So I’ve been back home for a few days now. Coming back to the office was the usual marathon so I didn’t get a chance to update my blog to explicit my last days in Copenhagen.

I think I’ll go with a beloved list of random facts:

• Rosenborg Castle and its gardens are absolutely beautiful. Ideal for a picnic.
• Amalienborg Castle consists of four identical mansions. One for the king, one for the queen, one for visitors and one that’s open to the public. All facing each other and opening on a beautiful square.
• The Little Mermaid is less than two meters high. And that’s because she’s on rocks. Don’t go out of your way for it. I did it for you and you can find pictures on my Facebook profile. I could compare it to the Manneken Pis in Brussels. Yeah, I took picture of the little guy too. Here.
• The area around the Mermaid is absolutely beautiful though, with vast gardens, cute little churches and army buildings. With canals going through, obviously.
• I fell in love with smorrebrod. To this day, I still wonder when I’ll get to taste it again.
• Vesterbro is worth visiting, if only to see the Designer Zoo and walk its streets.
• The weather was on a on again-off again type of beat. But is there something better than hiding under a tree for a minute while it’s hailing and then seeing the sun come out along with a rainbow? On the waterside? Didn’t think so.
• I loved how water is omnipresent in the city. Seeing it from a boat is one thing and crossing various bridges makes for beautiful views and pictures.
• Tivoli. TI-VO-LI. Cecilie had told me I HAD to go. Well I did. Not only did I enjoy some much appreciated smorrebrod on a terrasse and met the cutest musician but the place in itself, an amusement park right in the middle of the city and one of the oldest in Europe, was absolutely magical.
• On a much more general note, I love how, when traveling and walking with no real goal in mind, you stumble upon a place you had on your to-see list. Or somewhere you didn’t even mean to visit but ends up being totally awesome. It happens to me all the time and it might be one of the top 3 reasons why I like to travel with no real plan.

Nordic Game came to an end on Friday afternoon, after quite a few meetings and a couple of sessions. It was time to say goodbye to all the great people I had the chance to meet and work with during the week and head to Kobenhavn.

Crossing the Oresunds bridge for the second time, I took mental pictures of the amazing scenery – or absence thereof. Moreover, I thanked God for the solidity of its structure…. +1 for Scandinavia.

My first stop (after the hotel of course), was Nyhavn, one of the most popular (and let’s face it, touristy) place in Kobenhavn. Imagine colourful houses lined on both sides of a canal, with terrasses and boats…. that’s Nyhavn for you. This would become my go-to place for the days to come.

On Friday, I had an interview with a journalist from Berlingske at the Canadian Embassy. Since I had already met him back in Montreal, we rounded up this update on our tax credits in a little over half an hour. 11:30 and… I was free!

The rest of the day was used walking around Stroget, the largest pedestrian street in the world, and its surrounding. Lively, colourful, with tons of smells and sounds to discover. I also ventured to Vesterbro to see Exit Through the Gift Shop at Vester Vov Vov, a cute little hispterish café cinema. Neat!

Today, totally free of all meetings and other obligations, I wandered through most parts of Christianhavn (including the famous land of the free/home of the hash sellers Christiania), took a wonderful boat ride along the canals, walked around the Latin Quarter and had dinner at L’Éducation nationale. Magret de canard, red wine, Francis Cabrel, the works. I wanted to visit Tivoli tonight but it’s been raining on and off so I came back to the hotel but will be heading out again for a beer.

