I am rediciously lucky... Digital Now day 3 post mortem

Another long and wonderful day. I started today with hearing from our last key note speaker Dan Heath. He spoke of the idea of "sticky ideas..." This was a very interesting conversation about how ideas are precieved and concieved, and really was yet another topic that could transfer just as easily into gaming. To have a sticky idea Dan said...
1) It has to be Simple
2) Unexpected
3) Concrete
4) Credible
5) Emotional
6) and be a Story

So some of these don't directly apply to what we're doing but what he's talking about is the nature of ideas and impact. Like I've said before, if someone is engaged, they are personalizing the information... aka they are making their own stories in video games, sometimes even developing an emotional response, and therefor the game sticks with them. I forgot to mention a talk I had with one conference goer last night, I'll name him Chad (I don't remember his name). Chad asked Lauren and I if what we wanted to do in the future was "Halo 3." I said no... Halo 3 is already archaeic... The concept of "Next Gen. Gaming" is constantly changing and evolving. In the future we will no longer be worried about teaching strickly black and white ideas and concepts, our users will be learning things on a deeper level. i.e Morals, values, and actually teach you how to think more efficently. We are the Walt Disneys of this era... Just as his cartoons helped shape and form the child hoods of many, we will be able to reach out like never before. We will be responsible for teaching the next generation...

We left the conference this morning with an overall good feeling, this was a truely wonderful event. It's very interesting to think that I just attended a conference intended for CEOs of major industries... I can't help but think that I'll be able to take this knowledge far with me into the future. Reflecting back on this conference as well I've really began to realize how much this is the era of change. Through everything that I've attended this year, the major theme has been change... If things keep chaning, it's going to be a very exciting future.

During the keynote though, my Mom gave me a curious call from my Grandmother's phone asking me if I was interesting in a Mercury Mariner... I still don't know what it looks like, but what she says, sounded like a great deal. I told her that if she thinks it's a great deal then let's go for it, I also had to get back to the conference. Sure enough though it seems as I have a new car!!!!!!! A 2007 Mariner, with 7,000 miles... with a pretty sweet deal I might add... I am grossly lucky, between this past year (just encompasing everything between conferences and stuff) and my very supportive Family... I don't know, things are just too good... Makes me nervious but happy =)

So we went to Epcot this afternoon! First of all I have to say that I had a really hard time with the giant sphere thing that they've got up there... Looking closer at it, you can see they've outlined all of the edges with a thin black line. I couldn't help but see a gross vector rendered model, and all triangles... EWW! Who decided that triangulating that beast was a good idea?! GAH, well I guess it doesn't need to be animated so it'll do but still rubed me the wrong way as a 3D artist.

Epcot was seriously beautiful though, they are having this flower fest at the moment and all around the park there were thousands (probably millions) of flower beds, which gave everything such unique and sweet smells. Everywhere we looked there were classic Disney characters done in floral arrangements, it was very interesting, and creepy at times. Our first stop in Epcot was Canada... Ironically... From there we went to the UK and then to France where we had a great lunch. From there we went to Morocco and let me tell you, that it was amaizing! The archetecture and just environment felt really awesome. Really Aladin-esk... From there we went to Japan and Japan ended up being one of my favorite parts of the park. I just know so little about that culture that I found myself incredebly intregued by everything that they had there. Between the archetecture, products, gardens, and magnificent drummers... it was all pretty awesome. After that we went to Germany, not too unlike the real thing, from there was a little bit of Africa and then China. China was a lot of fun too, with a lot of history showcased there it really engaged me... but Japan was still at the top of my list. From there we went to Norway, Viking and gnome central. After that we finally got to Mexico... I loved Mexico, really I'm a huge fan of the Mayan civilization and so the archetecture and much of what they presented really appealed to me. Yet it was dinner time so we had to run back to Japan where we were to have dinner and celebrate Lauren's birthday...

First of all I know nothing about Japanese cusiene, and so needless to say I felt a little out of place. I really wanted to dive in though and try something new, and so I had the grilled salmon with some kind of polka sauce I believe... I'm not sure really but this was my first meal I have eaten entirely with chop sticks! A bit frustraiting but I got it figured out. During our meal a light show started outside and really we had the perfect seats. This was one of the most amaizing things I've ever seen... It was a beautifully coreographed fireworks display to music, and finally this globe covered with LEDs (showing images from around the world) hovered out over the water and unfolded in this huge finally. I couldn't have been in more awe, and feeling so happy and incredebly lucky nearly brought a tear to my eye. Watching this though, this is what Lauren and I have to do though... Complete shock and awe our audience, and we'll undoubtedly change the world. That's right I said change the world, after everything we've done and continue to do, that isn't seeming so out of reach anymore.

Oh! For desert I tried this Green Tea pudding thing... that was pretty amaizing although I ate that with a spoon =) Oh! yea the food in general was spectacular... I think that's all I have to say for today. I think I'll leave you with some more information from Dan Heath's talk...

Did you know that the Navy follows this 70, 80, 90 principal.... This transelates to... 70% of the earth is convered in water, 80% of people live near the coasts, and 90% of all commerse travels over the water at somepoint. Their mission statement and goals have them having the largest fleet to protect our interests at sea. Did you know that we were the only country with the Navy facilities large enough to bring aid to Indonesia in their time of crisis? Indonesia has the largest Muslim population, and since we've become involved over there Muslims who think highly of the US have tripled. Or something like that... I have my notes here... Isn't that amaizing?!

Ok I'm off to bed, can't wait to get back tomorrow (yet not excited at the same time).

And Happy Birthday again Lauren!