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In the last couple of years I've been organising several video game-related events in Berlin, always in my spare time and with little or no budget, such as Join – 1st Local Multiplayer Summit, Talk & Play and the Berlin Twine Jam. In this talk I'd like to share some of the lessons I’ve learnt and give tips to people interested in organising a conference, meetup, game jam or other type of event, focusing on the importance of making them as culturally inclusive as possible. I've collected some additional resources for people who'd like to organise events here: http://bit.ly/tips4events This presentation was created for a talk I gave in October 2014 at GameCity 9 in Nottingham, UK.
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Flowers, hashtags & tyvek. How to organise an event about games with no budget. !
@LorenzoPilia
T A L K &
P L A Y
This is the conversation that made me want to start organising my own game events a couple of
years ago:
Are you a game developer?
No.
Are you a game designer?
No.
Are you a game development or game design student?
No.
What are you doing here then?
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
T A L K &
P L A Y
Picture by Iwan Gabovitch (@qubodup)
M E E T S H A R E
P R O M O T E
Things I’ve learnt organising Talk & Play: !
I. Know your local scene before you start
II. Team up with other organisations
III. Promote through different channels
IV. Keep going, don’t stop
V. Try things out
Picture by Lorenzo Pilia (@lorenzopilia)
Picture by Lorenzo Pilia (@lorenzopilia)
Picture by Lorenzo Pilia (@lorenzopilia)
Things I’ve learnt organising the Berlin Twine Jam: !
I. A jam doesn’t have to be 48h long
II. Collect all games made in one place(a blog post is enough)
III. Document it
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Pic courtesy of graffitiresearchlab.de
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Things I’ve learnt organising Join: !
I. Think small, but not too small
II. It’s never too early to pick a date and startpromoting you event (btw: the 2nd edition ofJoin will take place on August 1st, 2015!)
III. If you want to invite people from abroad,try asking embassies for support
IV. Document it
some other things I’d like to tell you even if I didn’t manage to create proper slides for them, because
yesterday I spent the entire day next to Patrick Ashe (a lovely bloke)
Picture by Đurđica Selec (@djuro)
ask yourself why you’re doing this, and for whom – doesn’t have to be just game developers!
pick a date (pros and cons of during the week vs end of the week, consider
doing it as a fringe event if there’s something else in town, particularly if
you live somewhere where there’s little going on) and start
communicating well in advance so people can make plans for it
start small, possibly free, unless you’ve got an existing proven
audience
make a FB event, but not ONLY that. also use gameconfs.com, Lanyrd,
meetup.com, post on relevant boards and FB groups, go to other events
and bring flyers there…
set up a newsletter: tinyletter.com is easy (Mailchimp is great but has
more features than you will probably need at first)
tools: Trello, Google Apps, Evernote, Eventbrite (if places are limited or
event is paid)
having some form of RSVP will help you
keep a doc with expenses as you go
low cost branding (tyvec wristbands, gaffer tape…) – as long as it’s all in
the same colour, that’s good
Picture by Lorenzo Pilia (@lorenzopilia)
Picture by Lorenzo Pilia (@lorenzopilia)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
merch: tote bags & badges rather than t-shirts, which
are more expensive and complicated to produce
Picture by Lorenzo Pilia (@lorenzopilia)
Picture by Julian Dasgupta (@spunior)
don’t bother renting screens to showcase games, ask people to
use their own devices
find a venue providing chairs, tables, projector and wi-fi
(aka the essentials)
possibly centrally located, near public transport and
wheelchair accessible
#
an hashtag for the event will make it much easier for you to collect all the
feedback and documentation (e.g. using Storify)
golden tip! if you can pick your own wi-fi network name: use the hashtag of the event – appears first that way
and people will not get it wrong… they always do
you can also hand out small notes with wi-fi details and the hashtag at the entrance
hire someone to document the event (pictures are cheaper than video and
possibly more effective)
unless event is really small, don’t organise it alone
try to get as much done before the event as you can, you want to be
available for emergencies during the event
website: why do it yourself? use SquareSpace etc. instead
visualising schedules is a huge pain, consider using sched.org if you’ve got a complicated one (multiple
locations etc.)
flowers!
make sure to include an anti-harassment policy on the event’s website
!
keep in mind diversity (not only in terms of gender, but also sexuality,
race and ethnicity, nationality, language, religion, age and so on)
!
if you can’t afford to reimburse people from out of town, at least
offer them a place to stay
if food is provided, go vegan
offer free coffee if there’s budget
some mistakes I’ve made: non-inclusive image for Join (guys only), put safe spaces policy online
too late… you learn by doing
Thanks! !
@LorenzoPilia lorenzo.pilia.it
!
Useful links: http://bit.ly/tips4events