On Friday evening Spil Games Asia had its annual dinner for all employees, my 5th dinner with this company already. Like most companies in China we always organize a dinner in the last days before Chinese New Year, and during the dinner there are speeches, a lot of drinking, and people play games.

In my speech I talked about the changes at Spil Games Asia over the past year, both the good things and the bad. Some key people left last year, but that allowed us to finally build a top management team that is ready to reach some ambitious targets (the targets for January were already met, so we’re off to a good start). I also talked about the future of games and the impact that the iPad may have on the game industry. The industry has changed a lot over the past years, and I think also this year will see some big changes.

At the end of the dinner there was a lucky draw and I was asked to draw the grand prize. And believe it or not, but I managed to draw my own name! Of course I tore up my ticket and drew another number. A colleague said that this is a sign of good luck for the company (getting my own number, not tearing it up and drawing another one), always good to know!

After dinner a group of colleagues went to a karaoke bar where we sang a lot of songs, played some dice and drank more beer. It was a lot of fun and a good way to get to know my colleagues in a different setting. There is also a post with some more pictures of the party on Joop Dorresteijn’s blog.