Chapter 10: Location x

Location, Location, Location

I’ve never been to the Montreal International Game Summit before this year, so MIGS was an all-new experience for me this year.

For those of you who may be wondering, MIGS is just what its name implies: influential people from the electronic game industry from all over the world come to Montreal to attend keynote speeches, round table discussions, and other kinds of conferences all about game art, design, programming, marketing, and the industry in general. The big names like Ubisoft, Eidos, Artificial Mind and Movement, Adobe, Autodesk, Wacom, and many others congregate at MIGS to pitch, teach, and network.

Students, also, attend MIGS in large numbers, as do tech schools that offer game-design programs. It’s a good place for graduating students to potentially make some important connections and get up-to-date on what companies and employers are looking for in their new employees. What’s more, students get a discounted rate for attendance, and it just so happens that every year Champlain College offers an even MORE discounted rate, which includes a hotel room.

This year, Champlain boasted a whopping 130 students at MIGS, which is considerable if you note that the total attendance for MIGS was 1,300. Yes, we were one tenth of MIGS. Go us. There is also the option to be a volunteer at the convention, which means you help out with the event half the day, and then you’re free to attend meetings, etc, the other half of the day. So, that’s what I did!

This is a Champlain Blog, though, and not a MIGS blog, so I’ll focus it in a little. Last year, MIGS was much closer to the Residence hall, but it’s under new management this year, so they had a new location. The new place was a little bit farther from the Res, but still perfectly within walking distance. It was fun to reconnect with all the Champlain students that I hadn’t seen since last spring, which is one of the huge pluses of Montreal: Burlington is just a couple-hour drive away! It made me sort of nostalgic…

MIGS only lasts two days, but it was packed with events. I’m afraid I can’t provide any photos for now because the only person in the whole place taking photos was the official photographer, and I don’t know when or where her photos will go up. I’m interested in returning to MIGS next year, but I think I’ll pay my way in 2010, since I want to be able to attend more sessions. It’ll only be a short distance to travel, I’ll already know the city, and I’m hoping it will be extra helpful to me as a Senior in the game design major.