StoryCamp welcomed over 100 students to a 16-hour design competition on multimodal storytelling. Check out the winning teams, browse the participant submissions, and explore the mentor bios.
We learned about the importance of storytelling when it comes to creating an emotional connection to the products/services we're selling.
You can view all of the participant projects from the following categories:
Strategic Storyteller | Design Thinker | Educator
To tell a good story, you need to have good ears. Victoria's passion for design thinking means she spends a lot of time in the muck asking hard-hitting questions and listening to the answers (both spoken and silent) to create impactful and engaging content experiences.
Victoria brings more than 15 years of marketing and communications experience to this project. A brand anthropologist, Victoria digs deep with key stakeholders to unearth vital insights that drive strategy. A strategist with a passion for stories, Victoria creates compelling content that engages all audiences and drives client impact. Her passion for all things digital marketing results in authentic audience engagement. Trained in Design Thinking, Victoria employs empathy and creative problem solving to help clients turn problems into possibilities and deliver impact strategies that engage audiences. With more than ten years in the not for profit sector, Victoria is well versed in creating compelling donor strategies and campaigns that accelerate results.
Director
University of Waterloo
Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business
Christine is the founding director of the academic programs at the Stratford School. Building a wonderful campus (yes, she did have to wear a hard hat at times during the construction phase of the campus) and brand new programs from scratch has been challenging and extremely rewarding. She would do it all again!
Before coming to Waterloo in 2003, she worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta (1999-2003). She has published extensively in the areas of late medieval literature/culture, the interaction between text and iconography, scientific discourse in literature, and Digital Humanities. As director and a researcher of the MARGOT project, she leads several international collaborative projects in the area of Digital Humanities, such as the development of image annotation software and the creation of enriched databases of medieval manuscripts. Her teaching spans undergraduate and graduate courses in French and German literature/culture, translation studies, Digital Humanities, and Digital Experience Innovation.
Associate Professor
University of Waterloo
Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business
Dr. Lennart Nacke teaches User Experience, Human-Computer Interaction, and Game Design at the University of Waterloo. As part of the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business and the Games Institute, he is researching player experience in video games, immersive VR environments, and gameful applications, often using physiological measures together with surveys and player interviews. Professor Nacke has served on the steering committee of the International Game Developers Association Games User Research Special Interest Group in the past, was the chair of the CHI PLAY conference steering committee from 2014-2018. His publications have won Best Paper Honourable Mention (awarded to the top five percent) and Best Paper Awards (awarded to the top one percent) at the premier human-computer interaction conferences CHI 2011 and CSCW 2012. He has published more than 100 scientific papers, which have been cited more than 10,000 times. He strongly believes in understanding users first to build more engaging games and compelling player experiences
Lecturer, Digital Design
University of Waterloo
Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business
Laura Fong teaches Digital Design at the University of Waterloo’s Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business. Prior to her teaching career, Laura worked as an award-winning visual journalist and documentary filmmaker. Her academic research specialized in media framing and Post-9/11 service members. After being published in many countries, she has taken her love of investigation and research into her teaching and into her creative discipline by adapting recent film projects to include academically research methods like visual ethnography, and therefore legitimizing the overall subject material of her films with the addition of academic rigour. This methodology is changing her documentary work into research filmmaking. She specializes in marginalized subjects both nationally and internationally and has worked extensively with U.S. Military Veterans and Indigenous Peoples. She combines her research and traditional storytelling to define the issue or subject accurately and allows her subjects to communicate it. She produced a feature-length documentary in 2017 about a U.S. Army deployment to Afghanistan that won numerous awards in film festivals internationally, and had a nationwide theatrical release in the United States.
Games Institute | University of Waterloo
Marisa Benjamin completed a MA in Rhetoric and Communication Design, and a BA Honours Arts and Business Co-op, Psychology Major, English Minor at the University of Waterloo. She is the Research Communications Officer at the Games Institute, overseeing the research communications portfolio and spearheading the Institute's knowledge mobilization efforts.
Marisa is a Co-Host for the Games Institute Podcast and Director for the Unhinged Podcast (forthcoming). She's an activist for Indigenous rights and intersectional feminism. Marisa is also a painter and a writer and a massive fan of Harry Potter.
Sessional Instructor
University of Waterloo
Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business
Originally trained as an architect, Terry earned his Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Waterloo. He completed a Post-Graduate of Computer Animation at Sheridan College in 1995. Since then, I have continued to sharpen my filmmaking skills at Liaison of Independent Filmmakers in Toronto, attending courses on editing, writing and location sound.
Working as a filmmaker and designer in the realm of creative non- fiction, Terry makes short films, immersive installations, and feature-length documentaries. I teach post-secondary design and film making with a hands-on approach. I believe in craft, and I believe in working with a conceptual spine—a foundational idea that serves as a guide.
Terry teaches GBDA 101 Digital Media Design and Production here at The Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business.
UX Research IBM
Jennie Heo recently completed her Master of Digital Experience Innovation program at the University of Waterloo. With her background in BA English and M.Ed in Applied Psychology & Human Development, she is passionate about conducting user research throughout the end-to-end process of delivering human-centric products through storytelling. Jennie completed her Master's capstone project with IBM Business Analytics on implementing artificial intelligence tools to improve university students' social and emotional engagement on campus. As part of her research, she explored different features that might engage various aspects of games to increase the quality of overall user experience.
