I just got back from a great dinner put on by some of the IBM guys here in the Southeast. The aim of the dinner was to bring together CxOs of Atlanta-area video game and entertainment companies. I got a chance to share the PlayMotion story with my peers, but more importantly, I was able to learn more about what is going on here in Georgia from other players. Very cool.

The companies represented included PlayMotion, Kaneva, CCP/White Wolf, and Hi-Rez Studios.

IBM is sinking a fairly significant chunk o’ change in developing a strategy to support the space - it will be interesting to see how their strategy evolves. They are obviously more comfortable in traditional industries (banking, manufacturing, etc). The question isn’t whether or not they have the cash and staying-power to influence the space …. they clearly do. Rather, it is a question of whether or not IBM can be agile, sexy, and work well with others.

If they are serious about the space, I would recommend that they bring on an industry veteran to lead up the effort. And while that sounds good on paper, I don’t know too many gaming executives who would want to make that shift …

Of course, they could just buy nVidia … and they’d be done. Competitor ATI went for a cool $5.4B to AMD. IBM is a hardware company, first and foremost. Could be a match made in heaven. TIP: You guys should buy nVidia before Intel does.

Cheers.

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In just a few hours, I’ll board a plane with 3 or 4 others from our team to head from Atlanta to Los Angeles, where we’ll be participating in WIRED’s NextFest. We’ll be joining the PlayMotion advance party which is already on the ground getting everything setup.

This year, we’re demo’ing something very, very cool indeed. Flight of the Pegasus is a demo of our new crowd-based larger-than-life video gaming. Using no props, just your body, you and a group of friends will compete against each other as you fly a Pegasus up Mount Olympus on two large 16 foot tall screens. The course is complete with olive trees, greek architecture, and a screaming Zeus who is hell bent on teaching you to fly one of these things

On the other side of the event, we’ll have an identical setup, with another crowd of folks, and they will compete against the other group. Nothing like using your body to interact with others over distance (I’ll leave you to ponder the profoundness of that).

I’m terribly proud of our team. They’ve worked extremely hard over the past few months gearing up for this event. Couldn’t ask for a better bunch … from slinging code, constructing 3D models, and creating/integrating all the voiceover stuff, they really pushed themselves against a very tight timeline.

I’ll post some photos and video at some point. My schedule is booking up while I’m out there, but I may be able to pull some stuff together during the evenings. Otherwise, I’ll be sure to post some stuff when we get back next week.

At any rate, it should be a ton of fun. At last check, there will be around 60,000 people coming to the show. If you’re heading out to NextFest, stop by and see us! We’ll have one setup on the actual show floor, as well as another in the Lounge area.

Cheers.

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I came across this great story on the Kenneth Cole website. There is definitely a lesson here for early-stage entrepreneurs on resourcefulness, and doing what it takes to get the job done. As a side-note, Kenneth Cole is now doing revenues of over $500M each year.

THE BIRTH OF A SHOE COMPANY AS TOLD BY KENNETH COLE
Twenty years ago, I wanted to open a shoe company with limited money. From experience I knew one had to get in quickly because so often new companies run out of cash flow before they get the chance to conduct business. I also knew it was easier to get credit from factories in Europe who needed the business than from American banks that didn’t. So I lined up the factories, went to Europe, designed a collection of shoes, and returned to the states to sell them.

At the time, a shoe company had two options. You could get a room at the Hilton and become 1 of about 1100 shoe companies selling their goods. This didn’t provide the identity or image I felt necessary for a new company, and it cost a lot more money than I had to spend. The other way was to do what the big companies do and get a fancy showroom in Midtown Manhattan not far from the Hilton. More identity, much more money too.

I had an idea.

I called a friend in the trucking business and asked to borrow one of his trucks to park in Midtown Manhattan. He said sure, but good luck getting permission. I went to the Mayor’s office, Koch at the time, and asked how one gets permission to park a 40 foot trailer truck in Midtown Manhattan. He said one doesn’t. The only people the city gives parking permits to are production companies shooting full length motion pictures and utility companies like Con Ed or AT&T. So that day I went to the stationery store and changed our company letterhead from Kenneth Cole, Inc. to Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc. and the next day I applied for a permit to shoot a full length film entitled “The Birth of a Shoe Company.”

With Kenneth Cole Productions painted on the side of the truck, we parked at 1370 6th Avenue, across from the New York Hilton, the day of shoe show. We opened for business with a fully furnished 40 ft trailer, a director (Sometimes there was film in the camera, sometimes there wasn’t), models as actresses, and two of New York’s finest, compliments of Mayor Koch, as our doormen. We sold 40 thousand pairs of shoes in two and a half days (the entire available production) and we were off and running.

To this day the company is still named Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc. and serves as a reminder to the importance of resourcefulness and innovative problem solving.

Cheers.

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