Siggraph

Anyone that has visited us in even remotely nice weather will have been on a walk along the seawall where the new Vancouver Convention Centre has been under construction for ages. I have always liked the design of it as its grassy roof vainly does its best to offset the carbon the downtown core produces. Its covered in nice art and walkways which are always pleasant to walk past, but I finally had a reason to go check it out properly.
Siggraph is the biggest world vfx/computer tech/nerd trade show and not only was this its first year being held in Vancouver, but it was the first year it was outside of the US at all. I got a free pass to check out the exhibits through work and if I were really into motion capture, 2d to 3d conversion or 3d printing I likely would have gotten more out of it. All things considered it was a neat chance to see some big displays of upcoming tech and catch up with a few friends. There was a small job fair on site as well which may or may not yield anything useful for my employment in the long run.
More interesting than the convention itself is the fact that higher ups for nearly every huge vfx company are in town, talking about opening a Vancouver facility, and keen to talk to anyone with more than a few shows under their belts. The best part of this was the ILM party which had an open bar, lots of senior staff to mingle with and door prizes. I lucked out and won a door prize for a limited edition Star Wars figure autographed by Dennis - Freaking - Muren, which is pretty cool if you're a vfx nerd.
So all in all it was a neat opportunity to check out part of film culture and meet a bunch of interesting people, but I don't know that I'd travel to another city and shell out thousands of dollars to do it again. But next time I have a free pass when its in town, I'll check it out.