Digital Artist Steven Stahlberg, known for his captivating digital women, traveled half way around the world to give his talk at fmx/07. Photo Credit: Peter Plantec, unless noted otherwise.

By all accounts, fmx/07 was a phenomenon this year. Attendance was up by more than 20% to more than 6,000 people from all over the globe at the Stuttgart conference the first week of May. That's still small enough to feel intimate and big enough to bring in the big names. The roster of speakers was top drawer and we even got a free screening of Spider-Man 3 before the U.S. release!

The first person I ran into while exiting the high-speed train from Frankfurt to Stuttgart was none other than Dan Sarto, co-founding publisher of AWN. We got re-acquainted on the ride to our hotel. There, I ran into old friend Kevin G. Clark, now with Softimage. I hadn't seen Kevin in many years. What a treat. It went on like that as I kept running into old friends and meeting people I'd only heard about.

Virtually everyone I spoke with from many countries told me that important, special things were happening for them. Most were talking about business connections, but much more was going on. For example, several attendees were thrilled to have Steven Stahlberg autograph their book of his illustrations. Steven was happy to discover that half a world away from his home in Kuala Lumpur, he's a bit of an artist-rock star. After his talk at the Virtual Humans Forum, he was mobbed by fans.

One technical guru told me that his exciting moment was meeting, and then having lunch with Ken Perlin, and getting him to sign his book (Texturing and Modeling: A Procedural Approach). Ken, on the other hand, was having an absolute ball just being Ken, interacting with the amazing range of people at hand. Ken is clever and witty and fun to be around. Like most fmx speakers, he's also brilliant, so conversations with him usually become intensely rewarding.

Industry legend Ken Perlin was a charming and very popular guest speaker at fmx/07. Photo credit: Reiner Pfisterer.

More than a dozen people I spoke with were pleased at getting either job offers or follow up interviews scheduled. Recruiters I spoke with were pleased to have found a wealth of eager candidates. In fact, Matthew Jeffrey, head of Electronic Arts' European Studio Recruitment, explained: "When I go to fmx I have several strategies in mind and this year I had four key objectives:

• Network with senior industry leaders and plant the seed for them to join EA;

• Promote the EA employment brand throughout industry;

• Demonstrate that games is increasingly sexier to work in than film;

• Fill immediate job postings for EA across Europe.

All four objectives were met with huge success. We have made some significant hires already; however, more are in the pipeline, especially some significant senior players. In terms of promoting the EA recruitment brand, I had studio chief visual officer, Henry LaBounta, with me as well. In addition, I was honored to give four presentations myself."

On that score I had a several chats with vfx legend George Borshukov, who designed that really cool "Bullet Time" effect in The Matrix, among other things. He holds an Academy Award for scientific and technical achievement. Believe it or not, George has defected to the games world and tells me he loves the new challenges. As games become more cinematic, even I am finding them an exciting venue.

OK, despite good recruiting results there were a few complaints from recruiters that the hosting of the recruitment forums was sub-par. I'll be betting that the fmx organizers will be fixing that for next year.