“A Digital Career in Retrospect"

Prof. Dave Fracchia
Acting Director, Centre for Digital Media 

March 2, 2016, 12:30 - 14:20, SFU Surrey Room 5380

About the talk:

[Link to video]

I have had (and still have) a wonderful career.  I was once asked by someone fresh out of school and looking to get into the digital media industry, what the keys were to my success.  After a slight pause, I said: "Well, it takes a lot of hard work, perseverance, networking, know what you want and go for it...and a good bit of luck!"  We laughed, she politely thanked me, and then, not liking silence, I launched into one of my stories of some amusing event that impacted my career.  Then the conversation changed, and I saw the story's message resonate in a way that certainly made my "hard work" speech feel like bull dung.  This prompted me to trace the steps through my career and the pivotal knowledge, people, and events that were responsible for it.  And now you get to listen to my stories.

About Speaker:

Dave Fracchia is Acting Director and Professor of Professional Practice at the Centre for Digital Media and a digital media consultant.  Prior to this he was the Studio Head and Vice President of Technology at Radical Entertainment, Vice President of Technology at Mainframe|Rainmaker Entertainment, Associate Professor in the School of Computing Science at Simon Fraser University, and Postdoctoral Associate / Lecturer in the Mathematics and Computer Science Departments at Yale University. Dave has authored 50+ journal and conference papers, and is credited in 35+ video games, direct-to-video movies, and television series. He is currently a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, the International Game Developers Association, and ACM SIGGRAPH.