Village Gamer

We survived the drive up here – no thanks to more than a few inconsiderate and downright poor drivers on the road. The stopover Friday night at the Maverick Motor Inn in Kamloops was nice, and gave us a refreshing start to the second leg of our drive up here to Banff. I am amazed that some of the sections of the Trans Canada we traversed have not been named as the Worst Road Sections in Canada, because some of those potholes could be deadly, especially through Rogers Pass.

That said, we did enjoy the drive and I even got Scott to stop at Craigellachie, where there is a monument recognizing the driving of the last spike when the CPR finally reached across the country. We didn’t see much in the way of wildlife along the way, although Scott said  there was a bear across the street from the monument park. I didn’t see it. We do have a good number of photos to upload from our drive, but we will most likely save most  those until we’re back at the Village Gamer office – providing it’s still standing when we get back, as we left the CaveChild in charge during our absence. Those of you who follow us on twitter (@VillageGamer & @NightStormDraco) will have already seen some of the photos.

We’ve gone over the Festival schedule several times, trying to narrow down and prioritize which sessions to attend and tracking down people we’d like to interview. We had wanted to interview Craig Ferguson, who will be presented with the Sir Peter Ustinov Comedy Award at The Rockies Awards later this week, but he’s not giving one-on-one interviews, so we will have to pay rapt attention during the “Conversation With” session on Tuesday.

I will be meeting with Ana Serrano, Founder and Director of CFC Media Lab on Wednesday morning. Our other interviews have yet to be confirmed. This afternoon I will be attending the Rookies in the Rockies session, because I am one, and perhaps they will answer some of the questions I have about the Festival. I believe that Scott will be attending the YouTube Workshop + Reception, where he will perhaps garner some tips and tricks on improving our channel.

The evening will be spent …networking…., first at the CBC Radio-Canada (or is that ici, now?) Opening Night Reception, followed by AMPIA’s 40th Anniversary Party. Tomorrow promises to be a very full day – there are so many informative sessions with content that would be handy for those of you who are Canadian content producers; unfortunately, they all to often conflict on the schedule – but we will get to as many as possible so that we can pass along useful and current information to all of you.

Here’s to an interesting, informative and very productive week at the Banff World Media Festival. =)