4th-year Global Business and Digital Arts
University of Waterloo
Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business
Kiera is in her final year in Global Business and Digital Arts and is looking to pursue her Masters's degree post-graduation. Currently, she is a Teaching Assistant for GBDA 203 (Introduction to Digital Cultures) in her third consecutive term as a TA. She loves having the opportunity to mentor other students and work with the Stratford School's phenomenal faculty. She has three years' experience working at CIBC in various business analyst and design roles. Most recently, she was on the Client Strategy and Insights team, where she derived data-driven insights to improve the experience for clients across Canada. A firm believer that design should be used for good, she founded the Stratford Resource Bins in 2018 to provide food and hygiene products to students on campus. Recently, she received a $1,500 grant from Rising Youth and the Government of Canada to continue her work with the Resource Bins and expand out into the greater Stratford community. In her spare time, she loves reading, cooking, and talking to her plants.
3rd year Student, Global Business and Digital Arts
University of Waterloo
Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business
Kalil Magtoto is a passionate creator known for his active leadership and involvement across multiple campus initiatives, including StarterHacks, Power to Change, Entrepreneurship Society, and the Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association. Now a seasoned videographer, he often explores his passions in interconnectedness, motivation, and language. A topic that he longs to explore through his work is Linguistic Determinism, and he is now in the process of creating a series of short films revolving around the English language and its rich lexicon. Professionally, he has experienced a broad mix of opportunities in creating commercials, documentaries, animation, and wedding videos. A few of his notable collaborators and clients include CIBC, RBC, Basil Box, and Chapters. Kalil has won multiple awards for his films, including Best Film, Best Director, and Audience Choice award in 2016 at Ateneo ACOMM's Project Motion for his narrative short film "Fili: Kwento ng Pag-asa".
Masters Student
University of Waterloo
Joseph is a Master’s student pursuing a M.A.Sc in Systems Design Engineering under the supervision of Dr. Lennart Nacke at the University of Waterloo. He has immense interests in UX and UI interfaces and emotion in games. He enjoys doing photography.
Kayla is all about building communities and curating thoughtful experiences. With a Master of Digital Experience Innovation (MDEI) degree and years of experience in real estate portfolio management, development consulting and project management, Kayla brings both empathy and economics to the development of meaningful experiences.
After completing an undergrad in Economics, she spent the first years of her career learning everything she could from companies, both small and large. Her curious mind and search for new experiences sparked a love of travel, and she has lived and worked in many different cities across the globe. Her work and life experience have culminated in the opportunity to become a consultant for real estate developers working on projects such as The Bradshaw Lofts and EVE Park London. In addition, she loves taking time to work on community building projects like The Local Advocate, being a member of the BIA, hosting local events and mentoring with The Founders Institute and other organizations.
Our life is a cumulation of millions of little details and interactions. UX research has taught me to break down the user journey into specific moments and choices. It is within these details that we can truly understand processes and intentions and ensure the best possible experience for the user.
After completing an undergrad in Economics, she spent the first years of her career learning everything she could from companies, both small and large. Her curious mind and search for new experiences sparked a love of travel, and she has lived and worked in many different cities across the globe. Her work and life experience have culminated in the opportunity to become a consultant for real estate developers working on projects such as The Bradshaw Lofts and EVE Park London. In addition, she loves taking time to work on community building projects like The Local Advocate, being a member of the BIA, hosting local events and mentoring with The Founders Institute and other organizations.
Varrick is from Newfoundland, where he began his vocation in theatre as Associate Director at Theatre Newfoundland Labrador, establishing the Gros Morne Theatre Festival. Since then who has directed in the UK, USA, and coast to coast in Canada with the likes of: FIXT POINT (Toronto) "Tale of a Town"; Jumblies(Toronto) “Twisted Metal and Mermaids Tears”, "More or the Magic Fish", “Once a Shoreline”, “Your Name is Written in the Sky” and "Like An Old Tale"; Runaway Moon theatre (B.C.) “The World is Upside Down”, “Time of Miracles”, “The Unknown Island” ,“Open Air”, “ A Lot On Your Plate” and with the Splats’in First Nation “S’alk’wa”; Carpetbag Brigade (US) “You Don’t Know Jack”; Vancouver Moving theatre (B.C.) “The Labyrinth”; Claque Theatre (UK) “Something in Common”. Varrick was a founding member of the performance group Number Eleven theatre, and has taught theatre performance at Humber and Sir Wilfred Grenfelll Colleges. He is currently a member of the Michael Langham directors program at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Varrick is the proud partner of Keira and father of Emile and Rosy.
Co-Founder and CEO at Block Zero, studio of designers, engineers, innovators and storytellers, working with companies of all sizes to help them explore and refine their products and service offerings. Block Zero was founded in 2015 by a group of engineers, designers, and product visionaries from TAT/BlackBerry.
Previously, I was a Team Lead and Product Manager at BlackBerry Sweden/The Astonishing Tribe, with ten years of experience in the mobile industry, focusing on product definition and realization in close collaboration with UX. I've embraced the TAT mantra of "Design Loves Technology", trying to make UX-driven development seamless and integral to the way my teams operate.
I'm also a storyteller and filmmaker, active in Sweden and North America, with many acclaimed feature films and other media projects under my belt.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3226008/
Damon Kropf-Untucht is a software developer and development leader who shipped his first piece of production code in 1996. Since that time, he has lead teams from 4 to 40 in new product development at small start-ups and large enterprises. He has worked on platforms as diverse as Windows mobile handsets to modern cloud systems. Damon is currently focused on start-ups in Stratford and serves as the director of product development at Powernoodle.
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Stratford, ON N5A 0C1
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We acknowledge that the Stratford School is on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Ojibway/Chippewa peoples. This territory is covered by the Upper Canada Treaties. Our actions toward reconciliation take place through our research, teaching, learning, and community events, in coordination with the Office of Indigenous Relations.
The University of Waterloo acknowledges that much of our work takes place on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our active work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research, learning, teaching, and community building, and is centralized within our Office of Indigenous Relations.
