Report From Project Bar-B-Que
October 2002

By Alex Brandon

50 participants from around the interactive audio community descended on Boerne, Texas to brainstorm on the future of their industry. Nestled in among the most beautiful of Texas Hill Country, neckties and company logos were discarded, and cooperative speculation and problem solving ensued. That, plus a whole lot of music jams, fireside tales, and early morning tomfoolery. It was the best Bar-B-Q I'd been to yet.

The representation this year was all over the map, from game companies to hardware reps, synthesis elders such as Morton Subotnick and "Cycling '74" founder David Zicarelli, press, and even a visit from folks at music industry guitar giants Gibson and Line6. IA-SIG reps consisted of Tom White, Clint Bajakian, Chris Grigg, and Alexander Brandon.

Workgroups were formed to tackle various issues, and genius was spilled all over each conference room. Read the Bar-B-Q report for this year on this site: http://www.projectbarbq.com/ , it should be posted soon. For those unfamiliar with Project Bar-B-Q, check it out. It has the educational value of the best conferences you've been to and the networking and community building power of absolutely none of them… it stands in a class all its own.

Beautiful scenery abounds for a perfect relaxing atmosphere to let the brain unwind before it gets hammered in the intense breakout sessions.

Chris Crawford, founder of CGDC, now known as GDC. Some of you might have heard of it. His lecture was on interactive storytelling.. no, NOT games as they exist today, but the literal definition of the term.

Morton Subotnick. Someone who's been around synthesizers longer than almost everyone. The presentation was fascinating and marked such forward thinking that people validated it by saying 'I'm not sure I "get" it'. Read the report for more info.

"The Harshmellows", a breakout group devoted to bettering audio quality in games through educating various groups, while keeping a close eye on what audio value truly is for such groups (the consumer, the developer, etc..). Led by the legendary Van Webster, moderator extraordinaire.

The Fatman, George Sanger, host of Bar-B-Q, introducing breakout group "The Plumbers" for their presentation.