Montreal's Very Own Stars
by Jason Della Rocca (October 2002)
We had big plans for our first meeting back from the summer break. Seamus Blackley, one of the Xbox creators (and all around industry veteran) was coming to town and we were going to greet him in a big way. By all counts, we would have easily surpassed our past record of 225+ attendees. Sadly, Seamus had to cancel his trip to Montreal the day before the chapter meeting due to a family emergency (we certainly hope all is better!).
Event still, without the big "star" coming to town, we became our own stars and proceeded to enjoy the evening just the same. All told, about 150 local developers, professionals and students attended the meeting. And, thanks to support from our evening's sponsors everyone got to enjoy free beer, food and several giveaways (eg, games, t-shirts, hats, beer mugs, etc). Content wise, Criterion and Havok were on hand to demo their latest wares.
Besides the setback, this was our first attempt at refreshing the Montreal chapter. While the chapter has been very successful over the past months, the advisors felt that we had to provide more value (above and beyond the social/community benefits) for the local developers. Cancellations aside, that is still certainly the plan moving forward!
Until next Month...
Big thanks to our sponsors
October Gathering Pictorial
...here are some shots I took during the October gathering of the Montreal Chapter. (all persons are identified from left to right)
Francois Dominic Laramee and Martin Lizee (Digital Fiction) enjoy a laugh
before things get underway.
Su Skerl (Strategy First) in a posing match with Vincent Brisebois (Discreet).
Unknown guy, Guillaume Provost (Pseudo Interactive) in from Toronto, Jason
Della Rocca (with double ankle sprain and fractured bone incurred from
weekend rugby action) and Su Skerl (Strategy First) talk games.
David Ripka (Criterion Software - in gray shirt) demos the latest RenderWare
Studio solution.
Likewise, Havok demos their latest physics tools.
Martin Lavoie (Quazal) and Nicolas Rioux (Ubi Soft) chat over a few Heinies.
Sebastien Ebacher (Quebec gov) checks in with Valerie Henaire (CineGroupe
Interactif).
Must get away: Both in from Toronto, Trevor Fencott (Goodmans
LLP) kinda freaks us out, including Guillaume Provost (Pseudo Interactive).