Evan Gitomer

He’s definitely a “sports guy.” Evan has spent a lot of time in the industry in sales and marketing positions: ticket sales, suite sales, and premium sales. He started his career with the Philadelphia Eagles as a “glorified intern,” then spent time in various sales and marketing roles within the organization. After that, he worked with the New Orleans Saints, the Phoenix Coyotes, the Brooklyn Nets, and finally, Sporting Kansas City.

“I’m excited to bring my experience and knowledge of the professional sports industry to an innovative company like RiverKey Creative,” says Evan.  “They’re experts at creating the coolest in-stadium interactive content I’ve seen. I look forward to pairing them with many teams who have faced the same challenges I’ve had in the past, making sure their fans are having an incredible time regardless of the what the scoreboard says.”

“First and foremost, my job here at RiverKey,” he explains, “is to help create and foster relationships with our clients—to help them accomplish their goals—and in doing so, I will additionally drive revenue for our own company to be successful.”

When asked what his dream project would be, Evan lights up with a smile

“I want to make the Baseball Hall of Fame the most interactive place on the earth,” he says. “As a kid, I used to go to Cooperstown all the time with my family, and I would really love to be a part of that reimagining.”

Cool Stuff To Share With You That Inspires Evan:

holidays.net - I truly believe in the notion that every day is worth celebrating.  This website helps me identify reasons to do so.

sporcle.com - Any good salesperson has to be creative and I use trivia to keep my mind sharp.

linkedin.com - The best sales tool invented since the telephone, LinkedIn takes the power of networking to the nth degree.

The goal was to build a sponsor-based interactive game that went way beyond the typical one or two contestants in competition and allowed capacity crowds to play along on the giant, customized stadium board. The contestants would be featured directly on the board in a live video feed via green screen.

The Eagles’ sponsor was Acme, the well-known East Coast supermarket chain.

“The whole theme of the game was created around this particular sponsor,” says Charles Ryan, director of operations at RiverKey, referring to the long list of available grocery store items, the bidding challenge itself, and the overall design. “But what made this one particularly special is the mobile component. It was built through a website formatted for mobile devices so that it could be compatible with smart phones and eventually a forthcoming app as well.”

“Interactivity with cell phones is something the teams are just beginning to explore,” adds Charles, “but it’s an exciting edition to our fan offering. You’re getting everyone in the stadium involved in the game who wants to be. The possibilities are limitless for our sports clients or any business client who wants to engage a large crowd with cell phones.”

“The business degree has turned out to be very useful,” says Shawn.

His extensive CG career includes working in human anatomy and virtual reality combat simulation, which ultimately led to teaching at the college level.

“The Avengers was cool,” says Shawn, who served as senior visual effects supervisor on the blockbuster 2012 movie, but his favorite film job was Transformers: Dark of the Moon, where he was compositing supervisor and played a key role throughout the entire post-production of the film. He also lent a hand as senior visual effects compositor for the 2012 3D conversion of James Cameron’s Titanic. With RiverKey, Shawn is currently hard at work on several big motion graphics projects, including the 2013 season graphics package for the Atlanta Braves.

“It would be great to do this with our home teams,” he says, glancing at the long list of deliverable animations pinned to his office wall, as he and the RKC animators ready everything for the Braves. “More stuff happens here in Kansas City than I thought,” he happily admits. “I’m glad to be back. I’d love to do a Super Bowl commercial. I’d also love to work on a film main title sequence here or a TV title sequence for a pilot.”

Shawn knows that he left California where the majority of that work is done, but his extended family still lives in Kansas City, and he has a daughter now.

“I wanted a better balance,” he explains. “You work to live, you don’t live to work.”

You can check out Shawn’s film credits on IMDb.com.

William Shakespeare (okay, kinda paraphrasing) answered this question best in Romeo & Juliet: “A good idea by any other name would smell as sweet.” That’s exactly what Big League Interactive is, formerly known as InGame. So why did RiverKey Creative go for a name change? We should start with the backstory—plus, for those who don’t already know, an introduction.