Random facts

• Swedes are vikings; danes are hipsters
• Designer shops are everywhere and I want to buy everything in sight
• The weather was amazing in Sweden, a little less in Denmark. Yet, the sun is still shining at 9:15
• Kobenhavn is absolutely lovely but insanely expensive. 4$ for a glass of tap water? C-O-M-E O-N
• I can’t wait to go back to my vegetarian diet
• Noma never called back. I took a picture of the gorgeous building and promised myself to throw darts at it as soon as I come back in Montreal
•  Danes had suggested I take one of those touristy boat rides and that I wouldn’t be disappointed. They were absolutely right, seeing the city from the water is a must-do
• The Little Mermaid is back from Shanghai. I saw her bum today (from the water). Barely 1,50 m high, I’m really wondering if it’s worth going to this isolated part of the city to take pictures from the land. *Flashbacks from MannekenPis in Brussels last year*
• Going to Christiania is a must. Squatted since 1971, this village has its own rules, its own shops and its own restaurants. No need to get out. Mostly famous for the Hash Street, where vendors litterally sell pre-rolled joints, one should not miss the street art, beautiful gardens, Christiania bikes manufacture, and enjoy a talk with its people. The constant smell will simply keep you light-hearted.
• Nyhavn. You have to go. Period.

Tuesday was marked by the Producer’s workshop, during which I gave a presentation (bragged) on Quebec’s videogame industry and our famous tax incentives, after my counterpart from Vancouver, Matt Toner, gave a talk brought to you by the letter C. (And now you all have the Sesame Street song stuck in your head right? You’re welcome).

The participants, transmedia producers then spread into groups to define various timelines and discuss the differences between producing a game vs publising a book, for example.

Then the fun started as they were brought together in bigger groups and were assigned a MASSIVE exercise: to determine their strategic plan, were they to wake up one morning in a world without religion and had the task to spread the word using transmedia production. What would they do? Events (masses)? Publish a funny book (the Bible)? Make a movie (Passion of the Christ)? and so on. As an ‘expert’ I, along with a few colleagues, was given the task to invest in the projets that I deemed worthy. Interesting. Drinks and dinner were then in order!

Wednesday was also busy as I had quite a few meetings planned, wanted to see Ed Fries’s talk (which rocked), then an interview with the Swedish television (SVT), an interview with a newspaper journalist over lunch, a gala dinner (hosted by the semi-famous Jason Della Rocca who did an A-MAZING job), and a party. I ended the day wandering through town for a last glass of wine and some reading.

All in all, very nice people, keen on sharing their experience and learning about ours, great weather, great food, great show, a very good time.

Let’s see what today has in store before I take the train back to Copenhagen for meetings at the Embassy on Friday, followed by a few days of VACATION!

Big props to the train ride across the water with nothing else in sight than boats… w-o-w.

Malmö is a small yet charming town. I had time to walk around its big and small squares, see the castle, the turning torso, the little cobbled streets and so on… in the afternoon. And read in a gorgeous park by the water. And catch my first sunburn of the season. And have great tapas for dinner. All in all a great day.

There isn’t much more to say as I am unfortunately off to no, not a club, but to review my presentation for tomorrow’s workshop.

But after taking a short nap, it would be sad not to leave you on such a wonderful quote:
 “To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” – Freya Stark

So!

M whines about it #1
1. Never underestimate the power of annoying people to, well, keep annoying you on a plane. The old man will not stop making little sounds with his mouth while elbowing you for 6 hours and fifteen minutes. The little kid will not stop running in the aisle with his brand new Crocs because he’s 35,000 feet in the air. And you will not even be able to save your microcosm by throwing them far, far away in the ocean. FÖK #1.

2. KLM seems to play it safe when it comes to the vegetarian menu option. So FYI my fellow vegetarian friends travelling with this lovely, service-driven airline: that option is strictly vegan (no animal by-products whatsoever) – which was fine for dinner (nice tofu and grilled veggies curry, fruits, green salad, etc.) but was a tad bit disappointing for breakfast… I could’ve really went for that blueberry muffin. Bleh. This being said, it is mostly an informational point as I was satisfied with my meals. No FÖK required.

3. I WILL hit the stupid speakers yelling ‘Mind your step’ every two seconds. It’s coming. BANG! FÖK #2

Update: I made it to Malmö in a breeze. I’m off to visit!

A few weeks back, I stumbled upon a beautiful text, one that really touched me. A text about why one should date a girl who reads. I recognized myself into so many of the traits depicted in there… Wow. Just wow.

