E3 Wrap-Up

(cross-posted from my blog @ Bryght.com)

I just returned from E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, in LA and what a busy week it was! E3 is the premier trade show for the video and online gaming industry and Robert Scales from Raincity Studios and I went down on behalf of New Media BC and the Digital Media Association of Alberta to provide coverage of the show including recording podcasts with several companies from BC and Alberta who were exhibiting at E3. You can find the podcasts when they're uploaded on iTunes and lots of fun photos from the show over at Flickr. Some of the companies we met with are Jarhead Games, Buena Vista Group, Piranha Games, Next Level Games, and Hal Josephson of Media Sense.

Scales and I attended a great 'power breakfast' called "Gaming's Future and Cross Platform Design" with the leaders of the Canadian video game and electronic entertainment industry hosted by the Canadian Embassy Los Angeles and held at the prestigious Los Angeles Athletic Club… think members only, old money, dingy rooms full of polo trophies and pictures of body builders, Persian rugs in the washrooms, and a Rembrant hanging behind the speakers podium. It was beautiful. At the breakfast we heard a great talk by Mike Yuen, Senior Director of Gaming at Qualcomm on the future of the gaming industry and Lynda Brown of New Media BC spoke as well and gave an overview of Vidfest 2006 in Vancouver and invited everyone to come up for the event. I attended Vidfest last year and sat on the NMBC program committee that helped Kirsten Richter plan this years event and am excited to say that we've got quite the conference in store. Check it out and signup now.

In addition to our citizen journalism coverage of the event I was able to spend some time kicking off a substantial new project with Bryght client and partner, Cosmic Cubes as well as meet with a couple of current Bryght customers like the guys from AskANinja.com (currently the 6th most popular podcast/videoblog on the internet… go Ninjas!). Cosmic Cubes will be rolling out a community website product based on Drupal for clubs and associations (code-named Clubhouse) and Bryght will be doing the custom development as well as providing the support and infrastructure. We're really excited about this project and you'll be hearing more about it in the coming weeks as they get their site online and we begin development.

I also had some time to do some networking and brainstorming with the folks over at Participant Productions (yet another Drupal site!), a socially conscious film production and financing company founded by Jeff Skoll of eBay fame. Participant's mission says: "Participant believes in the power of media to create great social change. Our goal is to deliver compelling entertainment that will inspire audiences to get involved in the issues that affect us all.". Participant Productions has been working on Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth", about global warming and climate change that premiers this week in LA and will be in theatres later this summer (June 9th @ Tinseltown here in Vancouver). It was great to meet Ricky Strauss, President of Participant as well as to hang out with my peeps Daniel Hengeveld and Micki Krimmel who also doubled during the week as my entertainment coordinators. Awesome to see you guys and look forward to working with you more in the future.

So like I said, busy week and no rest for the weary on the horizon. This week I'm speaking on the "What Does Citizen Journalism Mean For Corporate Communications" panel with Darren Barefoot, Tod Maffin, and Roland Tanglao and and doing a radio interview about web 2.0, citizen journalism, and building online communities with Jill Boland, the Executive Director of Tech Village. Then it's off to China for a few weeks as part of the "Growth Economies/Growth Industries of the 21st Century: China Moves Higher" event with partner Raincity and customer China Access 2008. Phew! A rolling stone gathers no moss!

Special thanks to Lynda Brown, Duff Gardner, Robert Scales, Ken Bautista, Carlos Rodriguez, Stacy Yamato, David Peck, the Bryght crew, Micki, Daniel, Crystal, Zoe Ebb, Melissa, Megan, Verdell, William, the Midnight Ridazz and all my other peeps who made this trip so successful and so unforgettable. Much love you guys! And to Joshua Dunford and Donald Preston, sorry it didn't work out to get together this time around… you guys gotta represent! I'm sure LA has lots in store for me in the future and I hope to spend time with you soon.