“Big League Interactive,” according to RKC’s director of operations Charles Ryan, “is a series of main-board stadium games and other stadium features of the sort that we build regularly for major-league sports clients. We are now porting them over for accessibility to colleges and minor-league teams. Our thinking was to take these games and modify them for standard sizes, still allowing users to customize their graphics.”

While our custom games for major-league teams are often built with their specific board sizes and unique needs in mind, RKC wanted to find a way to bring the most common features to a wider audience.

That’s when InGame was born, in December of 2011, and it was an instant hit.

“These games really took off and exceeded our expectations,” says Sean Hopkins, chief marketing officer. “There was a definite need for this, and we were happy and eager to rise to the occasion.”

“Twitter is by far the most popular,” adds Ryan. “The use of social media is really blossoming, and our Twitter game allows fans to engage directly with the team, with each other, and with the entire stadium crowd in a live feed on the main board.”

Since the launch of InGame over two years ago, we’ve seen colleges, minor-league teams, soccer, football, baseball, basketball, hockey, domestic, international, you name it … all shapes, sizes, and ranks have embraced our line of interactive stadium games. But the recent decision to change names and rebrand came about for a couple of reasons.

“RiverKey used InGame for a few years but didn’t trademark it,” explains Ryan. “Several businesses were using the name in related fields, plus it’s a common industry term, and we decided we wanted a stronger, more unique brand. That initiated the change. From there, we decided to rebrand our entire line with a new logo and website.”

As of now, RKC has fifteen games in the Big League Interactive pipeline in various stages of development. Some are ready to go now, some will be available in a matter of weeks, and some in the months ahead.

You can download the information, pricing, and ordering pamphlet here.

Big League Interactive pamphlet cover.

“A really fun part for me,” says RKC game developer Chris Beer, “is throwing various team colors and images up on my screen, like mascots or logos, and seeing how it’s all going to look.”

That’s part of the challenge in creating these stadium games. RiverKey is turning over the final phase of the creative process to our Big League Interactive clients. They get to pick their own colors, they get to upload team logos or icons, and, for some games, they can even add player photos and fan pics. Part of our testing process is to experiment with a range of options and see how it’s all going to look and behave in the end.

“Our goal with Big League,” says Ryan, “is to create stimulating design and offer interactivity that will engage stadium crowds for a few minutes of fun and excitement during your game or event.”

For more information, to request a free demo, or to place an order now, please visit:

www.bigleague-interactive.com

Pictured above: RKC staff sets up and unwinds before the party gets underway at our first (but definitely not last) Holiday Happy Hour. Look for future Happy Hour gatherings throughout the coming year!

To know Ben is to love him. Originally from Merriam, Kansas, his “relationship” with RiverKey Creative began as a freelancer in August of 2010. He subsequently joined the full-time ranks in January of 2011 as an interactive designer and developer.

Ben was crazy about drawing as a kid, and he absolutely hated computers. Go figure! They were for nerds, or so he thought, until he wanted to sell his custom-drawn icons online. He didn’t like the free website templates out there where users pick between blue and green, with a choice of three fonts. So he taught himself to code.

“I went to the School of Google,” he says with a giggle. After scouring endless blogs, forums, tutorials, and message boards, Ben emerged as a design and development wizard—a proud graduate of the Internet, fluent in all languages … coding-wise, that is. But it was his passion for drawing that led him to icon design, which led to the world of GUI (he re-skinned Tiger OSX just for fun), and ultimately the wide wonderful world of webness became his playground.

“The next big thing,” says Ben when asked what his dream job would be. “I want to design and develop the next Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest from the ground up. I love creating apps with a web background for iPhone, iPad, Android … bring it!”

Cool Stuff To Share With You That Inspires Ben:

Tuts+ Hub — http://hub.tutsplus.com

Tuts+ has some of the best creative reference stuff on the web. Whether I’m designing a user interface, developing a web app, or trying to learn how to use After Effects so the production team won’t make fun of me, Tuts+ is my go-to source for info.

Dribbble — http://dribbble.com

Dribbble is a site where designers can show off their latest work, get inspiration, and download sweet graphical goodies. I think it’s invite-only to become a member (I’m not too sure how I got an account), but even without a membership, it’s a really great place to see other peoples’ work.