Talking about reading, I just bought my travelling novel, the one that’ll follow me to Scandinavia. L’Âme du Minotaure, written by Dominike Audet, takes place in Germany during WWII. In the fall of 1941, a young girl from Berlin goes to Prague to try to save her cousin from prison. She spends the night with a man she ignored everything about… or so she thought. She soon discovers she’s lost her virginity to the SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhartd Heydrich, whom you may remember as the artisan of the Final Solution. Every chapter of the book is told by either main characters, which makes it appealing as we explore both the lust/love story and the war strategies. I’m trying to hold back and not read it all before my departure!

On a more professional note, I reviewed the speakers proposals with MIGS advisory board today. The response has been amazing and scoring the sessions gave us real insight on how great a content we have in our hands. I can’t wait to let you in on this! More details to come in the next few weeks!

In the meantime, I’d love it if you could share your tips on cutting slides in a PPT… My official presentation at Nordic Game was supposed to be an hour, followed by a workshop and networking dinner. It was cut down to half an hour due to the amount of things we had to cover and has just been cut down again to… 15 MINUTES. So little time to tell the scandinavians about our industry and mostly, our tax credits…

This being said, I’m going to Scandinavia next week. Yup. I was asked by Invest-Quebec to give a talk at Nordic Game on the Quebec video game industry and the various tax credits one can benefit from our beloved province. Pretty cool uh? Besides the humongous fear of fiscality and numbers in general, all should go well. Plus, I am totally excited. I will be visiting Malmö, Sweden for the conference, then cross the Oresünd bridge to Copenhagen for a few meetings and will finally get to enjoy the city for a few days.

I’ll try to find out why the city’s population is the happiest in the whole wide effin world. And try to snag a spot at Noma, named best restaurant in the world a few weeks back. Who knows? I might be lucky!

So stay tuned for more updates on my scandinavian experience starting on May the 8th. Woot woot!

I am looking forward to the challenge and to connecting with you guys. My goal this year: find new ways to make MIGS an event YOU want to attend and that corresponds to YOUR needs. You have suggestions? Comments? Don’t be shy to comment here or to reach me on the interwebs.

The fun has just begun. In the meantime, here’s my pretty face in Le Lien MULTIMEDIA and an interview in Direction informatique.

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

Crunchy numbers

The Leaning Tower of Pisa has 296 steps to reach the top. This blog was viewed about 1,200 times in 2010. If those were steps, it would have climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa 4 times

In 2010, there were 34 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 2 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 86kb.

The busiest day of the year was May 28th with 57 views. The most popular post that day was Arbeit macht frei….

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, twitter.com, blog58.com, mail.live.com, and obama-scandal-exposed.co.cc.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for mwroteit, www.mwroteit.wordpresse.com, naughty bear collectible, joel brodie, and jean-olivier dalphond”.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Arbeit macht frei… May 2010
2 comments

About May 2010

Wrap-up of Casual Connect 2010 and Seattle July 2010

Seattle is like San Fran only different July 2010

Contact June 2010

There are many articles everywhere on the interwebs celebrating MIGS’ schedule, events and plain awesomeness so I won’t repeat all those pieces of heaven. However here are a few things worth mentioning:

• The AMAZING team behind MIGS whether at Alliance or on the advisory board. They’re all so good at what they do and are so fun to be around.
• The exquisite program we worked on including tons of great speakers (and one of them even shared a dance with me. Talk about a gentleman! <3)
• A disaster turned into a blast of a party at B-Side
• The feeling of accomplishing something big when you’re up at 5:45 every morning for three days, setting up everything so the attendees are happy
• Happy speakers, partners and sponsors…
• A Papou who’s been there all along
• And other big changes to be announced soon!

And then you wonder “What now?” Well taking a short break for one, and then planning something even bigger for next year! Watch out! It’ll hit you RIGHT IN THE KISSER!