Keita Takahashi, creator of Katamari Damaci, gave the keynote address for the evening of august 31st at GDCE this year. This link gives what I suppose is a fairly good account of what was said, but I feel it leaves out the tone.
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050902/gillen_01.shtml
Have a read, and when I can get a handle on how best to describe what it was like to be in that room I’ll post it up.