The Hubs and Pubs Manifesto…
As one of the first people to be honored with the guest editorial slot on the LOGIN Beat newsletter, and one of the advisors who has been a part of the conference since its inception, I thought I would attempt to outline why I view LOGIN as an increasingly important part of the games industry conference calendar. One of the pleasures of working on the conference is the strength and experience of its advisory board and it’s the combined efforts of this team and Evergreen Events that ultimately shape the conference. But visits to two conferences during September (Austin GDC and Tokyo Game Show (TGS)) crystallized for me a personal manifesto about what I want from a conference, and the elements of LOGIN that I believe will continue to make it a superior conference experience.
TGS 2009 did little to assuage any of the fears expressed by Yoichi Wada, president of Square Enix in his TGS 2008 keynote lamenting that Japan had lost its position as a leader in the global games market place. TGS 2009 was a much smaller show generally, characterized by a notable lack of anything very innovative with some major companies conspicuous only by their absence. One aspect of TGS that I continue to find puzzling is the lack of networking events or after show socializing, partly I suppose because the TGS show site is at least an hour away from downtown Tokyo. Back in 2008, Wada-san bemoaned the lack of what he described as ‘hubs’ in the Japanese industry – examples including any shared, standardized technology across the industry, but also forums for the pollination of ideas and communication between people within the same industry – leading to a closed, non creative environment. He said that “Western conferences are important in allowing creators to communicate with each other directly and in person but we in Japan are not very adept at making good use of these conferences."
This set me thinking about what it really means for a conference to be a communication ‘hub’ and not only from the perspective of after show parties and events. As anyone who I bumped into on 6th Street during AGDC will attest, I’m a big fan of after show socializing. But I admit I left Austin feeling that I had spent three days in a trade show hall augmented by some seriously fun, but off site partying with folks I already knew. It could be just me (although judging by his blog I suspect it’s also fellow LOGIN advisor Joe Ludwig) but the sense that the AGDC sessions might not have been all that compelling seemed to pervade the show.
So here are some of the key elements of LOGIN that we want to emphasize:
- Peer reviewed, compelling sessions designed for an audience that, as Joe succinctly puts it, feels it has now reached the ADGC ‘Level Cap’.
- An emphasis on innovation in the games industry and how it is evolving.
- The treatment of every attendee (be they developer, publisher, vendor - even head hunters and lawyers) as integral and equally important contributing members of the whole games industry. This involves the playing down of an appendage-like trade show element, and a playing up of the inclusion of everyone in the main conference.
- Networking as a key hub for the industry with a focus on events that mix up existing groups.
- A smaller, comfortable closed setting where you know that everyone you talk to is going to be a peer in the industry while avoiding some of the thousand dollar plus price tags that come with other events.
So I encourage you to get LOGIN 2010 onto your calendars early, stay in the conference hotel (new better rates this year) – and come along and help us assess how many ticks I get to put in the boxes on my personal conference requirement scorecard. I can assure you that the advisory board and Evergreen Events is doing everything it can to develop the industry’s most compelling event.
See you in Seattle!
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James Hursthouse LOGIN Advisory Board Member CEO, IGM KK |
This is not to say that hardcore games don't have their place, and won't always have a seat at the table. They will. Just as there will always be players who want to commit six hours a day to a game, whether it's Bejeweled Blitz or Halo 3 ODST.
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So, how did this happen and what are the implications? Well, it has been a couple of years in the making. First, in 2007 Washington signed onto the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SSUTA), which required Washington to change its sales and use tax system for electronic goods to a destination based system, e.g. one where the tax is imposed based on the location of the buyer instead of the seller. Second, the SSUTA required that in order for a state to continue to tax intangible electronic goods, it must enact legislation to do so by January 1, 2010. Third, the Washington Legislature directed the Department of Revenue to “conduct a study of the taxation of electronically delivered products”. That study was completed in 2008. Finally, based on the findings and recommendations from the Department of Revenue, the Legislature enacted HB 2075 which was signed by Governor Gregoire in May 2009 and became effective July 25th.