Reddit — http://reddit.com

This is the most addictive website ever. I spend most of my days — after work of course — plugged into the Reddit universe. If you’re looking to lose track of your days, check Reddit out. Don’t say I didn’t warn you though.

Andrew Lindemann joined RiverKey Creative in August as an associate producer. Originally from Overland Park, KS, he now resides in Metro Kansas City, MO.

It was back in high school when Andrew first developed a love for video and videography after signing up to shoot and edit the DVD supplement for his high school year book. In college, he studied journalism and holds an undergraduate degree in the subject from the University of Kansas. That’s when his focus shifted to writing, producing, shooting, and editing news stories. He also attended film school in Washington State. Not long after, he returned to the Midwest to pursue a career.

“I love true stories,” says Andrew. “Documentary production, either short form or feature-length. That’s when I have an opportunity to build something out of nothing. As an editor I enjoy taking disjointed parts and fusing them together to create a story—much in the way a writer does but with cursors and video clips instead of pen and paper.”

“I also love the music scene,” he adds. “Combining the two is the best. Creating videos, short films, and marketing materials for musicians and artists—those are my dream projects.”

Cool Stuff To Share With You That Inspires Andrew:

For one-stop inspiration in motion graphics:
http://motionspire.com/#!/

Just a cool website to explore for all things production – tutorials, videos, articles, etc.:
http://motionographer.com

Bryan Timmins started with RKC back in April as an animator. He specializes in illustration, character design, and 2D and 3D motion graphics. He was born in Kansas City, MO, but has lived all over the Midwest and South.

Bryan has held a lifelong interest in art, animation, and drawing. He attended Johnson County Community College and also received a certificate of animation from Animation Mentor, an online virtual school.

“I love creating characters from the initial conception to design to full motion,” says Bryan. “Those are my favorite jobs.”

Cool Stuff To Share With You That Inspires Bryan:

I attended this school, it is one of the leading character animation training programs in the world right now:  www.animationmentor.com

Here are a couple of sites that have all kinds of cool stuff, links to animated shorts, VFX info, tutorials and art:  www.3dtotal.com and www.itsartmag.com

And I love these two sites to check out animated and live-action shorts and digital art:
vimeo.com and www.cghub.com

Bobby Keys

Bobby spent 12 years in radio and has an extensive background in broadcast management and production. He’s held a variety of jobs in the field, including head of on-air talent, morning show producer, and mix show DJ.

Bobby has also had a successful career as an actor in theatre, television, and commercials.

“I love telling stories,” he says. “Comedies, thrillers, action …. Visual and sonic creativity. That’s what it’s about.”

And perhaps that’s how and why Bobby migrated so naturally into video production from his audio background. His favorite creative projects usually combine the two.

“Anything to do with the music industry,” he says. “I love it. Music videos, artist development, and short films.”

Cool Stuff To Share With You That Inspires Bobby:

Artwork I like:
http://cargocollective.com/signalnoise

Various inspirations:
http://abduzeedo.com

And what a job it was! This interactive wall is an incomprehensible 33 feet wide by seven feet tall—one of the largest in the world! There is an application ribbon running on screen with a start bar that launches nine or ten different apps, including a whiteboard app, Internet app, and PowerPoint app for presentations.

FishNet Security – Interactive Wall

RiverKey started this project in November of 2011, and it was unveiled at FishNet’s gala “Open House” on June 12th of 2012. The sheer size of the screen was a challenge—but a task of equal proportion was creating and testing the wall in a brand new space under heavy construction at the time. We partnered with Float4 Interactive, responsible for supplying the seamless screens and computers that run our app, as well as Pro Display, who was on hand to create the “Intelligent Glass” used in the installation.

As of now, FishNet has had over 30 briefings since they opened the Executive Briefing Center, and they use their interactive wall all the time. We think any company that wishes to impress clients with something “hugely” memorable might feel the same way! Oh, sure, there are LED billboards out there of a similar size, and there are software presentations projected onto blank walls, but as RKC’s CEO Jeff Tidball puts it, “This really comes down to the difference between watching TV and interacting with an iPad.” It invites a spontaneous and engaging user experience on the grandest of scales.