As a New Yorker and new media entrepreneur, one of the most exciting aspects of going to Milia for the first time was being able to measure New York's interactive media against the world market. It was great to find that the stuff being done in New York is truly the most creative in the world.

Content, look, integration, imagination, punch, color, pungency - all those good New York virtues were in sharp relief against the Old World's comparatively composed and sedate titles. And there's the diversity of the NYC talent base; we use everything from scientists to performance artists in a single title. Don't get me wrong, there are European beauties, but overall. . .

Cannes is gorgeous, but you don't get to see much of it when you're working the show 20 hours a day. The big payoff is when you have lunch at a sidewalk cafe - it's freezing but it doesn't matter - it's the French Riviera!

As a new business owner, having our first product shown at a top international marketplace was exhilarating. We were able to generate interest in an encouragingly large number of countries for rights and distribution, in partnership with our publisher, Organa. Aleen Stein is no stranger to the international rights market, and I felt in excellent hands as she guided the product and the discussions.

Meeting and greeting the multimedia glitteratti has its charms, too. At dinner the first night, an impromptu gathering at an Italian pizza restaurant right near the glittery casinos along the plage, I found myself sitting with people from Voyager, Viacom, United Digital Artists, with developers from Ireland and Spain and with the great artists, Hsin-Chien Huang and Laurie Anderson. The beauty of the dinner - no business cards exchanged.

A helpful thing about the conference's setup was the ease of connectedness to the rest of the world. There were web access podiums scattered about, so I emailed my office and friends frequently and even sent a "Hi mom, I'm in Cannes" to my mother.

I guess the best thing was seeing our title relative to the rest of the world's. We're proud of it and we think its content and quality are outstanding. Out in the big world, it was good to find it stands tall.

Finally, the biggest surprise/disappointment of all, instant coffee everywhere. New York really is the capital of good coffee and Hot Java too!!!!