SPEND AN EVENING WITH CAPT. KIRK William Shatner is hosting the inaugural Canadian Awards for the Electronic and Animated Arts, being held on September 14 at Richmond's River Rock Show Theatre.

The brainchild of Holly Carinci, Vancouver-based publicist and producer of the event, the wide-ranging CAEAA will recognize Canadian achievements in talent development, animation, and video-game development. It's the first such event in Canada for the electronic-arts and -entertainment industries.

“No one has bridged these industries before,” Carinci told the Straight, “which is strange because they are so interconnected.” Nominations for the numerous awards (there are 46 in total) will be announced on August 8 and posted on the event's Web site (www.caeaa.com/). Unlike other industry awards, the CAEAA will recognize not only commercially produced material but also work being done in training and educational institutions such as Emily Carr and the Vancouver Institute of Media Arts.

Carinci is coy about what we can expect from Shatner but insists there “are many surprises planned”. Interested in attending? Three hundred gallery seats are available to the public for $50 each, and the after-party is also open to the masses. Tickets go on sale August 1 at Ticketmaster.

REPRESENT YOUR COUNTRY The World Cyber Games Canadian Championships are being held at Montreal amusement park La Ronde over the Labour Day weekend. The winners will represent Canada at the WCG World Finals in November, in Monza, Italy. At last year's tournament, held in Singapore, Canadian teams fared well, earning silver in the Halo 2 competition and bronze in Counter-Strike.

Stephan Richard, executive director of WCG Canada, told the Straight that our country is sending teams for seven of the eight official games being played at this year's competition: Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne; Starcraft: Brood War; Dawn of War: Winter Assault; Dead or Alive 4; Counter-Strike 1.6; Project Gotham Racing 3; and FIFA Soccer 06.

As with any international competition, however, you need to qualify for a chance to represent Canada. The Vancouver stop on the Canadian tour was held way back in May, but you can still qualify for the nationals by competing in the on-line preliminaries.

The on-line prelims for Counter-Strike and FIFA Soccer are being hosted by on-line portal GameXL from August 2 through 15. Interested players can register at www.gamexl.ca/wcg/. For information on other on-line qualifying tournaments, visit the World Cyber Games Canada Web site at www.worldcybergames.ca/.

Richard is looking forward to the Canadian nationals. “Many great young gamers are expected to give our champs a run for the money,” he said.