Edinburgh Interactive Festival

The energy and spirit of Edinburgh and EIF was kicked off with a brilliantly piercing sunset flooding the elegant rooftop of the Edinburgh Museum where speakers, sponsors and contributors gathered on the eve which preceded the event opening.

There seemed to be something special about this year and not simply because the heads of some of the worlds biggest games publishers were in the room and not because principles from the people behind second life and eve online were in attendance, nor senior directors from the BBC, 19 entertainment and Endemol were in the room mixing with developers, producers, academics, games publishers the major hardwear company bosses from such as Sony and Nintendo, was it that EIFj had actually made it through a five year incubation and started to really blossom…? Perhaps.

Was it that interactivity and entertainment were indeed finally converging into a broader canvas, involving more of the worlds population and the world’s creative community than ever before…? Definitely.

Was it the sense that on-line connectivity for the masses was now joining people from all over the world in new collective pursuits of all kinds…? For sure.

But there was also a sense of anticipation that the program would inspire and challenge and delight this year' attendees; that new perspectives would be created right here in the middle of the biggest convocation of creativity fans on the planet.  We were not let down.

Edinburgh '07 was kicked off by an inspiring talk from the ever humble, and highly respected Yves Guillemot, the European Star of organic growth and creatively inspired games development, now with global creative resource over 3500 strong, working out of locations from China to Romania, to Morocco, Montpelier, and Montreal. Yves was fundamentally bullish and proclaimed that the interactive business would grow 50% in less than a handful of years.

He challenged us to reach out for skills from film, TV and music, and to reach out to consumers wherever they can play,on a range of devices and with products that they can afford. He proclaimed that the industry we all are so proud to be involved with should harness the creativity of the end user and reward it when results are compelling.

One couldn’t help but get the feeling that the center of gravity for the whole interactive industry took a further swerve towards Europe and towards Edinburgh with such profoundly spoken wisdom from our corner of the world.

Of particular note on the day 1 sessions was the presentation of CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson about “Eve”, the global MMOG, its unique capability to host all players in a single game universe, its quirky new challenges and its adventuresome past.

Colour and perspective were added by presentations from Ed Williams and Matt Rothman covering the analysts view and some startling new information about the Asian market.

We had some very interesting perspective on the TV business from  Peter Cowley, the Big Brother of Endemol, with some helpful hints on how to profit from the new styles of TV programs by helping the program creators.

Ian Livingstone gave is food for thought on crafting the actual characters of our creation into superhero, or at least, celebrity status.

And the Annual Edge award for Capcom’s Okami,perhaps the most genuinely creative among the outstanding list of nominations, was capped by a YouTube vintage “thank you” video beamed from the development studio in Japan.

The evening was capped by an impromtu blues jam with Simon Harvey and Ian Livinstone wailing out Red House as the finale of the networking reception at Home House.

Most delegates found a spare hour or two for attending some fresh new production or comedy show.  I found the play “Jihad, the Musical” typically irreverent but nonetheless exciting and giggly"

Meanwhile, many of the EIF Monday evening flotilla seemed to trickle into the jam at the Jazz Bar next door for a night cap or five, where a good time was had by all.

Day 2 was not prepared to be outdone by Day one.

The Lead Off presentations from Peter Edward on Home and Paulina Bozek on SingStar where crisp and very exciting glimpses of what’s in store on the community and UGC aspects of PS3.

The session on “emotion capture” technology and creative collaboration from Katie Ellwood and two lead actors from Heavenly Sword was spine tingling.

There were fascinating insights into the creative and community management challenges relating to virtual reality games, in back to back sessions on the subject, including a behind the scenes look at Second Life and some of the “democracy management” challenges at Eve On-Line.

The BBC’s new digital platform head, Simon Nelson proclaimed that interactive extensions of serious TV programming can actually provoke independent research into history and other subjects among youth, and that new real world communities can spring from games at the same time as “ virtual worlds” are derive from real world themes.

Martin Lowde laid the capstone of the conference with a brilliant presentation on how 19 Entertainment will move to the next level of involving global audiences in collaborative creativity, and discover entirely new platforms for exploiting the miracle of connectivity in the context of group participation programming.

Martin proclaimed that the worlds we currently know as TV and artist management will look completely different in as short a time as the next 12 months. And that interactivity will be the defining difference between the old and the new worlds.

The companion screening program on day two welcomed hundreds of participants from the general public and press to view fresh offerings from Codemasters, Atari, Unreal,and others, presented by the studios that created them, along with a session on “how to get into the industry” for aspiring students, and true to the whimsical and impish atmosphere of Edinburgh, there was a screening of a hilarious TV show created about gaming in Scotland called “Consolevania”.

It was slightly saddening to face the inevitability that this years conference actually had to end.

I am still smiling about the totality and immersion of the EIF experience, and can’t wait to get started with the organizers on planning an even better conference at EIF 2008. It was great fun! And proof positive why gaming has come to far. Creative people who love creating is what binds all who work in the field in a manner unprecedented with earlier sectors of entertainment, except perhaps for fringe theatre, which is always at the cutting edge, and which provides a fitting backdrop to the whole Edinburgh experience.

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