Jennifer Ouano is founder and head of Elastic Entertainment. Over the past 15 years, she’s worn many hats in the media and new media worlds as an award-winning producer, director, journalist, consultant and entrepreneur. She is a recognized leader in the Canadian new media industry, being called upon to present her expertise on digital entertainment and social media trends, technologies, challenges and opportunities.

Jennifer is very proud of her work on ZeD, CBC TV’s flagship convergence program and a social media pioneer. Jennifer was co-creator, senior producer and head of convergence, creative and business development (yes, all at the same time). She was awarded the prestigious 2005 Woman of Vision Award and a 2004 Leo Award, as well as several nominations for Geminis, Leos, Yorktons and a 2004 team Emmy nod.

As head of Interactive Ventures for ZeD and CBC’s Broadband Division, Jennifer built and signed business partnerships with top brands, including: Apple iTunes, Yahoo! Flickr, Logitech, EMI Music, NFB, Channel 4, Corel, American Apparel, AirG, The Drake Hotel and ResFest. She created the hilarious William Shatner Music Mash-Up campaign with Sony Music and AcidPlanet, and developed Canada’s first-ever mobile video competition for Vidfest.

Jennifer directed and produced the award winning, feature-length music documentary, Burning to Shine. She also produced her way through CBC, Bravo!, MuchMusic, Canadian Learning TV, Life, Discovery, National Geographic, CJSR, indie films and TV spots. She created a convergent TV series/ARG concept for CTV; developed a mobile game concept for director, John Woo; webcast live events for David Bowie, Spike Lee and Microsoft; brought the BBC World Service to Alberta; and developed an online video editing studio that was presented Dragon’s Den-style to a group of European VCs.

“I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it’s been.”
- Wayne Gretzky

*Jennifer is featured in the textbook, Digital Expression, published by the North Vancouver School District, as part of the high school curriculum. Digital Expression focuses on promoting collaborative learning in creative ways as students share their creations in multiple media.

Bridging Media Conference, Mar. 29, 2008. Photo by John Bolwitt courtesy of Georgia Straight