My First GDC: a postmortem

Introduction

Overall, my postmortem delves into dealings with GDC specifically, assuming you're already familiar with preparing yourself for airline security, behaving politely in public, and otherwise functioning in an organized and civilized manner.

Without further rambling, I present you with the postmortem of my first GDC.

What Went Right

Preparedness
Prior to attending my first GDC, I poured through whatever information and guidance was sent my way, which included recommendations such as GDC and networking topics within Darius Kazemi's blog, as well as Ian Schreiber's helpful GDC checklist.

I also did a fair amount of Googling on my own, which is pretty much unavoidable. Between securing a round-trip flight, lining up an affordable hotel, ordering my pass, looking at transportation routes, designing business cards, obtaining things I needed for the trip, etc., my preparations turned out to be quite time-consuming. However, being prepared was well worth it in the end.

Meeting up

As an online student, it was amazing to finally meet face-to-face with my mentors! If you some have contacts you know will be attending GDC (from school, jobs, networking online, etc.) be sure to try to meet up with them, even briefly. Besides the fact that it’s awesome to get to know everyone and have compelling conversations, you never know who they may introduce you to in turn.

The Package

Being consistent overall paid off for me, personally. My online contacts recognized me instantly because my photos online closely matched my appearance. My business card had the same theme as my portfolio web site, as well as a recognizable vector illustration of myself, and people were able to recall me later on after the conference. I can only hope my approach continues to work this year!

Walk the Walk

Confidence is key. Even if you’re not feeling overly confident in the midst of all the brilliance around you, muster up the air of ‘awesome’ and walk the walk. I doubtfully introduced myself to strangers on a couple of occasions and I could clearly see the doubt reflected back at me. Remember that first impressions are very important and you should demonstrate that you’re a considerate individual worth the time people are willing to spend with you!

Cheap Stay

Most students can probably relate: college is expensive and we are generally poor. Fortunately, I managed to find a reasonable hotel, within walking distance of the conference, which was also a pretty pleasant stay. In fact, I’ve already booked there again this year. If you’re a poor student, you may also want to consider Baldwin Hotel. It’s not the prime choice if you’re interested in running into actual developers in the lobby, but you can always put on nice clothes and hang out at the W. That’s what I hear students do sometimes.

What Went Wrong

Expo Madness

The Expo, which happened to be connected to the Career Pavilion, could be viewed as an overwhelming cauldron of activity if you don’t frequent a lot of trade shows or conventions. Try to check out the tentative floor plan ahead of time if you can. At least having some idea of what you may want to look at cuts down on confusion. Also, you will gain a program guide when you pick up your pass. This should list all of the exhibitors, as well as their booth numbers.

In all, you don’t want to spend a great deal of time looking at the exhibitors when you could be networking and learning new things, but it’s also fun to go exploring with contacts you’re meeting up with!

Wipeout

The conference itself runs from about 9am until 6pm. Then, there are various parties and functions running after that, some of which are announced very suddenly in the middle of GDC. Prepare to be tired! Also, prepare to spontaneously arrive at gatherings and network. It’s going to be a very busy week, but you can make it well worth it!

Telling the Tale

In retrospect, I really should have written about this as I was coming back, either on a plane or in an airport. As soon as I got home, there were automatically a million things to take care of (since I had been gone.) I started new classes, I had contacts from GDC to get back to, and work to complete for them. Besides the fact that things will be freshest in your mind if you’re writing on your return trip, it’ll be your last “away” time before returning to your daily grind, which, if you networked well, will now also include post-GDC correspondence for a while.

Conclusions

Be prepared to articulate what your goals are and what exactly you’d like to be doing in the industry. These may be things that are obvious in your head, but suddenly presenting these ideas to another person in a clear and organized manner is a more difficult task. Come to GDC realizing that you’re going to be around a lot of bright minds who aren’t familiar with you, and you’ll often be asked questions, some of which you may not have expected. Bumping into visionaries and having insightful discussions about game development isn’t really something I encounter as a part of my normal life in the Midwest, but it was quite awesome.

Dress appropriately. I had most of this under control: I wore comfortable shoes, dressed in a friendly casual manner since I wasn’t immediately looking for a job, and carried a backpack containing everything I would need (plus storage for selective pick-ups.) What I neglected to pack was a set of nicer clothing for visiting nice hotel lobbies or talking to recruiters at the Career Pavilion. This will be revised for 2011.

I will also probably consume more caffeine. I ended up tired and back in my hotel room on a couple of nights I probably could have continued to network somewhere.

On that note, network like crazy. My goal this year is to talk to at least twice as many strangers as 2010!

Lastly, I’d like to encourage anyone interested in getting into game development to attend GDC. It’s an amazing event full of opportunities and insight. For some students, it may seem out of reach at first, due to distance, cost, or both. Definitely try the GDC volunteer program or IGDA scholarship for help with passes. If all else fails, I personally believe it’s worth going into debt over. This is your career, right?