What a wild ride!! If you’ve never had a chance to go, I highly recommend attending the Game Developer’s Conference. Feel like stepping it up? Go as a speaker!
There were a number of awesome things about this conference, not least the fact that 2022 had a much bigger in-person attendance than any post-pandemic year. After being really isolated through the pandemic, this was both an exhilarating and terrifying experience.
Getting to spend a week immersed in the world of game creation, watching and learning from the gurus of the industry and being surrounded with that level of talent is inspiring on so many levels. I attended talks about the state of the industry, learned about art, management, marketing, and the metaverse.
For me, the GDC was (is) the most prestigious place I had ever gotten to present my idea. Even carzier was the fact that there were a few other talks related to cultural heritage development and preservation. Knowing this made me feel like my idea had real merit!
My talk was scheduled for Friday afternoon, the last day of the conference in the final timeslot of the conference. That entire week, I vacillated between gratitude at the idea of not drawing any attendees for my talk, and the imagined horror of potentially having to present to an empty hall.
I rewrote my speech about a hundred times and kicked myself for applying to speak in the first place. After all, I was presenting an idea that was remarkably simple in its technical scope. I had zero proof-of-concept examples, other than some minor tests based on my own photography of a monument. My research and references focused more on games and non-academic worlds than on actual real-life cultural sites. I had nightmares about being booed off stage by game professionals who were angry that I had wasted their time with a dumb idea.
The rest of the time, I attempted to network with people in the various social events of the week. I talk to my students a lot about the importance of networking. I need to go over my notes more carefully next time, because I’m still really bad at it! 🙂
Friday afternoon came, I was nervous but ready, and the doors opened. I was shocked when one stranger walked in, then flabbergasted when more and more attendees started coming in. Ultimately, the crowd was about two to three times the size of my average classroom, and I began to speak.
The thirty-minutes just flew by and I completed my speech without being booed. Then I got questions, and more, until we ended up being moved out into an overflow room!
My mind was buzzing with excitement. I made a bunch of connections with people excited about this topic and excited to explore opportunities to collaborate. The craziest moment was when I was approached by the Director of the Cultural Antiquities Task Force from the US Department of State to explore ways to support my project both through funding and through introductions!
Brimming with hope and the possibility of making significant progress on this project, I barely needed the plane to fly home!
