Trip to E3

5-12-06 Joel and I made the trek to the Los Angeles Convention Center to see the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the trade show for anything and everyone in the video/computer game world. E3, as it is commonly referred to, is where you can see every single game that's out there. Plus this is where companies unveil their upcoming games and consoles, such as the PS3 and Nintedo Wii. This is where I've found some of the companies that we now have in our Zone! Unfortunately, there was hardly any exertainment video games or hardware this year, which was very disappointing. But we did find a few good contacts, such as distributors and such.

Joel is mesmerized by the 360 deg. display by one of the big companies, I think Sony here. E3 is definitely sensory overload!



BodyPad is a company that found out about us on the Internet and Frederick (suit in middle) and I started e-mailing each other. They are located in France, so this was our first time to meet in person. The other Frederick (in white), demo'd the BodyPad for us.


Frederick shows us how to play one of the many martial arts games. They told us this would work with other sports gams as well, such as Athens 2004. We're looking forward to trying it out!










Joel is talking with BodyPad's US distributor, filling her in on who we are and establishing a relationship for future business dealings.















All throughout our time there, Joel's cellphone kept going ringing as he was taking care of...what else...construction details!




While there, we did try a few games, such as this baseball sim by QMotions (based in Riverside).


A few days before, I attended the 1-day Games for Health conference, held a few miles away at USC. That was very exciting, and networked with a lot of different people doing research in a variety of video game applications in health. Besides speaking on a panel at the end of the day representing exertainment/exergaming, I heard a wide range of presentations such as the use of video games in stroke rehab and decreasing anxiety in kids going into surgery. (This has sparked an idea about using handheld video games to help quit smoking....)

And so ended another trip to the annual video gaming mecca!