2025

Megan Leduc is a program officer at the Canada Council for the Arts and works in the Explore and Create Program.

Vidhi Shah is a Senior UX designer at Riot Games with over eight years of experience shaping gameplay systems and player experience across AAA and indie titles. Previously, at Respawn Entertainment, she worked on Apex Legends, focusing on gameplay UX and designing core meta systems that support competitive depth and long-term player engagement. She previously led UX design on Hardspace: Shipbreaker, an award-winning sci-fi title recognized for its innovative diegetic UI, and contributed to the AR hit Minecraft Earth. Her work reflects a commitment to gameplay UX that is intuitive, immersive, and emotionally resonant. Vidhi has also taught at Northeastern University and BCIT and continues to mentor early-career designers. Her goal is to design deep systems that guide, challenge, and quietly shape how players feel.

Lucas J.W. Johnson (he/him) is a queer author, game designer, producer, and entrepreneur, and the Founder and Studio Director of Silverstring Media. Lucas has experimented with interactive narratives, game design, and emergent storytelling for his whole life, with a strong focus on queer stories, player-centric design, and accessibility. With Silverstring Media, he has written several critically-acclaimed and award-winning games including Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between, Flow Weaver (co-developed with Stitch Media), Extrasolar (Lazy 8 Studios), and Timespinner (Lunar Ray Games). He has spoken at conferences across North America about game and transmedia design, writing, education, and business practices. Lucas has also published several works of fiction including his 2022 debut novel The Clockwork Empire.

Kenzie Gordon (she/her) is a social worker, doctoral candidate, and settler scholar at the University of Alberta on Treaty 6 territory. Her research examines topics ranging from gender-based violence in video games to games education and equity issues in the game industry. She is a board member with Baby Ghosts, a non-profit peer accelerator that helps games studios led by marginalized creators transition to co-operative studio models, and the project manager for The First Three Years, a longitudinal SSHRC-funded study on the transition of games graduates from school to work.

An accomplished media industry leader with recent experience as a scripted
development executive with Bell Media’s original programming team. Prior to this Williamson oversaw the primetime scripted division at Blue Ant Studios (Saloon Media) as Senior Vice President of Scripted.

A Winnipeg-born executive producer who frequently collaborates with international co- producers and buyers in the USA, Latin America, and Europe, including Apple+, The CW, Roku, Ellen Pompeo’s Calamity Jane (US), and StoryFirst Media (UK). Based in Toronto, Williamson possesses extensive experience creating, packaging, and financing television content for the Canadian market including Bell Media, CBC, Corus, and APTN.

Williamson launched her media career in Los Angeles with Blueprint Entertainment before joining Entertainment One’s scripted television division in 2008. Subsequently became President of Pier 21 Films, overseeing numerous shows including the Bell Media (CTV, Comedy Network) series, The Beaverton.

Looking to hear pitches for scripted & narrative features (comedy & drama).

As Senior Development and Production Executive for Bell Media’s Original Programming, Factual and Reality, Heather Williamson finds high stakes factual series across all Bell Media services and oversees a development and production slate that includes, MARK MCKINNEY NEEDS A HOBBY and DRAG BRUNCH SAVED MY LIFE, the upcoming, LAST CAPTAINS and BLUE COLLAR and hit original series HIGHWAY THRU HELL and UNDERGROUND RAILROAD: SECRET HISTORY, as well as Crave Originals KINGS OF COKE, BILLIONAIRE MURDERS and OPTIMIST’S GUIDE TO THE PLANET WITH NIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU. Past projects include JADE FEVER, LAST STOP GARAGE, MIGHTY CRUISE SHIPS, WILD BEAR RESCUE, DR. KERI PRAIRIE VET,
Williamson works closely with producers, advising them on how to best tailor their projects to suit Bell Media’s audience and scheduling needs for both broadcast and digital formats.

Looking to hear pitches for unscripted series & docs.