A few months back, I, along with my buddy Steve, were lucky enough to be in Seattle for a business trip, and took a little side adventure to meet J Allard. As the guy who managed the development of the Xbox, for an Xbox guy like me, it was a fun experience.
We talked for over an hour about a wide range of topics related to entertainment, user experiences, centered around what we did at 360voice.com and how that might impact other types of interaction with entertainment devices in the future.
At the end of the meeting, I pulled a super-geek move and had Allard autograph my Zune music player as Allard was also responsible for the technical development of that device as well. If I had my Xbox in my pocket, I probably would have had him autograph that too. Here is what the Zune looks like:
Sadly enough, the signature is starting to wear off... I use my Zune pretty much every day... so it was bound to happen. At least I will always have the memory of having a Zune autographed by J Allard. :)
I held off blogging about my experience with J Allard, because in a professional way, it seems strange to blog about people who you interact with in your career. It still feels strange... so that is why this is more about the fading signature than about J Allard the person.
I will say that meeting him was a memorable experience... and our conversation solidified in my mind that there are still some really amazing innovations that will come to the consumer entertainment space... and it is fun knowing that 360voice has been a part of that in some small way by impacting the thinking of many innovative people.
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