Mon 18 Oct 2004
Just got back from Ireland. Great trip!
As noted earlier, the IGDA’s Irish chapter co-organized a 1-day conference to help “awaken” the local game development industry. Unlike the stagnating Japanese game industry, which I recently criticized for being too closed, the Irish game industry is at an embryonic stage. The wide open nature - and high potential - of the Irish scene has garnered a lot of interest from local economic development agencies, governmental bodies and academics, along with the usual business folks and creators.
The excitement and enthusiasm was clearly in the air. Even the mayor of Derry (the city that hosted the conference), welcomed everyone at a pre-event wine reception and came to dinner with the group of event organizers and VIPs. BBC Radio came to run some interviews. We were even on national television (also BBC), and on the front cover of the paper! I can’t say that I’ve seen anywhere else that excited about the games industry (did I mention that the head of the local chamber of commerce said it was the most exciting event for the local economy this past century - goodness!).
Prior to the conference itself, the chapter kept me quite busy with meetings, interviews, etc. Spending time with the North West Institute’s class of game dev students, discussing industry issues, was a real pleasure. Discussing curricular needs of the industry and potentials for collaboration with a room full of Irish academics was great. Better yet, having over twenty gov/funding folks in a room to discuss ways in which they can foster the growth of the Irish game development community was worth the trip alone.
The conference itself ran very smooth, and welcomed some 200+ attendees from all over the island. The handful of sessions were themed on mostly business/industry topics and served as a nice platform for further discussions. While everyone enjoyed the content, the fact that they were all in the same room, connecting with each other, was the most important part of the whole endeavor.
(Special thanks to Tony Kelly, Robbie Hegarty and Wendy Gibbons for going beyond the call of duty in making myself - and all the speakers - feel like royalty!)
Here are some photos from my visit (people listed left-to-right):
Game Educators at Work: North West Institute’s game program is called ICE (Interactive Computer Entertainment). Not pictured are their PURE and CREAM programs (I’m not kidding)…
Councillor Gearóid Ó hEára, mayor of Derry, welcomes guests to the Guildhall for the pre-conference wine reception.
Mark Riordan (Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology), Graeme Devine (Ensemble), Robbie Hegarty (NWIFHE), Joe Kehoe (Carlow IT), Steve Collins (Havok) and Phil Bourke (Tipperary IT) enjoy the pre-conference dinner.
Tony Kelly (Torc Interactive) opens the conference.
Chris Van Der Kuyl (VIS Entertainment) talks about the ins and outs of outsourcing.
Mike Griffin (Kapooki), Graeme and Markus Maki (Remedy) doing some serious preparation for their closing panel.
Celebrating Risk: The first game graduates of NWIFHE are entering their 1.5 year incubator program, and plan to gamble big on innovation…
Mark Cullen (Torc Interactive) discussing sensitive matters with Graeme - (insert witty caption here).
The great ~500 year old stone wall that surrounds the city of Derry. Graeme and I went for a stroll along the top. It was great vantage point to see many of the city’s sites and landmarks. The city has such a rich and fascinating history…
Graeme on the wall in front of the Guildhall. Not to be mistaken with “his” Guildhall.
“…I can’t believe the news today
Oh, I can’t close my eyes and make it go away
How long…
How long must we sing this song?
How long? how long…
’cause tonight…we can be as one
Tonight…
Broken bottles under children’s feet
Bodies strewn across the dead end street
But I won’t heed the battle call
It puts my back up
Puts my back up against the wall
Sunday, bloody sunday…”
- U2
A Toast to Eire: Myself, Tony and Robbie on the final night of the trip (and my first Guinness ever!).
October 18th, 2004 at 5:13 pm
I am a student currently studying the I.C.E course in the North West Institute. i felt the conference was a great success, i learned alot from the speakers and benefited greatly from their comments. id especially like to thank jason for giving us a brief lecture on the previous morning. all in all, it was a great day and a day that will put ireland on the map for games development.
October 18th, 2004 at 7:59 pm
I am the course coordinator - BTec National Dip in Media (Games Development) at the Causeway Institute of FHE Ballymoney Campus we took our students to the conference and we all had a very informative day. Back in college the students have been talking about all the things they learned from the sessions and using the information to help with assignment work. They have already expressed that they cannot wait until the next conference. Thanks to you all for a great first Games Developer Conference.
Anyone interested in our BTec National Diploma Course in Games Development @ Causeway Institute of FHE Contact me on david.brockbank@causeway.ac.uk for full details of units, this course if for game designers and has no programming units.
October 19th, 2004 at 4:33 am
I too am on the I.C.E. course and really enjoyed the conference, it was intresting to learn about the past, present and future of games and cant wait for the next. Thanks to Jason for our lecture the day before, really enjoyed it.
P.S. Robbie - My program is not s*@#
October 19th, 2004 at 10:32 am
I am a student on the Btec national diploma Games development at ballymoney, and i was at the awakenings last friday. It was really really good and i was very surprised that the speakers were so friendly and so willing to take time out to talk to us all.
Good job guys can’t wait for the next one.
October 19th, 2004 at 1:07 pm
Your first Guinness? Do you mean, your first of the night? ;-)
Well, at least you had it in the right place! :)
October 19th, 2004 at 2:31 pm
Nice pics Jason..
Sorry I wasn’t there but catch you again soon..
Aphra Kerr
October 19th, 2004 at 3:25 pm
I’m another student at NWIFHE on the ICE program and just wanted to add my voice to those saying thank you above. It was great to have such an important event for Ireland in our home town and be given an insight into the industry from such interesting speakers. Thanks to Robbie and everyone who helped to organise it, lets do it again next year!
October 20th, 2004 at 4:53 am
The conference was probably the best organised conference ive ever been at. Speakers and the atmosphere around the place was excellent.
Bring on Awakenings 05.
October 20th, 2004 at 7:03 am
Hi. enjoyed the pic of us there. thanks for all the advice on starting up, hopefully the incubation will be a success. look forward to next years event.
October 20th, 2004 at 11:39 am
Thanks for the pics! I thoroughly enjoyed the day (I was the solitary person to admit to being in the film & TV business at the back of the room). It will be interesting to see what comes of the enthusiasm by next year. Fingers crossed.
October 22nd, 2004 at 2:36 pm
Yes i agree it was a very informative conference and as a graduate from the HNC ICE course last year it was invaluble information. Cant wait for next years event and hopefully we will have some sort of tech demo for the foyer ourselves.
February 22nd, 2005 at 11:15 am
great pics.ooooooooo i fancy a guiness two