Bank Heisting - a Possible New Career for Jeremiah

Yesterday at Seoul Incheon Airport, after we arrived from Shanghai, I suggested that Jeremiah go find an ATM to get some cash, while I rented a local cell phone (it's too bad BlackBerries don't work here).

Poor Jeremiah... he came back with look of panic on his face, holding about a two-inch stack of 10,000 Korean won (KRW) notes, saying, "John... I think I did something wrong!!!" I thought he had just held up a bank, or something!

Meaning to withdraw only about $80 worth of currency, he actually entered the KRW amount which ended up being worth nearly $800. He's now the proud owner of A LOT of 10,000 Korean won notes! At 800,000 KRW, Jeremiah is nearly a millionaire. Don't ever let anybody tell you Emergent can't make you a millionaire! :-)

Artist Training in Daegu

Greetings from lovely Daegu, South Korea, about 200 miles southeast of Seoul, near Busan. We are conducting an artist training seminar here, thanks to our hosts the Daegu Digital Industry Promotion Agency (DIP). As we all expect, Jeremiah is doing a GREAT job of leading the seminar, and the attendees seem to really be enjoying it.

We have about two dozen attendees, and it has been a pretty interactive session. The session is ongoing even as I post this entry. We had 60 attendees in Shanghai earlier this week, and of course this size group lends itself to a lot of interactivity and participation.

Consider this, though: In Shanghai, a city with a population of 19 million, we drew 60 attendees (granted, we sadly had to turn some away as we reached capacity), but in Daegu, a population of just 2.5 million, we're drawing one-third of that. One-third the attendees from a city one-eighth the size! Congratulations to John (organizer at DIP, not me) for bringing in such a great crowd. Every attendee, too, is a Gamebryo pre-customer, so we're building pipe!

Perhaps selfishly, I'm looking forward to a good Korean dinner tonight! :-)

Developer Party in Shanghai

What good is a training seminar in Shanghai if you don't throw a party for our attendees?! So we did! We had the entire third floor of Malone's American Cafe (a.k.a. "Bar") in Shanghai. They laid out a great buffet for us, and all the beer you could drink!

To the right is a picture of Areil from Winking Entertainment, by the sign leading our attendees up the stairs for our party. Below is a picture of Jeremiah and I, several of the Winking employees, and the head of SoftImage China. A great big THANK YOU to our partners and co-sponsors of the seminar and the party, Winking, SoftImage, and ScaleForm!

In the back of that photo, below, wearing the white shirt and standing just behind Jeremiah, is Gary Chang, CEO of Winking Entertainment. I had the opportunity to sit in this Shanghai bar chatting business, industry trends, company performance, and our overall partnership for 30 minutes with Gary. Gary is a GREAT guy, and Winking is a great partner. I very much valued this time together with Gary, and I still contend that the best business is done in Asia in bars (and that's a lot coming from me, someone who doesn't even drink!).

Shanghai Art Training

We just completed a very successful training seminar in Shanghai, working with game development studio artists, training them with DCC tools and Gamebryo. Though the seminar was "local" in nature, we had attendees come in from as far away as Singapore. In all we had 60 people in attendance, representing 23 studios, 9 of which are not currently using Gamebryo. That's nine very qualified sales prospects for us - way cool. I love these seminars!!!

Now we are in Daegu, South Korea, where we will do a similar seminar here for the next two days. Stay tuned!

Sorry for the Silent Treatment

I apologize for giving you all the silent treatment for these past couple of weeks. The family and I were on vacation in Hawai'i! Enjoy the pic to the right. Yes, count them... my wife and I have six children. Videogame junkies every one of them. Or as I like to affectionately call my children, "Beta Tester 1," Beta Tester 2," and so on.

But alas, things kept rocking in Asia while I was on vacation. And as I post this, I'm BACK in Asia and back at work, and it feels great. I am grateful for a career that I really absolutely love!

Expect some more postings to follow, now that my nose is happily back to the grindstone...