Midlands Chapter - Inaugural Meet 14th
November 2002
In
the words of so many people, 'oh what a night'. The first meeting
of the IGDA Midlands chapter has come and gone, and what
a resounding success it was, with over 100 people passing through
the doors over the space of the evening and more than 80
being in the venue at any one time. Indeed if it hadn't been
for the bar allowing our tab to run both upstairs and downstairs
a lynching could have ensued, as the queue was often six
or seven 'developers' deep (now the Midlands chapter de facto
unit of measurement).
Firstly,
therefore, our thanks and 'hats off' to everyone who came,
the 'Sozzled Sausage' staff,
and the chapter coordinators for making it a superbly entertaining
evening.
And so
to the main report - officially the event kicked off at 7.30,
with the upstairs bar filling quickly from the outset. Despite
protracted negotiations with a rogue amplifier and a number
of missing cables, Dave Horne successfully managed to get electrickery
on his side by 8, and proceeded to say a few words thanking
our sponsors, Criterion software, and explaining a little of
the IGDA and it's aims. Jason from Criterion then gave us an
overview of where they are at the moment, and a brief summary
of the new Renderware AI solution. And business wise, that
was about it. Reassuringly brief and to-the-point, twenty minutes
of introduction heralded in three hours of hard drinking. Credit
where it's due, the bar staff showed amazing resilience as
the free-bar was drunk well and truly dry by 10.30, when moths
fluttering around the lights indicated that wallets were finally
being dragged out of booze soaked jeans.
The raffle,
called in an appallingly bad Peter Kaye style bingo voice by
Julian Widdows and managed by Fred Gill, was despite the accent
a high point, with a number of lucky individuals bagging new
ATI Radeon graphics cards worth not inconsiderable sums of
money. IGDA t-shirt throwing then ensued, with a frenzy of
grabbing hands bringing the evening to a close.
Our sincere
thanks go out to everyone who came to the event, the Sozzled
Sausage, ATI, and of course Criterion software. It was a superb
evening and we can only hope the Birmingham event will carry
on the good work.
Veni, vidi,
vici.
The following
photos show just some of the people who helped make the event
success, and represent members of ATD, Silicon Dreams, Swordfish
Studios, Blitz, Codemafia, Codemasters, Big Big Studios,
Jesters Puppet, Smartdog amongst others. Apologies if
we've forgotten anyone.
