By Hayley Woodin
November 2015
About 10 years ago, Matt Bilbey made a venture capitalist- like pitch to the executives at Electronic Arts, asking them to join him and his team on a journey to build a worldwide social network for the most popular sport on the planet.
Vision, passion and people are what ultimately led to the massive success of the company's FIFA video game series. And on Oct. 20, the senior vicepresident and group general manager for EA Sports told members of The Vancouver Board of Trade's Company of Young Professionals what it took to manage what quickly became a valuable billion-dollar project.
Joined by colleague Aaron McHardy, former footballer and a producer on the FIFA video games, the teammates talked about how creating a quality gaming experience was about more than simply duplicating what happens "between the four lines" at Wembley or BC Place stadiums.
For the fourth-biggest gaming company in the world, it was about balancing innovation and predictable quality. It was also about how to engage soccer fans around the globe and earn a market share of their time.
Bilbey not only helped take a hugely successful project from the beginning to the billiondollar mark: he applied a project management mentality to his own career. After working his way up from an internship with EA to become one of the company's youngest executives, the CYP Success Series guest had this to offer Vancouver's young professionals: take control of your own career and write your own personal development plan.
Hosted by the Vancouver Aquarium, a full house of CYP Members enjoyed a special welcome from the organization's President and CEO Dr. John Nightingale, as well as a complimentary 4D movie experience.
The event was the second in a series on project management. On Nov. 20, CYP Members will have the chance to apply some of the takeaways from Bilbey's talk at a CYP Leadership Café with a to-be-revealed organization.
Young professionals interested in putting other skillsets to good use – skills of the singing and sorting variety – can give back with CYP at Vancouver's inaugural Yule Duel on Dec. 3, and with the Lower Mainland Christmas Bureau on Dec. 5.
More details will be available at boardoftrade.com/cyp.
Hayley Woodin is a freelance journalist, and the media specialist at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. She sits on the CYP advisory committee, and chairs the program's events committee.