Sharpen your community management skills at GDC 2016

Now that the 2016 Game Developers Conference is nearly here, organizers want to offer a quick heads-up about some of the great forward-thinking talks you can see at the GDC 2016 Community Management Summit.

For example, Blizzard Entertainment's Saralyn Smith is coming to the show to deliver a great talk on "Influencers: The Opportunity And Responsibility." 

From cosplayers (pictured) to YouTube content creators and Twitch personalities, the opportunities for players to wield influence over your brands expands every day -- so Smith will share lessons learned at Blizzard about how you can best support your greatest community champions while protecting your customers in accordance with FTC regulations.

Plus, check out the panel discussion on "Community Engagement at the Intersection of Games and News" to hear Lindsay Grace, Joyce Rice and Kelli Dunlap from the American University Game Lab join American University's Cherisse Datu in a discussion of how video game community managers can learn from the practices of leading media organizations. Everything from communication philosophy to practical game design tips for sustaining engagement through DLC and player-generated content will be covered, so don't miss it!

Also, Kongregate senior community manager Janet Ebsen will offer some advice on guiding your game's community in "Crisis and Opportunity: Communities in Good Times and Bad." Those who attend will learn how to effectively handle (and even prevent) many different kinds of crises, and will come away with practical guidelines for improving the health of their community before anything goes wrong.

All these sessions and more will be part of the GDC Community Management Summit, just one of eight that will take place Monday, March 2nd and Tuesday, March 3rd at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA during the first two days of the conference.

As always, more sessions will be announced for GDC 2016 in the coming months. Stay tuned, and don't miss the opportunity to save money by registering for the conference early -- the deadline to register for passes at a discounted rate is next Wednesday, February 3rd, at 11:59 PM Pacific!

GDC 2016 itself will take place March 14-18th at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. For more information on GDC 2016, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.

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