Bullet Points @ timlongo.com

Yup, once again long over due, but it is finally time to find some closure with the IGDA Leadership Forum. I was waiting for them to post the slides (which can be found here if you are interested) and videos (not up yet) of the talks but I don’t want to wait any longer so this should be my last post on the topic.

3BR (Three Bullet Review)

• HIT: The size of the event (300 ppl) alone was a huge success. Finally, when I meet someone new, I get to see them more than once and actually sit down and chat with them for awhile (unlike GDC or E3).
• HIT: For a first run there were a few good talks that actually made me sit back and think about how to apply some new ideas to my own studio.
• MISS: Unfortunetly, about half of the talks were not really up to snuff and in some cases it was pretty hard to sit there and listen.

Some technical issues aside I’d say it was a success in general for the first one of these Leadership Forums. I’d say there was at least enough value to warrent another one next year. It was great to have such a tight group of people all thinking about the same focused topics and for the most part all around the same level within the industry (thus with many of the same issues to share).

For my own talk, stress aside, I felt pretty good about it but can never be the judge myself. The feedback seemed pretty positive and I actually got a bit of press on Gamasutra and a Live Blogger covered it at the event itself. I also had a great time moderating (got roped into it at the last minute) and speaking with a set of amazing panelists on the “Production Panel” which took questions from the audience. I signed up to do some live blogging for Jamie’s talk and Tim’s talks.

The three keynotes were very good for different reasons and I recommend watching them once the videos come out. Bioware’s keynotes was interesting on the leadership and buisness side of things while Don Daglow’s was the closest I ever came to actually crying during a game industry lecture (go ahead and give me shit for it Brandon). I wasn’t the only one too. Tim’s was just plain Tim and if nothing else it was humorous.

Jamie Fristrom’s talk as well as his counter-part’s talk from Torpex Games, Bill Dugan, had some great practical perspectives on production and buisness relationships while Mike Capps hit the actual operations side of a studio (using Epic as his example) with great gusto.

I’ll let you do the digging if you want more details. There is plenty of good stuff on the main page for the event. I do hope they organize another one next year as it really does offer something pretty different from the GDC madness.

I meant to send this out earlier, but the IGDA Leadership Forum is tomorrow and Friday. I’m lucky enough to be speaking at the thing and unlucky enough to have challenged myself with a topic that isn’t that easy to talk about. Good job Tim!

We’ll see how it goes. I’m also one of the panelists on a production oriented open forum panel so who knows what that will have in store for us. I’ve even volunteered to do some live blogging on the main page for a couple of the sessions (what am I thinking!). I’ll probably post those entries here as well. My first live blog, how exciting!

A special thanks goes out to CD Shared Design group for watching a dry run of my lecture and providing great feedback. I’m glad the main event wasn’t my first time (despite my personal rehearsals). I took your feedback to heart guys.

I’ll keep you posted on how the event goes. I’m off for another sleepless night…(having fun but can’t wait for it to be done)