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This topic has moved here: Subject: What would be the best conference to attend?
  • Subject: What would be the best conference to attend?
Subject: What would be the best conference to attend?
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I <3 you too Bungie

Not sure if this belongs here, but it seemed like the best location. If I need to move it please just suggest where and I'll gladly move.

Bungie has a lot of professional articles and opinions up on the site as resources for breaking into the gaming industry and learning from their progress as a company/studio. Those have been great, and I've really enjoyed the window into Bungie operations that write-ups on big events, conferences, and time-frames have provided--publication and bwu (ZBR anyone?). My question falls along these lines which is why I'm asking here. What conferences for the video game industry would Bungie (or intelligent professional community members) suggest for young professionals to attend? To narrow it down I'm not looking at technical skills for coding, design, etc. I'm looking more for the roles of associate producer, operations management, etc. The kind of stuff that Matt Priestley addresses in his .ppt under the publications section.

Thanks!

  • 08.23.2011 8:09 AM PDT
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GDC or one of its variants (GDC Online, GDC Canada, etc.) is probably the best bet for production stuff, but it's going to be fairly marginal as a learning tool. If you can get in for student rates or for free (by volunteering, presenting a poster, whatever), it's great. But it's normally fairly expensive and you'll learn nearly as much through seeking out online resources. A lot of the GDC talks are up for free in the GDC Vault. You can also find a lot of the PowerPoint decks up on the speakers' personal websites.

  • 08.23.2011 8:17 AM PDT

Posted by: borrowedchief
We aren't here to ruin your experience (Well Qbix is).

Well... I guess you got the best answer possible ^

  • 08.23.2011 8:48 AM PDT

Vengeance only leads to an ongoing cycle of hatred.

Incoming quotestorm.

  • 08.23.2011 9:00 AM PDT
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♦♦☻


Posted by: DrBunsenHoneydew
GDC or one of its variants (GDC Online, GDC Canada, etc.) is probably the best bet for production stuff, but it's going to be fairly marginal as a learning tool. If you can get in for student rates or for free (by volunteering, presenting a poster, whatever), it's great. But it's normally fairly expensive and you'll learn nearly as much through seeking out online resources. A lot of the GDC talks are up for free in the GDC Vault. You can also find a lot of the PowerPoint decks up on the speakers' personal websites.
<333333

  • 08.23.2011 9:15 AM PDT
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I <3 you too Bungie

Yeah, I could get in at student rates (Masters program?) and I'm looking to get a couple of conferences under my belt to see if that's a direction I might want to go. Is GDC going to be my only good bet for a conference? I'm really just wanting to avoid any of the mainstream ones that are flooded with fans. As much fun as it would be to hit those up I really don't think it's going to be beneficial at all. Also, why would you marginalize the experience of GDC (and other conferences)? I'm assuming there is at least a little bit of networking/submersion/conversing that goes on that you can't get online.

  • 08.23.2011 9:21 AM PDT

"Before you insult someone, try walking a mile in their shoes. This way, when you insult them, you are a mile away and have their shoes."

OP, please know I´m not an expert on conferences and such, but this may be somewhat of a help:

-If you only care about presentation and the developing process, GDC is the best option. GDC is focused fully on the development process, and I personally learnt a lot from it. What you must know is that you can also watch them online, so going is not required.

-If you wish to find some conferences for fans based on development, then PAX and Gamescom are great shows to attend. Gamescom is great because usually you can go 1t1 with the developers there. You can often get a lot of information and advice from people already in the industry. PAX is great because at least 1-2 developers host behind the scenes conferences. This year, I know Arenanet (Guild Wars 2), is hosting and in-depth look at their development process during the conference they have in the theater. They also have Q/A sessions during the same conference.

-Look at some old conference held for fans. Ergo, the Bungie2011Reach press conference has a lot of great insight, and so do post ValvE and NCSoft conferences. Also look into investor reports, they contain a lot on the financial aspect of it.

  • 08.23.2011 9:40 AM PDT
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GDC isn't a fan conference at all. It costs about a grand to attend the main conference, high enough that almost all the attendees are professionals of some sort with their tickets paid for by their employer. There's a fair smattering of students, but mostly it's people who work in a game-related field. I go about every other year, mostly when I'm giving a talk.

There are a ton of other conferences out there, but they tend to be more specialized on particular areas, such as academic games research or graphics. I'm not aware of any production-specific conferences. You may also want to look up your local IGDA meetings, they'd provide some good local networking.

  • 08.23.2011 9:42 AM PDT
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I <3 you too Bungie

Thanks :)

  • 08.23.2011 10:36 AM PDT