Sowing the Seeds of Change

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!)