Post written by solutions architect Andrea Calvin and marketing coordinator Sarah Ditkoff. Ready for a bad joke? With a visit from Canadian Astronaut Cmdr. Chris Hadfield, 2013 was out of this world! We warned you, it is a pretty bad joke (and at FableVision Studios we made it many, many times).

All joking aside, we here at FableVision Studios have had a lot celebrate in 2013. From amazing projects, new creative minds joining the FableVision team, to freaking awesome open houses and conferences. So, to end 2013, we’ve decided to compile all of our favorite moments from the past year. In no particular order, here’s the FableVision Year in Review.

1. An interstellar visit from Commander Chris Hadfield In June, the tweeting Canadian Astronaut and former commander of the International Space Station, Chris Hadfield, landed in Boston to meet the FableVision team. While on a mission to brainstorm a children’s book with FableVision founder and New York Times best-selling children’s book author/illustrator Peter H. Reynolds, Hadfield (and his amazing wife Helene), Cmdr. Hadfield treated the team to a private concert at the Blue Bunny bookstore and a wealth of space.

2. That one time we surprised everyone with an inflatable shark. Remember that? That was fantastic.

3. New FableVisionaries FableVision is growing! 2013 brought four new faces in the studio: Andrea Calvin, solutions architect, Sarah Ditkoff, marketing coordinator, John Groh, creative IT and QA specialist, and Katie Tusch, associate producer.

4. Lucky Penny Open House Thirteen is no longer an unlucky number! FableVision offered each open house guest a lucky charm and encouraged folks to make 2013 their luckiest year yet!

5. Project shout outs! FableVision wrapped some pretty incredible projects this year. Some of our favorites include New England Aquarium's Fish ID App, National Wildlife Federation's Ranger Rick Magazine's summer and fall issues, New York Hall of Science's Evolution-Health Connection, Nick Jr.'s Dora the Explorer: Find Those Puppies!, and Dig-It! Games' Can U Dig It!

6. #tellmeafable We believe storytelling can be done effectively in many different formats, so we were excited to take on the task of telling a social media-generated story through social media itself. This original story idea was received on Twitter, and we wrote and illustrated the fable, tweeting it out over the course of a week. Read the entire fable here.

7. Conferences: Boston Book Festival, Snappz at ISTE FableVision was proud to host an open house for the kick-off of the 5th Annual Boston Book Festival – where we had a booth with Reading Is Fundamental and the National Writing Project, and a workshop with the United Way. Read more about the booth and our workshop here.

18,000 enthusiastic ed-tech educators and industry representatives took over San Antonio in June for the annual ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Conference. Our Second Annual ISTE Treasure Hunt, modeled on the Snappz Treasure Hunt game that Sparkbridge Interactive did for the Vancouver Aquarium, is an interactive treasure hunt that allowed participants to travel around the conference floor, explore some of our past projects, and meet our clients. Read more.

8. 1,000 Twitter followers! Have you #followed the #news? Keep the #jokes coming! Follow us on #Twitter for the latest #FableVisionStudios news.

9. Extra Life: A 25-hour gaming fundraiser Extra Life is a 25-hour gaming fundraiser for a Children’s Miracle Network hospital. In November, the 17-member FableVision Extra Life team assembled at the Boston studio to play games –lots and lots of games. With a goal of $5K, our team raised $5,675 for Boston Children’s Hospital. Extra Life as a whole brought in over $3.6 million! Read about our experience here.

10. An Award-Winning Studio! Everyone loves to receive an award! At FableVision, it is an all-out party when a project lands an award. Here’s a snapshot of this year’s honors:

FableVision wishes you a happy and healthy New Year, see you in 2014!

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