Who We Are

Digital Ladders is an initiative of the BC Alliance for Arts + Culture, developed to improve the digital literacy of British Columbia’s arts, culture and heritage sector. Digital Ladders aims to meet arts, culture and heritage organizations at their respective levels of understanding, and work together to integrate digital tools into their unique visions.

The BC Alliance is collaborating on this project with cultural and technology innovators Sue Biely, CEO of Nudge Consulting, and Robert Ouimet, of Bigsnit Media Consulting. Together, they’ve assembled a crack faculty of digital whizzes. See below for more information about Sue, Robert, our five-star faculty, and the rest of the Digital Ladders team!

Faculty

Our dream team of tech experts and innovators will serve as your guides in better understanding how your organization can harness digital media.

Loc Dao

**Loc Dao** is the co-founder of the NFB Digital and CBC Radio 3 studios and their industry-shifting bodies of work. He has won over 100 awards including Producer of the year, FWA site of the year, a Cannes Cyber Lion and 10 Webby Awards. He was recently the Chief Digital Officer for the National Film Board of Canada. Loc has advised the Government of Canada; Canada Media Fund; Sundance, Tribeca, IDFA, and VIFF Film Festivals.
Loc started his career in radio and entertainment and also produced live concert and studio session recordings of artists such as Oasis, Radiohead, Frank Black, Iggy Pop, Modest Mouse, the Flaming Lips and more for CBC Radio.
Loc has played hockey his entire life and coached the Vancouver Girls Hockey team and his daughter for 13 years.

Jai Djwa

**Jai (Phillip) Djwa**, MFA, is passionate about the opportunities for technology to impact social change and the arts. He is a creative technologist and digital strategist with more than 25+ years of experience in the arts, design, digital media and film/TV. He teaches interaction design at Capilano University and other post-secondary institutions. He is an accomplished facilitator, thinker and successful entrepreneur. Djwa is appointed to the BC Arts Council, the Vancouver Fringe, and is a business mentor for new immigrants at MOSAIC.

Shannon Emmerson

Passionate about crafting and sharing good stories, **Shannon Emmerson** works with brands and organizations to clarify and amplify their stories online. She’s created content strategies, brand stories and content marketing campaigns for brands like Electronic Arts, London Drugs, Science World, CPA Canada, and Grupo Bimbo, uncovering authentic stories that resonate with target audiences, and that foster trust and connection. Shannon is the President of Forge & Spark Media and the Director of Content Strategy for ECHO Storytelling Agency.
Her website is https://forgeandspark.ca/

Adrian Jones

Adrian Jones built his first website 25 years ago. Despite a nine-year detour into environmental science, he’s always been a computer geek at heart. However, unlike most computer geeks he is also good at communicating, which makes him highly sought after by friends and colleagues alike for unofficial tech support!

Adrian also enjoys contributing to open source software and avidly follows the latest web and app development tools and frameworks. He is a partner and lead developer with Visual Science and loves the challenge of building visualization tools for environmental data, from the database to the front-end. When he is not at his desk, Adrian has a passion for the outdoors, and can be found running, mountain biking, rock climbing, kiteboarding, or skiing.

His website is https://visualscience.ca/

Johnny Kalangis photo.jpg — Johnny Kalangis

**Johnny Kalangis,** Digital Creative Executive, is an internationally-acclaimed feature film writer/director, who develops digital media and interactive content from games to web series to viral videos. The last two decades have seen Johnny as V.P. Creative Director, Digital at marblemedia where he led the company to multiple award nominations and nods as well as increasing audience digital engagements by the millions. Before that, Johnny was Executive in Charge of Digital and Interactive Entertainment at CBC working with A-list properties such as *Opening Night*, *Being Erica* and *The Rick Mercer Report*.

Annelise Larson pic.jpg — Annelise Larson

**Annelise Larson** comes from a background as an independent film producer, with training at such prestigious institutions as the Canadian Film Centre (Producer’s Lab) and Banff Centre for the Arts (Electronic and Film Media). She has been working in the field of online marketing since 1995 and has always been an avid gamer and consumer of digital content. She works extensively with funders, educational institutions, creative industry associations and production companies in the film, television and interactive industries in North America and Europe. Her focus is helping content creators and storytellers use the digital opportunity to define, find, attract and engage their audiences and work toward strategic and sustainable business models.
Currently, Annelise is excited to be working on launching a suite of online webinars to teach how to think and work like an entrepreneurial storyteller or “storypreneur” and to bring the filmmaker crowdfunding and VOD platform Seed&Spark to Canada.
Her websites are: https://www.storypreneursunite.com/ & http://www.veria.ca/

Teresa Lee

**Teresa Lee** has over 15 years of professional experience encompassing interactive, video gaming and technical project management and development. In her spare time, she's also a contributing writer and photographer to various lifestyle and tourism websites.

Robert Ouimet

**Robert Ouimet** is the president of Bigsnit Media Consulting in Vancouver. Robert is an award winning journalist. He joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in the 80s, where he created and produced half a dozen network shows for CBC Radio in Winnipeg, Toronto and Vancouver. His Vancouver team created some of the CBC’s first digital projects, and under his leadership, its websites and radio programs won over 30 international awards, including the Prix Italia, New York Festival, and multiple Webby awards. Since 2003, Robert has worked as an independent media consultant, working with clients like Microsoft, the National Film Board of Canada, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games, Metro Vancouver, Just For Laughs Comedy Festival, Ecole Chocolat, the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association, the First Nations Financial Management Board and others.
Robert sails a vintage Catalina 22 called Madsu.
His website is https://bigsnit.com

Steve Peters

Steve Peters is the Founder and Chief Interactive Officer of No Mimes Media. An Emmy-winning experience designer, Steve has worked on some of the world’s biggest and most innovative interactive experiences, including design and consulting work for Disney Imagineering R&D, Google, Microsoft, PBS, Legendary Television and Niantic Labs. His work has spanned games, interactive entertainment and education, live events and puzzles, with some of his latest appearing in a Super Bowl commercial.

In addition to founding No Mimes Media, Steve was VP of Experience Design at Fourth Wall Studios, overseeing a wide range of new media, VR/AR and transmedia projects, including the interactive series “Dirty Work” and “6 Minutes to Midnight” experience for the feature film “Watchmen.”

Previously, Steve was an Experience Designer at 42 Entertainment where he worked on numerous projects including the ARGs “Why So Serious” for the feature film “The Dark Knight,” and “Year Zero,” for Nine Inch Nails. Steve founded the Alternate Reality Gaming Network, the first online community for ARG enthusiasts. He has lectured at schools including USC, the Royal College of Art, Georgia Tech and Cal Arts, and spoken at media conferences around the world. Projects he's worked on have won multiple awards including an Emmy®, Cannes Lions Grand Prix, SXSW Web, One Show Entertainment and Webby Awards.

His website is www.stevepeters.org