Sellar (1:17:31)
Ha ha!
Ronnie Villanueva (1:17:32)
Let's just say a few controllers have been destroyed.
Cory Sellar (1:17:35)
no, sounds like me.
Chris Meilleur (1:17:36)
Hehehe.
Cory Sellar (1:17:38)
Chris.
Chris Meilleur (1:17:38)
man, well Ronnie said a lot of it. For us, I think it's going to be our partners, right? Having, you know, like John has been amazing, Ronnie's been amazing. We have so many good partners in this trying to help us be successful. It's going to be making sure that we do something that's at the caliber that we've promised because we've got this vehicle there, the engine that's helping to drive it. And we just want to make sure that we're doing something that's impactful.
right, making sure that we're bringing the right resources, making the right decisions, taking ego out of the equation and doing something that really means something to the people that are there and the partners are working with. For us, think for me anyways, personally, that's that'll be year one success is that everybody walks away going, you know, we're building something, it's being built, right? I mean, year one, that's all you can hope for. You know, it's year two and three that really things start to shape. So
For me, that's what it is.
John Nguyen (1:18:27)
Well, you know what? I've been following these two guys, and Chris, for a while now, and I see that they deliver, they build things, and so, you know, this year we're gonna roll dice and we'll see what happens. For us, success is going to be our industry partners, many of whom we've invited, many of whom we told them that this is going to be a thing, this is gonna be awesome, with the trust that it's actually going to be.
What it looks like for us, look, it's a new show that's being born in North America. Again, my purview is national, right? With a touch of regional. So if we can put Edmonton and Alberta on the map as a destination in the global circuit of conferences, and that this is going to be worth people's time.
an effort to make it out there and that we can build something meaningful and impactful for the local economy, but also the Canadian economy as a whole and the Canadian industry specifically, then all the better for it. All the better for it. If there are multimillion dollar deals being signed on the show floor at Edmonton, great, right? That's going to be, and I see long-term that this is going to become massive.
And, you know, there's a, there's a high probability of that happening and there's a high probability of, Edmonton becoming a sustainable long-term destination for NAGIS and for this, this type of conference. so, so I'm excited. I'm definitely excited. I'm all about flipping tables and, and, and pulling over chairs and building. Like the one thing I really hate is stagnation.
so, move fast, break things has always amused me highly. And so this, this could be an opportunity to do just that. And I'm excited personally. So.
Cory Sellar (1:20:16)
Awesome. Yeah, no roll those DND dice. See what happens. But yeah, no last but not least Marc
Marc Belisle (1:20:22)
It's kind of kind of Chris alluded to it earlier like for success for me is throwing such a elevated fun b2b event where people enjoyed the experience so much and to John said this to you that there's no reason to not stay and
Cory Sellar (1:20:25)
Yeah.
Marc Belisle (1:20:41)
play games and hang out afterwards. That's for me, that's my success. Having all these B2B folks come in, get their business done, make some deals, network, future business, however that unfolds for developers, publishers, investors, all of that.
And then they get that done. We go to the industry night on the, you know, on the Thursday, and then everyone talks about what they're going to do for the rest of the weekend while they're hanging out and playing games and just enjoy the rest of the weekend. For me, that's, that's for me, that's the best recipe for success. Execute on the B2B, make sure everyone's objects are being met, and then spend the rest of the weekend playing games and having fun. Period. Yeah. Exactly.
John Nguyen (1:21:18)
So do your homework before you play games.
Chris Meilleur (1:21:20)
Hahaha.
Cory Sellar (1:21:22)
Probably
good advice. Yeah, there we go. That works.
Chris Meilleur (1:21:25)
How about you, Cory? Same question, back at you.
John Nguyen (1:21:30)
crap, we are all
hijacking his thing.
Marc Belisle (1:21:32)
hahahaha
Cory Sellar (1:21:34)
shit. I was not. I was not. But it is expect the unexpected in this one, I guess. ⁓
Marc Belisle (1:21:35)
in a British accent, if you could.
John Nguyen (1:21:38)
You weren't expecting that, were you?
