N-Gage at Barcelona: The UK Crowd, Yo-Yo’s and Roy Walton.

So, carrying where I left off, the second leg of my “4 gigs in a month” schedule of conferences and events was an invitation from Nokia to come out to Barcelona to hear about the progress of the N-Gage since a similar media briefing at E3 2005. I’ve posted a report on my thoughts from the day at All About N-Gage, so best head over there if you simply want the N-Gage gossip.

What I really enjoyed was the chance to meet some of the other journalists from the UK Gaming Scene. It was obvious when I trundled up to Heathrow Terminal 2 to check in that a lot of them knew each other, so I was wondering how well they’d accept this interloper. Quite well as it turned out. We all headed out find some food that evening, and during the meal another heavy rainstorm descended on Barcelona – don’t forget that this was a bank holiday, so there were almost no taxis. The wait was over an hour, so lots of idle chat went on. And in the lull, I broke out first the Mobile Innovations yo-yo I picked from The Smartphone Show (incidentally that wins my ‘best freebie of show’), and after that the pack of cards rapidly followed. Notoriety was close behind, and the ice was well and truly broken.

Turn out a fair number of the UK crowd were freelancers, and the idea that the All About websites were able to just about support me was something that they all thought was incredibly neat. I suspect the apparent job security and regular income, while still being ‘free’ has a lot to do with it. I forget quite a lot that it’s not everyone who does a website can actually make a living from it.

So a good time was had throughout the next day. That evening we headed to the launch party for “One.” So hands up who can guess what I would be changing into? Yep, the full kilt outfit. Unusually I had been in shirt and trousers for the work in the day, and the Nokia people were all asking where the tartan was. So after upstaging Jenny and Anna in terms of outfits, a resounding cheer from the lads, and the attention of a naked (yet airbrushed) walking advert from the game, I’m pretty sure that some more good contacts were made.

Next up, the flight home.