GDC Canada Announces 2010 Attendance, 2011 Plans

Author: by Staff

Organizers of the 2010 Game Developers Conference Canada, co-produced by UBM TechWeb Game Network and Reboot Communications, have announced that more than 775 game industry professionals gathered last week for two days of learning, networking and inspiration at the Vancouver Convention Center. With attendance numbers comparable to last year's, GDC Canada 2010 provided opportunities for sharing knowledge, making new connections and celebrating the passion and dedication of fellow Canadian game-makers. With more than 35 lectures, panels, and sessions covering best-practices that studios should implement to develop successful franchises for consoles, iPhone games and digitally distributed titles, the conference was successful in inspiring Canadian developers to share experiences for fostering ingenuity and quality games. GDC Canada featured the Game Career Seminar, an expo area, business to business lounge and networking receptions where attendees met with representatives from Epic Games, Radical, Relic, Blue Castle, Hansoft and Sony Computer Entertainment, among others. "It was our honor to host some of the most dedicated and talented developers at GDC Canada this year," said Izora de Lillard, event director of GDC Canada. “The event was a great opportunity for the developer community to network with like minded professionals and learn best practices for developing big global titles and understanding emerging digital distribution models." Bill Mooney, a Vice President at Zynga Studios and General Manager of FarmVille, kicked off GDC Canada with a keynote that provided a deeper dive into the evolving social gaming space and its future. The talk elaborated on development and business trends in social games, using prominent Zynga titles as case studies, including FarmVille and Mafia Wars, whose soaring popularity has helped the Facebook-based games garner tens of millions of active users. Full details on multiple GDC Canada talks are available via Gamasutra.com's event coverage. Going forward, in May 2011, Reboot Communications will continue to serve the Canadian development community in Vancouver with a major video game conference as part of Vancouver Interactive Digital Week 2011. UBM TechWeb is pleased to continue to participate in the 2011 event in Vancouver, in the form of a specialized 'Best of GDC' Track. This partnership with Reboot will bring top GDC lectures from worldwide to the Canadian audience for the first time, and more information on plans will be available later in 2010.