Chris Meilleur (1:21:43)
Keep getting your toes.
John Nguyen (1:21:47)
Look at him, he's red like a tomato.
Chris Meilleur (1:21:49)
Ha
Ronnie Villanueva (1:21:50)
Hahaha, yeah.
Cory Sellar (1:21:53)
⁓ god. ⁓ god. Wow, I did not rehearse this. yeah. Yeah.
Marc Belisle (1:22:00)
No pressure.
John Nguyen (1:21:59)
That's why we're not live and
what you get for putting a bunch of trolls on your panel.
Marc Belisle (1:22:05)
Hahaha
Cory Sellar (1:22:06)
In fairness, I didn't know that part. That's staying in the episode. Yeah, no. I'm not cutting any of this. This is gold. Honestly, yeah, I mean...
John Nguyen (1:22:09)
You didn't know we were trolls?
Chris Meilleur (1:22:11)
Don't cut any of this out, it's all gold.
Marc Belisle (1:22:13)
Yeah, for sure.
Cory Sellar (1:22:18)
I really, well, just if I zoom out and kind of look at this as a whole for Edmonton and for Alberta, I really want to see this growing and expanding to really benefit every level when it comes to game development, indie developers to double A based off of what's already here, but also really setting the stage for
for further growth of new studios popping up, building new and innovative games, whether it's esports specific or just something that the market is looking for, they're just passionate about it and they want to build it, they want to grow it, they want to build the company and thrive in Edmonton, in the Edmonton area, as well as Alberta. This isn't an ec dev ad, but realistically it's true because I mean, I...
Marc Belisle (1:23:06)
You
Cory Sellar (1:23:09)
doing this show, feel that connection to seeing the hearing about the struggles that people are dealing with different aspects, whether it's trying to get funding and you know, I really hope that this can help be an awareness piece, but also a growth piece for studios to grow and thrive. And this is one of those key pillars that's happening in Alberta so that, you know,
Not everyone feels like they have to go out to GDC or Gamescom. They have it right in their backyard and they can attend this and they can meet some of these folks that are coming from the international market and they're coming here. They're coming to Edmonton. Obviously, they're coming from all over, And obviously it's music to everyone else's ears, whether it's Explore Edmonton or Edmonton Global, but realistically,
John Nguyen (1:23:53)
all places.
Cory Sellar (1:24:03)
I really do want to see this being a true spectacle for businesses and studios, not just the consumer side, because obviously we got Game Con for that. And the fact that it's another five years, awesome. NAGIS will grow and thrive with that. And I really hope to just see more opportunities for investment of different levels. Like angel investment is super huge in Canada, Western Canada, with organizations like Startup TNT.
to see more opportunities for encouragement of more investment on that front rather than funding from nonprofits or big entities like the CMF and things like that. Just being able to have more options for studios, for other activations, whether it's more event focused, bigger medium sized events like GDX or...
know, meetups and communities so that there is that sustainability and, you know, we're continuing to build more formalities on not just the game dev side, but maybe on the esports side to have them go hand in hand. So that's kind of the overview myself personally going into this year. I mean, I'm ashamed to say I don't have a ticket. I do have.
Ronnie Villanueva (1:25:14)
There's time.
Cory Sellar (1:25:15)
There is time,
Ronnie Villanueva (1:25:15)
You've got time.
Cory Sellar (1:25:16)
there is time, and I have limited vacation days left because of my honeymoon in May. So I'm definitely, I'm definitely wanting to come out. So it's a matter of buying a ticket or seeing about that media pass as a podcaster. But nevertheless, never, never the less. Wow. I can't believe I admitted that.
Marc Belisle (1:25:34)
Yeah
Chris Meilleur (1:25:36)
I see where you're going with this.
Marc Belisle (1:25:41)
Got you.
Cory Sellar (1:25:42)
This show- this- this really
John Nguyen (1:25:43)
How do you get
without asking?
Cory Sellar (1:25:44)
got away from me.
Marc Belisle (1:25:47)
Yeah, you miss 100 % of the shots you don't take. Words of John right there.
