After establishing a software development industry and building links with Silicon Valley, the Okanagan is cultivating a new cluster: animation and gaming.
Anchored by Kelowna animation heavyweight Club Penguin, a virtual-world website bought by Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) in 2007, the Okanagan’s animation cluster has expanded significantly in the last year or so.
“The gaming and animation side in Kelowna has probably doubled in the last year in terms of companies starting in the area,” said Jeff Keen, programs director for Accelerate Okanagan, a government-funded agency to support technology entrepreneurs.
Keen added that new players in town include animation studios RocketSnail Games and Lizard Brain Inc.
Set to join them soon is Vancouver-based animation studio Bardel Entertainment, which recently announced plans to open a satellite studio in Kelowna in January. Bardel is planning a Kelowna location that will initially house up to a dozen employees, but will expand to accommodate up to 50 staff within three years.
According to a company statement, Bardel considered several other B.C. cities but chose Kelowna because:
•of its access to a growing talent pool of animators;
•regional tax incentives; and
•the opportunity to provide staff with the option of a small-town lifestyle.
Keen said Bardel’s announcement isn’t the first sign that Vancouver animation studios are closely watching Kelowna’s emergence as an animation hub. He said Vancouver’s Lizard Brain was drawn to Kelowna within the last year by the Okanagan city’s lower costs and deepening talent pool.
Lizard Brain could not be reached for comment by press deadline.
“Are we seeing a draw out of Vancouver? We are,” Keen said. “It’s still pretty early days, but ‘Should we be in the Okanagan?’ probably wasn’t on anybody’s radar before, and now I think it is.”
Keen estimated that there are “a few hundred” animators in the Okanagan these days. He said that number has increased in a dramatic “hockey stick growth curve” during the past three years.
Okanagan Film Commissioner Jon Summerland has also been closely following the rise of the Okanagan’s animation industry.
“We’re now rebranding to be the Okanagan Film and Animation Commission because we deal as much with [animation] as we deal with film.”
Summerland added that the rapid growth of Vancouver’s animation industry has forced animation companies to look for new talent pools like the one that’s emerged in the Okanagan around Club Penguin and been supported by educational programs at Kelowna’s Centre for Arts and Technology.
Okanagan College, which is working to establish a two-year animation diploma in response to a request from Bardel, will soon add to that talent pipeline.
Besides the growing talent pool, Summerland said companies have started to react to the regional tax credits and the lower costs of doing business in the Kelowna area.
“They’re going, ‘I’ll take advantage of my tax credits, I’ll save money on real estate, I’ll take advantage of this, that and the other – and I can still be in the sunny Okanagan’.”
But while Summerland said he’s eager to draw more animation companies into the region, he added that he first wants to ensure the companies that have recently arrived succeed.
“We would love to take this [success] and run and visit more people like Nerd Corps [Entertainment] and Atomic [Cartoons] and say, ‘Your competitors are all out there saving money – it’s your turn to come out there’,” Summerland said. “But I’m waiting until some of this is settled. Lizard Brain and Bardel are so new, we want to make sure that what we’re selling is real, after it’s been tested out.”
Keen added that the Okanagan still has much to do to develop a new animation cluster.
“We’re seeing some really good indicators that the industry has strong potential in the region, but some of the challenges that we’re up against are talent attraction and retention and probably access to capital,” he said. “Kelowna – or the Okanagan – has always been known as a great place to live. It hasn’t always been known as a great place to start and grow a company. So we’re trying to change that.”
But as Kelowna looks to attract new animation companies – including those from Vancouver – DigiBC president Howard Donaldson argued that Kelowna’s gain won’t be Vancouver’s loss.
“The animation industry is still small in Kelowna, but there is a lot of talent there and there are opportunities for animation companies especially with the film tax credits,” he wrote in an email.
“[However] this will have no impact on the size or growth of the animation industry in Vancouver. I expect the animation industry to continue to grow in Vancouver.”
In the last few years, the Okanagan has become a hub for technology companies. (See “Technology harvest grows in Silicon Vineyard” – issue 966; April 29-May 5, 2008.) •
