reflections on >play
It’s become clear to me over the past three years that >play is a totally unique event: an all-day party for digital media fanatics in the guise of an industry conference.
We had a special moment while planning this year during which we realized we’re not an industry conference (those multi-day, over-priced events in giant conference halls where everyone’s looking to sell something). We’d been comparing our pricing to industry conferences, but suddenly realized we don’t need or care about the money: we want to attract the best and the brightest one day a year to catch up on all the changes from the previous year (April’s words from >play 2006 still ringing in my head). Thanks to the incredibly generous support of our sponsors, we’re able to offer registration fees at a significant discount from per capita costs to run >play. I hope every participant appreciates each sponsor’s support in making >play possible.
We are also not a conference designed specifically for students (although we do give them a break on registration fees – we’re students too so we understand the value of beer money). We attract the professionals out there doing the real thing and making the people happy with the digital media technology.
To me, the surest sign of our success has been all the familiar faces in the crowd. They’d had so much fun the year before – an annual dose of >play has become a staple in their lives.
It’s been such an honor and a pleasure to work with everyone involved in making this one day a year happen. It’s amazing what we’ve been able to accomplish and I’m eternally grateful to our founders for the vision they had of DMEC and >play 2005. DMEC has been my defining experience of grad school. I’m continually blown away with the passion and organization of each of our members. As thankful as I am to each of the organizers who took >play to the next level this year, I won’t attempt to mention each of them for fear of forgetting another.
I will offer one shout-out…as hard as we’ve all worked for the past few months, there’s one individual who’s been working hard for the past year and took the load upon her shoulders to make >play 2007 a success. Without Myah’s leadership, there’s no doubt in my mind >play 2007 would not have happened. Myah’s a remarkable talent – full of optimism, organizational perfection, and persistence. I will miss being on her team and envy her future colleagues. Here’s to you Myah!
Hear, Hear!
May the annual pilgrimage to >play be a long-standing tradition. Congrats to the entire team of this year’s conference for setting a new high water mark (though, bring back the real-time SMS commenting next year!)
You guys blew it away this year and really set the standard for years to come. Congratulations on an amazing conference. Last month I was at a major industry conference in NYC, and all I could think about at >Play was how much better your conference was. Great job!