Cory Sellar (1:25:48)
It's true, it's true. ⁓ That's by Wayne Gretzky and Michael Scott. Good
Chris Meilleur (1:25:49)
We got you Cory, we got you buddy. Yeah.
Ronnie Villanueva (1:25:55)
That's a John
Cory Sellar (1:25:55)
times.
Ronnie Villanueva (1:25:56)
quote actually. don't know. don't know if that's a John quote.
Marc Belisle (1:25:57)
That was a John quote.
Chris Meilleur (1:25:57)
Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Cory Sellar (1:25:58)
Is that a John quote? Okay.
John Nguyen (1:25:58)
I co-opted it, it's
mine now.
Chris Meilleur (1:26:00)
yeah, he coined it.
Cory Sellar (1:26:00)
Okay. Sorry, Wayne. Wow. Yeah, this really got away from me. Little bit.
Marc Belisle (1:26:00)
It's mine now.
John Nguyen (1:26:06)
Did it?
Marc Belisle (1:26:08)
Yeah, I think it, I think it'd
great.
Cory Sellar (1:26:09)
But yeah, no, I figured I dropped that but yeah, no regardless, it I would say this particular event definitely draws me a little bit more than GCC because of the curiosity of of the people that are in the room and what's happening because truth be told like that that's where I've kind of gravitated in the past working in the ec dev space with Edmonton Unlimited and and just that that interest of community growth it always kind of ties back to
to business in some way and really, really curious to see how NAGIS shapes up, not just this year, but as the years go by. yeah, I go in with full curiosity like I do with this show. But yeah, I'm going to ask now, did that answer your question? Long rant.
Chris Meilleur (1:26:55)
That was the best answer
Marc Belisle (1:26:56)
Pretty good. Yeah,
Chris Meilleur (1:26:56)
of the panel there, buddy. That was perfect.
Marc Belisle (1:26:58)
pretty good.
Cory Sellar (1:26:59)
Cool, okay.
Chris Meilleur (1:27:00)
Almost like we rehearsed it, you know?
Marc Belisle (1:27:01)
Yep.
Cory Sellar (1:27:01)
Totally,
yep, yep. That's the one part I didn't have a script.
Chris Meilleur (1:27:04)
No, it was great. Yeah.
Cory Sellar (1:27:06)
One extra thing I'll add,
it's nice to see that what I'm doing, I don't feel so much of an outsider, even though I still do, two years in. But still, it's really, really fun and we'll see where it goes. yeah. ⁓
Ronnie Villanueva (1:27:24)
Well, thank you, Corey,
for bringing us all together because honestly, we've never had the four of us in any type of interviews or panel discussions. this is a good example of, NAGIS is announced and now communities are coming together to take part, right? So thank you, Cory, for bringing us together.
Marc Belisle (1:27:26)
Absolutely. That was great.
Cory Sellar (1:27:33)
I can see why. Yeah.
Chris Meilleur (1:27:46)
Yep,
appreciate you, man. Thank you so much.
Marc Belisle (1:27:47)
Absolutely.
Cory Sellar (1:27:48)
Oh,
I appreciate it.
Well, Marc, Ronnie, Chris, John, thank you so much for taking the time and honestly for building this new event to come into the table to help put this on. Really excited to see how it's going to shape the space and folks that are coming through the doors to experience it. We covered a lot.
For everyone listening out there, if you want to be a part of it, the North American Games Industry Summit runs June 18th to 19th at the Edmonton Expo Centre. Game Con Canada picks up from there to June 21st.
Your NAGIS badge, like we mentioned earlier, gets you full access to both events, get all the details and register at nagus.ca. For GCC, it's gameconcanada.com. As Chris alluded to, things are changing every other day, week, month, so definitely check it out. And of course, if this episode resonated with you, share it with your friends, colleagues, family, or just broader network. And for all the episodes, head over to Good Game YEG dot CA or wherever you listen to podcasts. remember, bring your A-game at NAGIS and GCC 2026. Sellarcast out.

north american games industry summitgame con canadaB2B games event

Cory Sellar